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71 Am. U. L. Rev. 977 (2021-2022)
First Do No Harm: Revisiting Meriwether v. Hartop and Academic Freedom in Higher Education

handle is hein.journals/aulr71 and id is 1011 raw text is: FIRST DO NO HARM: REVISITING
MERIWETHER V. HARTOP AND ACADEMIC
FREEDOM IN HIGHER EDUCATION
INARA SCOTT,* ELIZABETH BROWN,** & ERIC YORDY***
Although the nature and extent of academic freedom has been subject to
analysis for over a century, recent developments underscore the need to reconsider
the proper scope of academic freedom. These developments include Meriwether
v. Hartop, a 2021 Sixth Circuit decision in which a professor claimed a
Constitutional right, based in academic freedom, to refuse to use a student's
pronouns; the growing science of pedagogy and understanding of how students
learn; and the changing role of higher education in the United States. We
propose updated factors for assessing the scope of academic freedom that balance
the interests of the university, individual faculty members, students, and the
general public. In doing so, we specifically address and discuss the interest of
the state in delivering an effective education -a concept that we ground in
both the literature of constitutional rights and also the literature of effective
pedagogy, linking the interest of the state in delivering effective learning
experiences to the science of teaching and learning. We also address the need for
the recognition of gender pronouns and the potentialfor harm when they are not
recognized.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................ 978
I. The Evolution of Academic Freedom ............................ 983
A. Early Understandings of the Role of
Faculty and Academic Freedom ............................... 983
B. An Expansion from Classic Education
* Gomo Family Professor and Assistant Dean for Teaching and Learning
Excellence, College of Business, Oregon State University.
** Associate Professor, Bentley University.
*** Professor, W.A. Franke College of Business, Northern Arizona University.

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