From Fall 2016

The mission of the institutions of higher education is serving society by discovering, investigating, communicating, and preserving knowledge by educating students and the larger society. This mission cannot be fulfilled without academic freedom.

Academic freedom is the freedom to teach, both in and outside the classroom, to conduct research and other scholarly or creative activities, and to publish or otherwise disseminate the results of one’s research.  Faculty members are guaranteed freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject.  Because controversy is at the heart of free academic inquiry, this right includes the right to introduce and discuss controversial material.

Faculty are also entitled to freely conduct extramural activities beyond the classroom in service to their scholarly discipline, students, university community, and society at large; freely exchange ideas and research findings in different formats, including electronic communications, without fear of violation of their privacy; and freely express their views on public matters (for example, via social media), as public intellectuals, without fear of retaliation from the university administration.

Academic freedom also encompasses the freedom to address any matter of institutional policy or action both as a member of any agency of institutional governance and as an individual.  Faculty also have the freedom to address the larger community with regard to any social, political, economic, or other issues. Faculty members shall not be subject to prior censorship or to retaliation for controversies that may arise from such activity. 

Academic freedom implies the competent performance of duties and obligations and a commitment to foster within the University a climate favorable to the responsible exercise of academic freedom. Therefore, the CSU will work to maintain, encourage, protect and promote academic freedom and responsibility so that such freedom is not compromised by harassment, censorship, reprisals, or prohibited discrimination, including defending the University and its faculty from threats to academic freedom emanating from outside the institution.