This new article is here. The Introduction:
Free speech absolutism has seemingly had its day, inasmuch as scholarly and public (if not judicial) opinion are increasingly hostile to the idea that more speech is invariably better. Yet, within academia, a close cousin of free speech absolutism—a principle of university management that this Article calls extramural absolutism—remains alive and well. Many academics and their supporters still champion the idea behind this principle, which is that speech undertaken by professors who are acting in a personal capacity should invite few if any adverse employment consequences. Academic disagreement with the principle, when it arises, lies more in its application to specific incidents than with the principle itself.
But extramural absolutism is deeply unpopular outside academia as well as among many stakeholders inside the university community. This Article explains extramural absolutism's unpopularity and proposes a way forward. The problem, I argue, is not with extramural absolutism itself but with how it is presented and justified. The answer, moreover, is not to insist on distinguishing between speech that warrants protection and speech that does not: It is to acknowledge that academic labor and the way it is managed make a policy of extramural absolutism the only feasible approach.
Supporters of extramural absolutism have failed to be convincing for two reasons. First, they often imply that speech by academics merits an exceptional level of protection because academic speech is uniquely valuable to society. In this respect, they are like supporters of academic freedom writ large. "[T]he pursuit of truth without interference," argue William Tierney and Vicente Lechuga in their defense of academic freedom, "is in the best interest of society." Similarly, Matthew Finkin and Robert Post affirm the AAUP belief that universities are "instruments of the common good" and that the "roots of academic freedom" have "internal connections to emerging needs for knowledge and intellectual mastery."
These lines of commentary presume a shared belief that academic speech is uniquely valuable because expert knowledge and expert pedagogy are better than their opposites. That is, academic speech deserves special protection because it contributes more to societal well-being than do other types of speech or speakers: Academic speech informs, instructs, challenges, and clarifies in addition to expressing opinion.
