1985 Holiday Saint Benedict's Today

              Autonomy must be preserved to reach goals, mission 
Colleges must protect academic freedom in order to pursue truth 

most authoritative statement, claims that by S. Colman O'Connell, academic freedom means: 
executive vice president 
a) "the teacher is entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of results. Contemporary Threats to Academic 
b) the teacher is entitled to freedom in the Freedom and Institutional Autonomy 
classroom in discussing his subject, but he a presentation to the Board of Trustees should be careful not to introduce into his on September 13, 1985 teaching controversial matter which has no 
relation to his subject. 
Twenty years ago Harold Dodds, during a conference on law and higher education c) college or university teachers are citizens, at Duke University, cautioned his audience: members of a learned professions, and officers in educational institutions. When 
"/ know of no college or university 
they speak or write as citizens, they should 
presidents for whom academic freedom 
be free from institutional censorship or
is not a recurring source of concern. 
discipline, but their special position in the 
As chief executives of their institutions 
community imposes special obligations . . . 
they bear the brunt of criticisms and 
they should at all times be accurate, should 
attacks by individuals and organizations, 
exercise appropriate restraint, should show 
often inflamed by super-patriotism or 
respect for the opinions of others, and 
anti-intellectual prejudices and fixations. 
should make every effort to indicate that
From time to time all administrators 
they are not institutional spokespersons." 
have to . . . support the freedom of 
faculty members and students to espouse The medieval colleges from which present unpopular causes. . . . Administrators colleges developed took the concept of expect to take the rap, to shelter those intellectual freedom of inquiry for granted. 
under attack, for they know that aca�In more recent times, some Catholic and demic freedom is diminished and distorted other church-related colleges have felt if intimidation, either overt or covert, called upon to protect and demonstrate 
prevails. " their faith by limiting intellectual inquiry. However, the sponsoring bodies of CSB
Now, 20 years later, presidents are still and SJU have respected the ancient tradi�being harassed by forces intent upon dimin�tions which did not fear that truth wouldishing academic freedom. The McCarthy be diminished by honest investigation. 
ERA of, "Get the Commies," is over; the 
era when trustees expected to dismiss any In this tradition faculty are not con�faculty member who irked them is over; strained by Christianity but freed by it the time when donors assumed they could confidently to explore reality and seek design the curriculum may be over; and ever more profound understandings of 
the era when Churches, fearing for the creation and the great works of God. In fragility of Orthodoxy set strict constraints this tradition the Catholic faith is a liberat�on academic freedom is almost over. ing, integrative influence which encourages 
all that is best in the human enterprise, in However, as you know, all over the culture, and in each person. 
country, institutions are being subjected to harassment by the far-right fringe of Obviously, academic freedom for the society. individual faculty member is possible only when the college's institutional autonomy 
So, now, more than ever, administrators is carefully protected. Each college isand trustees need to be sure of the mean�created by a constitution which defines ing and history of academic freedom as the aims and the governance structure well as of that freedom's basis in institu�by which a college proposes to accomplish tional autonomy if they are to be equipped those aims, its mission. 
to play their traditional role as guardians of the college's rights and responsibilities. The president and board's understanding of that constitution, of the meaning of
There was a time when infringement academic freedom and of institutionalof academic freedom happened within the autonomy will influence the attitude toward college (e.g. a touchy president refused to tenure, faculty peer review, donor attempts tenure a professor who spoke disparagingly unduly to influence the curriculum, as well of the president's leadership ability). Now as their attitude toward outside protestors infringements do not happen so often in or students' attempts to silence a public the college as to the college (eg. some large lecturer.
donors or granting institutions wish to limit course content to further their own aims). Brief History The 1940 Statement of Principles of 
Though originating in Greece and the American Association of University Medieval Europe, the concept of academic Professors (AAUP), which is accepted freedom that has informed American higher generally in the educational world as the 

Alumnae President's Column 
As president of CSB, S. Emmanuel has 
by Beth Dinndorf been an exemplary role model of a Bene�dictine, woman business and community leader for both students and alums. While 
I was both saddened and happy to learn the college will lose a top-notch president of S. Emmanuel Renner's resignation as when S. Emmanuel leaves next June, I am president of the College of Saint Benedict. 
heartened as I look around the College ofSaddened because she is a good leader and Saint Benedict and the Benedictine com�has done so much to increase the college's munity there and realize how many very visibility and stature. Happy because I capable, Benedictine women leaders there know of her love for teaching and her are who could succeedS. Emmanuel 
plans to return to the classroom. 
as president. My prayers are with the From an alum's perspective, S. Presidential Search Committee in this 
Emmanuel has been a good friend. very important task of finding our 
During her tenure, the president of college's next president. 
the Alumnae Association was first able 
to attend the board of trustee's meetings 
and thereby provide a direct link between 
the board of trustees and the Alumnae 
Council. S. Emmanuel has also personally 
addressed the Alumnae Council at each of 
its quarterly meetings to describe current 
and future concerns of the college. 

