2332 
 A8de 
 
 Atirood 
 
 Extra-Cxirric\2la Activities 
 and Academic Freedom
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 
 OF" THK 
 
 CLARK UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 WORCESTER, MASS. 
 
 EDITED BY LOUIS 1ST. WILSOJJ, LITT.D., X,IHHAT<IAN 
 
 Vol. 6 
 
 MARCH, 1922 
 
 No. 5 
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULA ACTIVITIES 
 
 AND 
 
 ACADEMIC FREEDOM 
 
 By WALLACE W. ATWOOD 
 
 President of Clark University 
 
 (Elarfe IntwratlB Hibrarg 
 
 WORCESTER, MASS.
 
 Education 
 Library 
 
 RESOLUTIONS BY THE FACULTY. 
 
 "ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND REGULATION OF EXTRA- 
 
 CURRICULA ACTIVITIES OF STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS 
 
 AT CLARK UNIVERSITY." 
 
 The Faculty of Clark University prepared the following 
 statement regarding academic freedom in the University, and 
 the regulation of certain extra-curricula activities of student 
 organizations. This statement was unanimously adopted by 
 the Faculty, approved by the President in representing the 
 Administration, and approved also by the duly authorized 
 representatives of the Graduate and Undergraduate Students of 
 the University. It is their desire that this statement receive as 
 wide publicity as possible. 
 
 1. The Faculty believes that the academic freedom of no 
 member of the Clark Faculty has ever been trespassed 
 upon and anticipitates no danger of any such trespass. 
 
 2. As concerns the conduct of classes and the invitation of 
 speakers before classes and seminars, the responsibility 
 should rest, as it always has, with the instructor con- 
 cerned. 
 
 3. As concerns public meetings under University auspices 
 (by which in this instance is understood any gathering 
 under student management open to persons not reg- 
 ularly enrolled as members of the institution) which 
 must, in the nature of the case, carry a certain degree 
 of University sanction, the Faculty is of the opinion 
 that speakers should be introduced only with the of- 
 
 16;
 
 cial approval of a standing committee of the Faculty 
 under the chairmanship of the President. 
 
 4. As concerns meetings of student organizations that are 
 open to members of the institution in general, the 
 Faculty is of the opinion that speakers from outside 
 the institution should be invited only with the ap- 
 proval of a joint board in which students and Faculty 
 are equally represented. 
 
 5. As concerns meetings of student organizations open only 
 to their own regular membership, the Faculty re- 
 commends that the responsibility for the speakers in- 
 vited and the conduct of the organization in general be 
 placed upon the members of that organization, under 
 the advice of a member of the Faculty elected by the 
 organization. 
 
 STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT ATWOOD: 
 
 Much of the material which has been distributed relative 
 to the Scott Nearing incident at Clark University, including 
 some that has gone out from members of this university, includes 
 many absolutely false statements and misrepresentations of the 
 actual conditions here at the institution. 
 
 There has been absolutely no infringement upon freedom 
 of speech, or freedom of discussion, or academic freedom for 
 any member of this institution. The question at issue was to 
 what extent the faculty and officers of administration should 
 be responsible for the invitations extended to persons not 
 members of the university to speak here at Clark. The above 
 statement from the faculty of the university disposes of that 
 question.
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULA ACTIVITIES 
 
 AND 
 ACADEMIC FREEDOM* 
 
 By President WALLACE W. ATWOOD 
 
 The address which I have planned to make at this time 
 is directed to the undergraduate men of Clark University. 
 
 First, I wish to make a statement of the facts as to what 
 I actually did in connection with the recent unforunate 
 affair in our college life. When I first heard who was 
 coming to the university, the arrangements were all made. 
 I expressed to the President of the Liberal Club in no 
 uncertain terms my disapproval of the committee's se- 
 lection of a speaker, but I did not insist that the meeting 
 he called off. 
 
