The Sixth Annual QUFA Lecture on Academic Freedom
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Bruce PardyFaculty of Law Queen's University "Herding Cats and Avoiding Catfights: Academic Freedom and the Deep Structure of the University"Wednesday 4 February 200912.00 p.m. - 1.30 p.m.Room 517, John Watson Hall |
Academic freedom is a feature of the deep structure of the university.
It is an incident of the separation of powers between its constituent parts.
Within the university, who decides what?
Without a principled answer to this question, the university can become a conflicted environment in which academic freedom is threatened from inside and outside, and teaching and research are not genuinely the top priorities.
In the absence of a central organizing idea, governing the university can feel like herding cats - and cats, of course, are not meant to be herded.