VOA慢速英语--美国大学教育者结成联盟捍卫言论自由

College Educators Form Alliance to Defend Free Expression

About 200 college educators in the United States have formed a non-profit organization called the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA). On its website, the group says it aims to help college educators "speak, instruct, and publish without fear of sanction or punishment."

The non-profit organization began out of discussions among some professors at Princeton University in the state of New Jersey¹. They wanted to find ways to fight against what they see as growing intolerance of differing opinions.

The AFA plans to support those they believe have been unjustly attacked and provide money for legal support if needed. Members who are professors with tenure² will pay a yearly amount of $50, while others will pay $35. The alliance is also seeking donations.

Keith E. Whittington of Princeton University is head of the alliance's academic committee. He said the group is looking for a way to advance a national discussion about free expression issues.

He said the group wants to keep alive an idea called "academic freedom," which was put forward by professors about 100 years ago. It has three points. The first is the freedom to teach without outside interference. The second is the ability to do research and write on academic issues without university leaders preventing the public from seeing the work. The third is the ability to speak in public about ideas of the day without interference from university leaders.

Whittington said, "We still see all those things threatened" at American colleges.

Whittington said college professors have been concerned for a long time about losing their jobs if they express ideas that might be unpopular with students, administrators³ or people who give money to the school. Some college professors have had their jobs threatened for criticizing university presidents.

"We still see faculty⁴ threatened for all those things now," he said.

Whittington and the founders⁵ created the organization to offer some support to those professors. Some, he said, joined the group for that reason.

Members of the AFA include writer and political activist⁶ Cornel West, who recently left Harvard University after not receiving tenure, and retired⁷ Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain. Others in the alliance include constitutional researcher Sanford Levinson at the University of Texas School of Law; award-winning writer Charles Johnson, a retired professor at the University of Washington; and Nadine Strossen, a retired professor at New York University and former president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Whittington said a number of professors who joined the AFA were nervous, at first, about joining. Some, he said, were worried that their supporters would be concerned if they joined a group that had members who expressed opposing political opinions.

But Whittington described the AFA as "a genuinely cross-ideological⁸ group."

"And it was somewhat difficult to persuade people that they ought to be out in front and standing⁹ up for these principles even though sometimes that would mean defending speech that they found pretty unpleasant and very wrongheaded and despite the fact that sometimes that would lead them to be personally criticized."

Some members have been involved in free speech disputes. For example, some students criticized Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis for a document she wrote in 2015. In the writing, Kipnis disputed the school's ban on teachers and students dating each other.

Another, Harvard professor and language researcher Steven Pinker, was criticized in 2011 by members of the Linguistic¹⁰ Society of America for supposed insensitivity to racism¹¹ and sexism.

Whittington said the alliance would center "on free speech and academic freedom issues." He named two recent examples of why he says the alliance is needed.

One example involved University of Southern California professor Greg Patton. Last summer, he was teaching using the video conferencing application Zoom¹² about words used to fill silences in spoken language.

He described a few Chinese terms that some students believed sounded like an English-language racial insult. Patton was suspended, and only returned after a school investigation¹³ found that "the use of the Mandarin¹⁴ term" had an actual purpose.

Also last summer, Auburn University professor Jesse Goldberg faced calls for his dismissal after writing a message on Twitter. The message included, "The police do not protect people. They protect capital. They are instruments of violence on behalf of capital." Auburn University denounced the message and reassigned Goldberg from the classroom to a research position.

Whittington said the AFA seeks to fight against efforts "to suppress and sanction professors" who hold non-traditional or unpopular opinions.

"It's essential, I think, that we continue the struggle. That we continue to try to articulate what these principles are and why they're important, and we continue to try to defend individual professors who find themselves in the midst of these controversies¹⁵."

Whittington said he hoped the AFA might start off with about 50 professors who could help spread their message. But the group received strong support and gained more members than that.

The group will start by working for its members in case of controversy¹⁶. But Whittington said it also wants to look out for non-members who may be involved in situations where support from the AFA might be helpful.

Words in This Story

academic –adj. of or relating to schools and education

sanction –n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force someone to stop doing something

intolerance –n. not willing to allow or accept something

tenure –n. the right to keep a job (especially the job of being a professor at a college or university) for as long as you want to have it

faculty –n. the group of teachers in a school or college

ideological –adj. ideas and beliefs of a group or political party

essential –adj. extremely important and necessary

controversy – n. argument that involves many people who strongly disagree about something : strong disagreement about something among a large group of people

articulate –v. to express (something, such as an idea) in words

1 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

2 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

3 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

4 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

5 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

8 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

11 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

12 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

13 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

14 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

15 controversies   

争论

参考例句：

• We offer no comment on these controversies here. 对于这些争议，我们在这里不作任何评论。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• The controversies surrounding population growth are unlikely to subside soon. 围绕着人口增长问题的争论看来不会很快平息。 来自辞典例句

16 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。