 I closed the meeting because I was unwilling to have 
 the university in any way, directly or indirectly, actually 
 or apparently, responsible for our students' listening any 
 longer to the sentiments which were being expressed by 
 the speaker. The point at issue is not alone one of my 
 disapproval of his malignment of the moral integrity of 
 the American people. I take the position that not only 
 
 *An address delivered at Clark University a few days after the President 
 closed a meeting of the Liberal Club at which Mr. Scott Nearing was 
 speaking.
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULA ACTIVITIES 
 
 the sentiments he was expressing, but the unscientific 
 method of presentation, and the intemperate manner in 
 which he was conducting that address, made it inappro- 
 priate for a university hall. Even if his beliefs and theories 
 are right and those of all others who differ from him are 
 wrong, I know that I should have closed that meeting. 
 I do not regret that I have shown in a positive way that 
 I disapprove of such influences within the halls of a 
 university. 
 
 Gentlemen, I believe in the freedom of speech. An 
 open forum where all kinds of ideas may be aired, may 
 serve a very useful purpose in our society, but I am 
 certain in my own mind that a university should not be 
 conducted on that basis. When you are admitted as 
 students to this university, you are not by that act given 
 the right or privilege of calling to the halls of the uni- 
 versity any whom you may select to assist us in our edu- 
 cational work. Remember that the education which you 
 obtain while you are here at this institution is not limited 
 to the classroom instruction. I have taken the position 
 with you many times, in the spirit of good fellowship, 
 that we wanted to built up here a strong interest in our 
 extra-curricula activities. I have taken the stand with 
 you many times that I believe such activities may have a 
 strong and wholesome educational influence. 
 
 Your work together as fellow-students on projects in 
 which you are thoroughly interested, projects for which
 
 AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM 
 
 you work without any pressure from the faculty, are 
 usually very well worth while. Such activities in co-oper- 
 ation with sound instructional work, should lead you in 
 time to have a great love for the university or college 
 where you received your education. All that comes into 
 your lives while you are here has an educational influence * 
 upon you. Education is almost a mysterious process. 
 Most significant lessons may come in some fraternity- 
 home conversation, or on the athletic field, or when you 
 work together to produce just as good a dramatic per- 
 formance as you can. It may be that you learn the most 
 important principles which are to guide you in life, in 
 the gymnasium, in your Debating Society, or when some 
 issue comes up in a student organization. 
 
 The faculty of this institution and, as far as I know, of 
 all other similar educational institutions, retains a form 
 of control over the so-called extra-curricula activities. It 
 was but a few weeks ago that a group of you came in and 
 asked my permission to secure an additional coach for 
 basketball. The plans for the Debating Society are sub- 
 mitted for approval to the officers of the institution. So 
 also I am kept informed as to all social events and the 
 public appearances of the Dramatic Club. 
 
 I consider the activities of the so-called Liberal Clubs 
 in American Colleges to be extra-curricula activities. As 
 yet we have made no special provision here at Clark for 
 overseeing or in any way directing these particular ac- 
 
 5
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULA ACTIVITIES 
 
 tivities and therefore, until some other provision is made, 
 I shall feel the responsibility of deciding what speakers 
 you may invite to the university to address you in our 
 balls, and what public meetings you may hold within the 
 halls of this university. For this reason, I have stated 
 that your plans for future meetings of clubs which bear 
 the name of Clark University, at which speakers who are 
 not members of the university are to address you, must 
 have my approval. I consider this to be my very serious 
 responsibility and in carrying out that responsibility I 
 shall be guided by the very best motives for your good, 
 and the desire that the university may retain the respect 
 and confidence of the American people. 
 
 As far as the incident of last Tuesday evening is con- 
 cerned, I might close my remarks at this point but since 
 you have invited me to state my views on the question of 
 academic freedom within a university, I shall continue. 
 
