Press Release
Contact: |
Arnita
A. Jones, Executive Director |
Date: |
January 13, 2006 |
Subject: |
American Historical Association adopts Resolution Opposing Academic and Student Bills of Rights and Similar Regulations of the Academic Community |
For Immediate Release
At its annual business meeting on January 7, 2006, members of the Association adopted the following resolution offered by David Applebaum (Rowan Univ.). The following day, the AHA Council voted to accept the resolution as AHA policy.
Resolution Opposing Academic and Student Bills of Rights and Similar Regulations of the Academic Community
Whereas, so-called Academic and Student Bills of Rights legislation, investigations, and similar measures will give power over such matters as curriculum, course content, and faculty personnel decisions to governmental authorities and other agencies outside the faculty and administrations of institutions of higher learning; and
Whereas, Such measures would violate academic freedom and undermine professional standards by imposing political criteria in areas of educational policy that faculty members normally and rightly control; therefore, be it
Resolved, That the American Historical Association opposes the passage of Academic and Student Bills of Rights and all similar attempts to regulate the academic community.
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest professional historical organization in the United States, bringing together nearly 5,000 institutions and more than 14,000 individuals, including college and university faculty, public historians, independent scholars, archivists, librarians, and secondary school teachers. The Association was organized in 1884 and chartered by the United States Congress in 1889; its establishment coincided with the professionalization of history as a discipline in the United States. Over the years, the Association has changed as the discipline and profession have changed, but its central mission has remained unaltered: the advancement of historical knowledge.
To meet and address the varied needs of its members, the Association publishes the American Historical Review, the major journal of record for the historical profession in the United States, and Perspectives, the major national news monthly of the profession. The Association's annual meeting, which is held during the first week of January, is the largest annual gathering of historians in the United States.
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Last Updated: July 17, 2007