SUBMITTED BY KEVIN L. COPE

Supporters of good university governance never stop shaking their heads about Louisiana State University, the only major research university to draw a double censure from the AAUP. This frequently torpedoed flagship institution—the largest vessel in a veritable fleet of state institutions also under AAUP censure—is once again under attack, this time from salvos against free speech and academic freedom fired by a high-ranking government official. In response to this latest in a long series of such incidents, the LSU Chapter of the AAUP has released a statement condemning government affronts against academic freedom while also explaining the pertinent issues to the public and urging colleagues to become AAUP members.

The incident that mobilized LSU AAUP occurred on December 7, 2021, when the Louisiana attorney general, Jeff Landry, sent one of his assistants to make public comment at an LSU Faculty Senate meeting. For several months, both the faculty senate and assorted pop-up faculty activist groups had skimmed along the edge of Mr. Landry’s political vision. Preparing to run for governor and buoyed in his ambitions by an anti-vaxxer support base, Mr. Landry found it expedient to scourge LSU faculty members for supporting online instruction options, masking, and vaccination mandates. Following Mr. Landry’s assistant’s public comment, which consisted largely of allegations that vaccination mandates are illegal and harangues against purported errors in the medical research community, a highly visible as well as tenured professor in the LSU School of Journalism, Robert “Bob” Mann, a columnist for assorted newspapers and blogs as well as a former advisor to a Democratic governor, tweeted that Attorney General Landry had sent a “flunky” to harangue the faculty senate. Detecting that tweet, an irate attorney general publicly urged LSU president William Tate IV to punish Professor Mann for speaking out against a public official, a call that the local press interpreted as a demand for Mann’s dismissal.

While Attorney General Landry began his attack on the civil rights of a tenured professor, the LSU Board of Supervisors mounted a parallel attack on faculty governance itself, presenting a resolution to eliminate the LSU Faculty Council, the body of all faculty that gives a mandate to the LSU Faculty Senate. Contrary to state law, this resolution was promulgated less than twenty-four hours prior to its consideration. A spontaneous reaction by faculty culminating in a series of hastily prepared public comments at the board meeting, including an impassioned speech by the professor targeted by the attorney general, successfully interrupted this proposal.

Alarmed by these events, the LSU Chapter of the AAUP is issuing the following statement, authored by A. R. P. Rau and endorsed by the LSU Chapter.

STATEMENT BY THE LSU CHAPTER OF THE AAUP CONCERNING CALLS BY A STATE OFFICIAL TO PUNISH A TENURED PROFESSOR FOR EXERCISING FREE SPEECH AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM (Adopted December 16, 2021)

Louisiana State’s Attorney General, Mr. Jeff Landry, sent an assistant in his office to make a public comment at the LSU Faculty Senate meeting on December 7, 2021. The statement consisted of misleading, anti-scientific, and false statements against COVID vaccination. When an LSU Professor and Faculty Senator tweeted about this strange episode, ridiculing it in the light of Attorney General Landry’s public stances on related issues, the “incensed” (as per the Baton Rouge newspaper, The Advocate) Attorney General, tweeting that this “cannot be without consequence,” urged LSU President William Tate IV to “do something to punish the professor.” In an irony clearly missed, given his own dishonesty and abuse of the power of his office, the Attorney General called the tweet the “type of disrespect and dishonesty that has no place in our society,” adding: “I hope LSU takes appropriate action soon.” LSU President Tate properly but only slowly responded, cautiously pointing to First Amendment rights while defending LSU’s “commitment to free and open scholarship and the freedom to debate ideas and principles without interference.”