education was borrowed from the 19th century German universities. Many young American professors went to Germany to study in the late 19th century. There they learned to cherish the right of students to learn and the freedom of faculty to inquire and teach. Neither right was enjoyed in most American Colleges of that era. When this new breed of Americans returned to become professors here in the United States, they knew they needed some protec�tion for those freedoms like that provided by the Federal Ministry of Education which controlled the German System of univer�sities. The professors knew that the protec�tion provided by the German Ministry of Education could not be provided by the 3,000 separate boards of trustees in this country, all isolated from each other. 
In an effort to provide such a parallel benefit, the professors established a peer group, the American Association of Univer�sity Professors (AAUP) to define the guide�lines for academic freedom and then to wield a national influence on behalf of the rights and responsibilities of college professors. 
By the time the AAUP Guidelines were made, old threats to freedom from the churches had waned, and new economic, political, and social threats loomed on the horizon. World War I weakened freedom when professors of German-decent became politically suspect. World War II's alliance between the war-industry and research universities weakened institutional autonomy. The McCarthy era's hysterical efforts to identify Communists left even the strongest institutions shaken. And, recently, persistent attacks by persons who appear to be religious fanatics have touched even giant institutions like Yale. 
In the face of these threats I like to remember the advice which the President of the University of Wisconsin gave to the Court in 1984 when the Regents there gave the strongest defense of academic freedom ever made by an American university. 
". . . we cannot for a moment believe 
that knowledge has reached its final 
goal, or that the present condition of 
society is perfect. We must therefore 
welcome from our teachers such discus�
sions as shall suggest the means and 
prepare the way by which knowledge 
may be extended, present evils be re�
moved, and other evils prevented. . . . 
In all lines of academic investigation 
it is of the utmost importance that the 
investigator should be free to follow the 
indications of truth wherever they may 
lead. Whatever may be the limitations 
which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe the great State University of Wisconsin would encourage that con�tinual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found. " 
It is also helpful to remember by what authority any college constitutes itself as autonomous. Each institution is authorized (or empowered) by various constituencies and is also, possessed of intrinsic authority. 
Colleges extrinsic authorization is given them by: the Federal government, state governments, national learned societies, faculty, students, parents, alumni, ad�ministrative staffs and sponsoring church bodies, which for St. Benedict's is the Benedictine Community. 
So St. Benedict's structure as a college, authorized but not controlled by these con�stituencies and rendered autonomous by our constitution is one which has evolved over eight centuries into an institution which has by now developed appropriate procedures and policies to reach our own unique goals, the mission of the college. 
On the other hand, the intrinsic authority of a college in contrast to its extrinsic authorization, rests upon other aspects of academic life. St. Benedict's intrinsic authority rests upon the competent knowl�edge possessed by each professor and shared with other professors; each pro�fessors' ability effectively to communicate this knowledge to students; the faculty shared vision of the University's stated aims and the faculty's passion for accom�plishing them; the faculty's cooperation in concretely planning and carrying out in meticulous detail the procedures that will achieve the shared aims; and the tradi�tion of the college: its past accomplish�ments still living in minds and hearts of faculty, students and administrators. 
The authority of any college is diminished when any of these conditions is weakened. We've all observed, of course, that no college could claim undiminished authority. 
In summary, every college must under�stand and protect its own institutional autonomy if it hopes to create a milieu of academic freedom in which faculty and students can pursue the truth. This autonomy originates in the college's con�stitution, with ultimate authority residing in the board of trustees. The autonomy is authorized by external bodies, and rests upon the authority of the faculty's knowl�edge and shared vision. 
It seems to me that St. Benedict's has often had reason to be proud of integrity of its faculty and its administration in the face of threats from within and from with�out, when the college has both understood and clung to its own identity as a Catholic liberal arts college for women. 


Alumnae Annual Fund volunteers recently met at General Mills for the first of this year's phonathons. Callers staffed the phones on three days -calling alums from Maine to California on behalf of the Annual Fund. Dixie Aus Labat. '60, shown above. is Chairwoman of the Annual Fund. "Not only are phonathons a great way to support the College. but we also have fun meeting and calling together." Labat said. 
Saint Benedict's Today is published four times a year by the alumnae and public information offices of the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota. SBT is edited by Connie Cross, director of public 
Information. and designed and photographed by Charles R. Dewey. assistant director of public information. Knstl Fuller. admiSSIOns communications coordinator. is a staff writer and Barb Carlson. director of alumnae 

Saint Benedicts Today 
a newsletter for alumnae and friends of the College of Saint Benedict 
serves as consulting editor. ' 
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