AFT Lone Star College: Texas Community Colleges and Free Speech Rights

National Threats of Academic Freedom

The current issue of Radical Teacher includes a strong article by historian Erika Kitzmiller, "Educating Educators in the Age of Trump," where Kitzmiller addresses an interview with a reporter from the conservative Campus Review after the 2016 election. The reporter attempted to interrogate Kitzmiller if her university course, "Education in the Age of Trump" (she later renamed the course as "Education in a Polarized and Unequal Society") might “alienate students who may have supported the current U.S. President.”

We pause here on what happened next: the "reporter" never waited for Kitzmiller to reply to an email and merely waited one hour, with no one-on-on conversation, before the Review posted an article about the course with no feedback or clarification by Kitzmiller. The audience of the Campus Review then relies wholly on the prejudices of the conservative writer. As academics, we would criticize how any real journalist might discuss complex ideas such as "education" and the claims and texts of Trump and his organization in the months through the 2015-2016 campaign. Kitzmiller argues that national "journalists" who criticize higher education are merely searching for incidents that they can "claim to be incidents of liberal bias, political indoctrination, and restrictions on free speech in American college classrooms" (Kitzmiller).

This, as a call from the far-right such as General Attorney Sessions that "some schools are doing everything they can to create a generation of sanctimonious, sensitive, supercilious snowflakes."

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We want to restate the American Federation Teachers' resolution (2012), "Condemning Attempts to Constrain Free Expression at Colleges. We quote portions of that resolution:

the American Federation of Teachers will condemn in the strongest terms attempts to constrain free speech on college and university campuses; and
[...] the AFT will strenuously oppose all efforts to limit free speech on our campuses, and will encourage its members to have their say before their boards of trustees and administrations, and will support those who labor to preserve that right

The Lone Star College Policy Manual (II.E.1.01.) claims

The College recognizes and supports free speech rights and the free exchange of ideas. The College recognizes individuals’ freedom of speech, petition, and peaceful assembly rights as set forth in the United States Constitution and the Texas State Constitution. The College strives to provide a suitable environment for its faculty, staff, and students to work, study, and perform activities furthering the College’s mission without undue interference or disturbance.

and

(c) Disruptive means substantially disrupting or materially interfering with the College’s central mission of educating students. This definition does not include action that merely presents the possibility of discomfort or unpleasantness that often accompanies unpopular viewpoints.

For those of us who haven't recently read the Texas Constitution's Bill of Rights:

Sec. 8. FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS; LIBEL. Every person shall be at liberty to speak, write or publish his opinions on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that privilege; and no law shall ever be passed curtailing the liberty of speech or of the press....

Our Concerns

We remember an incident in 2014 where a LSC student was "shocked" when a professor assigned a "whiteness" worksheet and all the brouhaha in the Houston and national conservative alarm. We are also aware of other complaints by students against professors which did not garner the journalistic attention. Still, those professors have been both surprised by students' complaints of course material and the college's disappointing chastisement of the professor.

Further, we find too many faculty afraid to talk openly with college administrators, the Chancellor's office, and before the Board of Trustees -- too many stories of even aggressive conversations bordering on professional assault. In a community college of faculty without tenure, the threat of an administration adds anxieties and frustration to our education environment. Threats appear across the spectrum: firing of another faculty threatens all faculty, while shunning any employee by administration results in

isolation
decreased productivity
poor communication, and
lowered morale

Ironically, in an institution that supposedly is an example of the excellence of intellectualism, threats to free speech demonstrate threats to the ideals of democracy, as promised by the Truman Commission (1947):

If education is to make the attainment of a more perfect democracy one of its major goals, it is imperative that it extend its benefits to all on equal terms. It must renounce the practices of discrimination and segregation in educational institutions as contrary to the spirit of democracy. Educational leaders and institutions should take positive steps to overcome the conditions which at present obstruct free and equal access to educational opportunities. Educational programs everywhere should be aimed at undermining and eventually eliminating the attitudes that are responsible for discrimination and segregation—at creating instead attitudes that will make education freely available to all. (see Zook)

In other words, when we fail to practice democracy within the college, we fail our promise to teach democracy to our community. We notice, for example, that few of our students actually engage in free speech in our college campuses: participation in community campaigns, practicing debates outside the courses (and rarely do we see enough professorial preparing students for local debates), engaging with college administration on student needs, and certainly not participating with the Board of Trustees except for those managed presentations to highlight "sparkling" programs and initiatives.

Somewhere here, we would address LSCS "culture" of "No Fear!" but this needs to be addressed later.

So, we recommend:

All union members read AFT resolutions on free speech and academic freedom. As reading these resolutions, we will engage this discussion in future meetings and publications
Review the LSCS policies on free speech and free speech zones. After reading these policies, we will engage both the PSSA and Faculty Senate.
We will encourage all students in all encounters to understand the free speech opportunities in classes and outside classes. Ultimately, we recommend that all community college students learn concerns with democracy and how to expand democracy in our local communities.
We will explain with students why engagement with each other and professors is better than "complaining" to media or even administration. Ultimately, we must teach students, even with different ideologies, engaging instead of fleeing.

As always, we encourage union members to write their stories about free speech, learning from each other's experiences and collaborate with each other to expand our collective democratic rights.