For the chief legal officer for the state to show such ignorance of the rights of any citizen to criticize him or any public official speaks to the sorry state of our Republic right now. Public officials are not kings and monarchs, although, legend tells us, even emperors can be called out for their nakedness by a little bystander boy. Worse, Mr. Landry has ambitions to stand for election to Governor, an office that has unbridled authority to appoint members to the LSU Board of Supervisors and to the Boards of other state universities. It should have been obvious to Mr. Landry that his intemperate request that the LSU President “discipline” a prominent faculty member would have a chilling, negative effect on all who teach at Louisiana colleges and universities. Faculty members, who are also voters, should see this action, which evidences profound lack of judgment and ignorance of the law, as a disqualification for Mr. Landry ever to hold the high office of Governor. The US Supreme Court has been clear on academic freedom for teachers even when states have tried to restrict or forbid it, holding that “teachers and students must always remain free to inquire…otherwise our civilization will stagnate and die.” The Court has repeatedly recognized the “chilling effect” on speech as a violation of the First Amendment, regarding the threat of sanctions as almost as potent a deterrent to First Amendment freedoms as the actual application of sanctions.

All citizens should recognize that assaults on academic freedom and freedom of speech may begin in universities but soon extend beyond the ivy-covered halls. Despite the high cost, in human lives, of the politicization of COVID vaccination, despite the welcome if slow response by LSU President Tate to the Attorney General’s ill-advised demand, and despite the abundance of cutting-edge knowledge and expertise in our universities, our Louisiana State Board of Health has often been cowed by threats. Louisiana’s State Health Officer, Dr. Joseph Kanter, recently had to speak out forcefully concerning the COVID falsehoods pushed by Attorney General Landry when Landry brought a notorious anti-vaxxer guest speaker before legislators in a public forum. Societies give academic freedom to university faculty to ensure the generation and dissemination of knowledge and to increase the accrued good to society. In return, universities have the responsibility to speak truth to power, whether it be ignorant obscurantist Attorneys General or Presidents. LSU has not done enough to fulfill its responsibility to promote or even tolerate robust debate. Over the summer months, LSU administrators responded poorly and slowly to the COVID crisis, seldom engaging or communicating with faculty, students, staff, and the broader community, at best dragging their feet with regard to requiring vaccinations or imposing mitigation measures, and always being primarily concerned about political pressures from the Board of Supervisors and legislators and about Attorney General Landry’s threats. Why was LSU not celebrating the expertise of its faculty—of its biologists and public health specialists and of scientists worldwide who developed safe and effective vaccines so rapidly in our hour of need?  Why was LSU not leading the way in advocating for vaccinations and masks as did many other universities, both public and private?

President Biden has recently joined the many world leaders who have cautioned that democracy must be defended by every generation. So too the principles of academic freedom, tenure, and values that characterize academia. Faculty must be vigilant and defend against attacks such as those over the last months in Georgia, Texas, and Florida, given the role Governors and their appointed Boards have had in violating these core principles. Sadly, a sudden move in September by LSU’s Board against faculty governance did not face pushback by either LSU administration or by leaders of the Faculty Senate, all of whom remained silent. It was only resistance by vigilant faculty groups at the eleventh hour that led to a tabling of that ill-considered attempt. In such fracases, it is often forgotten that tenure, although supported by institutions, is a professorial prerogative. Decisions about tenure rest primarily with professional peers, especially when it comes to granting or revoking tenured promotions and appointments. One of the principal Orwellian “reforms” of tenure now being attempted in states such as Florida and Georgia is permitting administrators and Boards to do so on their own. In the case of Attorney General Landry, an officer of the state has attempted to bypass even the management boards—to revoke tenure on his own personal whim.

The LSU Chapter of the AAUP hopes that this latest incident at LSU will remind colleagues of the importance of AAUP membership. AAUP has, for over a century, been an advocate and defender of good practices in this regard, serving as a national, regional, and local campus voice to speak for these fundamental principles. The faculty reaction to the Louisiana Attorney General’s affront has compelled the administration to defend academic freedom and has successfully blocked an attempt to eject a professor from his post. The LSU AAUP Chapter is also calling on both the LSU administration and administrations everywhere to take firm stands in support of free speech and open inquiry. As in times past, we stand ready to defend individual faculty and collective issues, and to be an independent voice for the faculty.

Kevin L. Cope is the Robert and Rita Wetta Adams Professor of English at Louisiana State University, treasurer of the Louisiana Conference of the AAUP, and vice-president of the Association of Louisiana Faculty Senates..