 I believe in absolute academic freedom within the uni- 
 versity, but the problem is to define that term. I think 
 it is our duty and I think it is wholesome that we endeavor 
 to determine what we think it means. I will tell you what 
 academic freedom means to me. 
 
 Among those who, in my judgment, are true scientists, 
 there is a very devout determination to discriminate clear- 
 ly in their own thinking, and especially in their instruc- 
 tion, between truth and theory or opinion. They often 
 take excrutiating pains to make it clear how far their 
 
 6
 
 AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM 
 
 knowledge goes and when theory begins. They do not 
 hesitate to advance theories, and I think they would agree 
 with me that we need theories to guide us in further in- 
 vestigations. They believe that the presentation of material 
 in the classroom or laboratory must be made without bias, 
 so that the man who comes under their direction may be 
 trained up to greater mental power, to a strength which 
 will make it possible for him to discriminate as he meets 
 the problems in this world, between that which is estab- 
 lished fact and that which is theory or opinion, between 
 that which is good and that which is harmful, between 
 that which is honorable and that which is dishonorable. 
 Such questions must be faced by all people, and the 
 power of clear analysis, the capacity and habit of re- 
 serving judgment until sufficient facts are available, will 
 come through the use of the true scientific spirit in educa- 
 tion. Where that spirit dominates in research and in 
 education, the question of academic freedom disappears. 
 
 I will quote from the Bulletin of the American Asso- 
 ciation of University Professors for December, 1915, from 
 statements of the Committee of that Association appointed 
 to consider and report on academic freedom and academic 
 tenure : 
 
 "Since there are no rights without corresponding duties, 
 the considerations heretofore set down with respect to the 
 freedom of the academic teacher entail certain correlative 
 obligations. The claim to freedom of teaching is made
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULA ACTIVITIES 
 
 in the interest of the integrity, and of the progress of 
 scientific inquiry ; it is, therefore, only those who carry on 
 their work in the temper of the scientific inquirer who 
 may justly assert this claim. The liberty of the scholar 
 within the university to set forth his conclusions, be they 
 what they may, is conditioned by their being conclusions 
 gained by a scholar's method and held in a scholar's spirit ; 
 that is to say, they must be the fruits of competent and 
 patient and sincere inquiry, and they should be set forth 
 with dignity, courtesy, and temperateness of language. The 
 university teacher, in giving instruction upon controver- 
 sial matters, while he is under no obligation to hide his 
 own opinion under a mountain of equivocal verbiage, 
 should, if he is fit for his position, be a person of fair and 
 judicial mind; he should, in dealing with such subjects, 
 set forth justly, without suppression or innuendo, the 
 divergent opinions of other investigators; he should cause 
 his students to become familiar with the best published 
 expressions of the great historic types of doctrine upon the 
 questions at issue ; and he should, above all, remember that 
 his business is not to provide his students with ready- 
 made conclusions, but to train them to think for them- 
 selves, and to provide them access to those materials which 
 they need if they are to think intelligently. 
 
 "There is one case in which the academic teacher is 
 under an obligation to observe certain special restraints 
 namely, the instruction of immature students. In many 
 
 8
 
 AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM 
 
 of our American colleges, and especially in the first two 
 years of the course, the student's character is not yet 
 fully formed, his mind is still relatively immature. In 
 these circumstances it may reasonably be expected that 
 the instructor will present scientific truth with discretion, 
 that he will introduce the student to new conceptions 
 gradually, with some consideration for the student's pre- 
 conceptions and traditions, and with due regard to char- 
 acter-building. The teacher ought also to be especially on 
 his guard against taking unfair advantage of the student's 
 immaturity by indoctrinating him with the teacher's own 
 opinions before the student has had an opportunity fairly 
 to examine other opinions upon the matters in question, 
 and before he has sufficient knowledge and ripeness of 
 judgement to be entitled to form any definitive opinion of 
 his own " 
 
