US: Academics confront a political minefield

American academics are under attack from a growing group of right-wing politicians and ideologues who accuse the nation's higher education system of being dominated by liberal professors and administrators. The political backlash has included efforts by state legislatures and Congress to control higher education and ban political discussions in the classroom and on campus, as well as restrictions on visas by the Bush administration against controversial professors.

But far greater than the abuses of academic freedom committed by individual colleges is the danger posed by the federal government in limiting foreign scholars from entering the United States.

Swiss Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan was hired by Notre Dame University's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies to teach in fall 2004. After receiving his visa in May that year to teach at Notre Dame, Ramadan quit his job in Europe and was preparing to leave in August when the US Department of Homeland Security suddenly revoked his visa without explanation.

Ramadan was the victim of a coordinated campaign to keep him out of the country, led by Daniel Pipes of Middle East Forum. Last month, a federal judge issued a ruling upholding the exclusion of Ramadan.

In essence, the government has the authority to ban any foreign scholars for any reason. In the case of Ramadan, after revoking his visa for no reason, he was interviewed and an excuse was devised for banishing him.

Several years ago, he donated a few hundred dollars to a Swiss charity for Palestinians, a charity still legal in Switzerland. Years after Ramadan made the donation, and in the wake of 9-11, the government designated it a terrorist group because of its links to Hamas, claiming that anyone who gave to it before that designation could be retroactively deemed a supporter of terrorism and banned from the country.

Threats to academic freedom in America, however, are not limited to political attacks. The economic system of higher education, and the growing corporatisation of universities, is another danger. The job security offered by tenure, which has been the primary firewall protecting academic freedom, is in peril.

A majority of the faculty in America now are off the tenure track and subject to firing at will. Administrators at private colleges have been able to prohibit faculty or graduate student teachers from forming unions.

And colleges are increasing run according to principles of corporate management, where the desire to please the customer (whether it is students who object to offensive ideas or corporations that oppose critical research) often exceeds their commitment to intellectual liberty.

*A longer version of this report is published in our Features section this week