 "In their extra-mural utterances, it is obvious that 
 academic teachers are under a peculiar obligation to avoid 
 hasty or unverified or exaggerated statements, and to re- 
 frain from intemperate or sensational modes of expres- 
 sion " 
 
 "It is, it will be seen, in no sense the contention of this 
 committee that academic freedom implies that individual 
 teachers should be exempt from all restraints as to the 
 matter or manner of their utterances, either within or 
 without the university. Such restraints as are necessary 
 should, in the main, your committee holds, be self-im- 
 
 9
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULA ACTIVITIES 
 
 posed, or enforced by the public opinion of the profession. 
 But there may, undoubtedly, arise occasional cases in 
 which the aberrations of individuals may require to be 
 checked by definite disciplinary action " 
 
 May I now quote to you from a statement made by 
 President Lowell on academic freedom, which will give 
 to you the point of view of a university administrator.* 
 
 "Experience has proved, and probably no one would 
 deny, that knowledge can advance, or at least can advance 
 most rapidly, only by means of an unfettered search for 
 truth on the part of those who devote their lives to seeking 
 it in their respective fields, and by complete freedom in 
 imparting to their pupils the truth that they have found. 
 
 "The teaching by the professor in his classroom on the 
 subjects within the scope of his chair ought to be abso- 
 lutely free. He must teach the truth as he has found it 
 and sees it. This is the primary condition of academic 
 freedom, and any violation of it endangers intellectual 
 progress " 
 
 "The university or college is under certain obligations 
 to its students. It compels them to attend courses of in- 
 struction, and on their side they have a right not to be 
 compelled to listen to remarks offensive or injurious to 
 them on subjects of which the instructor is not a master, 
 
 * Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, Vol. 4. 
 
 10
 
 AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM 
 
 a right which the teacher is hound to respect. A professor 
 of Greek, for example, is not at liberty to harangue his 
 pupils on the futility and harmful ness of vaccination; a 
 professor of economics, on Bacon's authorship of Shakes- 
 peare; or a professor of bacteriology, on the tenets of 
 the Catholic Church. Everyone will admit this when 
 stated in such extreme forms; and the reason is that 
 the professor speaks to his class as a professor, not as a 
 citizen. He speaks from his chair and must speak from 
 that alone. The difficulty lies in drawing the line between 
 that which does and does not fall properly within the 
 professor's subject; and where the line ought to be drawn 
 the professor can hardly claim an arbitrary power to 
 judge, since the question affects the rights both of himself 
 and his students " 
 
 To those statements I most heartily subscribe, and I 
 commend to you the reading of these reports. 
 
 However, there are many in the so-called learned pro- 
 fessions who cannot distinguish between established facts 
 and theories or opinions. In my teaching experience I 
 have come in contact with individuals who, though ap- 
 parently willing, could not reason. The great force and 
 power of the scientific method did not affect their minds. 
 There are those who class themselves as geologists, who 
 would gladly come to this university and tell you the 
 date when this world is coming to an end. They have 
 predicted that interesting catastrophe many, many times 
 
 11
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULA ACTIVITIES 
 
 and they will probably continue to make their guesses 
 and assert them to be facts. There are those who would 
 teach you that the petroleum in the rocks of the earth 
 is the living, vital blood of this great earth which is a 
 veritable organism, and that to take that blood from the 
 arteries of this organism will bring but one result and 
 that is death and destruction to all living beings. There 
 are people who would teach you that the volcanic actions 
 are but the expression of the rage of a supernatural power, 
 a deity. There are some who still teach the doctrine that 
 we are on the inside of the earth, a most fascinating 
 theory. There are those who explain the glacial period 
 by saying that the outer portion of the earth is slipping 
 on the inner portion so that the United States could, in 
 moving some Spring day to the Arctic regions, have another 
 glacial period. The unfortunate thing is that, while such 
 a migration of a continent would bring on a glacial period, 
 there are absolutely no facts to justify such a theory. I 
 recognize in my own field of study, in my own profession, 
 that there are fakers and that there are jugglers. I also 
 know that there are those who are perfectly sincere in 
 their beliefs but misinformed as to the true facts. I there- 
 fore feel that it is my duty in the conduct of my own 
 department not to permit them to come here and give 
 instruction to you in this field. If I did allow such in- 
 struction, I should exceed my rights and fail to meet the 
 responsibilities that accompany academic freedom. 
 
 Let us turn directly to the medical profession. Society 
 
 12
 
 AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM 
 
 grants full freedom for research in that field and most 
 generously encourages that research. Wealthy people 
 and others from all stations in society help to raise great 
 endowments for such research. 
 
 There is no question but that society grants absolute 
 academic freedom to the members of that profession. That 
 freedom, however, is not interpreted by them to mean 
 permission to try out any and all theories resulting from 
 their special research upon the patients in their clinics 
 and hospitals, who are entrusted to their care. A question 
 of life or death may be involved, and a major operation 
 seems imperative Unless a great emergency exists, the 
 surgeon seeks authority from the patient, the parents of 
 the patient or from some other responsible party before 
 the operation is performed. He will certainly if requested, 
 state clearly his reasons for advising the operation. In 
 doing that he will distinguish clearly what the facts are, 
 where they end, and where his theories begin. He will even 
 make an estimate of the chances of success or failure. It 
 is the rule for members of that profession to distinguish 
 sharply and clearly between their search for truth and the 
 practice of their profession. 
 
 I recognize that in the fields of social science, economics, 
 government and religion there is more difficulty than in 
 the field of natural sciences in establishing clear-cut defi- 
 nitions. In all these special fields most laymen, certainly 
 all parents, are vitally interested. When sons and daughters 
 
 13
 
 EXTRA-CURRICULA ACTIVITIES 
 
 are entrusted to a university and fall by chance into 
 "clinics" of a sociologist, an economist, a professor of 
 government or religion, parents take a very personal in- 
 terest in the conduct of such courses, and it must often 
 happen that their insight into the problems discussed 
 cannot be matched within university walls. In this uni- 
 versity we have not as yet engaged any one to instruct you 
 as an authority on matters pertaining to religion. 
 
 When all professional experts in the social sciences rec- 
 ognize their responsibility to the community and give 
 adequate assurance that scientific methods are followed 
 in the practice of their profession, the problem of aca- 
 demic freedom in these fields will disappear. 
 
 The presentation of the two sides of a question, es- 
 pecially on questions affecting the social welfare of the 
 community outside the immediate university circle, should 
 be made without passion, without any intention of further- 
 ing misunderstanding, or of arousing antagonism or hatred 
 in the minds of one group of people against any other 
 group. The careful discrimination of the scholar and 
 of the true teacher, who uses the scientific method of 
 presentation, and who has the best welfare of the next 
 generation at heart, will, while presenting the truth as he 
 sees it, develop in the student a power of discrimination 
 between that which is or is not an obvious detriment to 
 public morals or the conduct of orderly government. He 
 will never lead students to disrespect sincere religious 
 
 beliefs. 
 
 14
 
 AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM 
 
 We who wish academic freedom must always remember 
 that we are members of a public service institution, granted 
 special privileges because we have agreed to furnish 
 special services for the good of society. While we ap- 
 preciate and respect the members of the medical pro- 
 fession for the care they exercise in considering the physi- 
 cal welfare of individuals we must recognize as educators 
 that we have entrusted to our care the minds and char- 
 acters of the young people of this country. These young 
 people are the dearest members of the home, and in them 
 lies the hope of this nation. Our problem is to develop 
 in them that strength of character and soundness of 
 judgement which will assure the permanency of all that 
 is good in our social, religious and governmental insti- 
 tutions, and we may hope that through them that which 
 is not good may be properly corrected. 
 
 Gentlemen, the words Academic Freedom to me simply 
 spell Responsibility. 
 
 IS 
 
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