WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on Education then the Judiciary.
A BILL to amend the Code
of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated
§18B-7-17, relating to protecting academic freedom in higher education;
prohibiting employment decisions concerning faculty members from being based
solely on political or religious beliefs; requiring all tenure, search and
hiring committee deliberations to be recorded and made available to the
appropriate constituted authorities; prohibiting students from being graded on
political or religious beliefs; requiring academic disciplines to welcome a
diversity of approaches to unsettled questions and to provide dissenting
viewpoints; providing that the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human
knowledge must be respected; and providing that the obstruction of campus
speakers or the civil exchange of ideas may not be tolerated.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section,
designated §18B-7-17, to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. PERSONNEL GENERALLY.
§18B-7-17. Intellectual independence and diversity
protected.
The state recognizes the importance of protecting academic
freedom of personnel and students in its institutions of higher education. To secure intellectual independence for
faculty and students, and to protect intellectual diversity, state institutions
of higher education shall observe the following principles and procedures:
(1) All faculty must be hired, fired, promoted and granted
tenure on the basis of their competence and appropriate knowledge in the field
of their expertise and, in the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts,
with a view toward fostering a plurality of methodologies and
perspectives. No faculty may be hired or
fired or denied promotion or tenure solely on the basis of his or her political
or religious beliefs.
(2) All tenure, search and hiring committee deliberations
must be recorded and made available to the appropriate constituted authorities
empowered to inquire into the integrity of the process. The names of committee members may be
redacted from the record. No faculty
member may be excluded from tenure, search and hiring committees on the basis
of his or her political or religious beliefs.
(3) Students must be graded solely on the basis of their
reasoned answers and appropriate knowledge of the subjects and disciplines they
study. Students may not be graded on the
basis of their political or religious beliefs.
(4) Curricula and reading lists in the humanities and social sciences
must respect the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human knowledge in
these areas and provide students with dissenting sources and viewpoints. While teachers are and should be free to
pursue their own findings and perspectives in presenting their views, they must
consider and make their students aware of other viewpoints. Academic disciplines must welcome a diversity
of approaches to unsettled questions.
(5) Exposing students to the spectrum of significant
scholarly viewpoints on the subjects examined in their courses is a major
responsibility of faculty. Faculty may
not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or
anti-religious indoctrination.
(6) The principles of academic freedom and the promotion of
intellectual pluralism must be observed in the selection of speakers,
allocation of funds for speaker’s programs and other student activities.
(7) The obstruction of invited campus speakers, destruction
of campus literature or other effort to obstruct the civil exchange of ideas
may not be tolerated.
(8) Because knowledge advances when scholars are free to
reach their own conclusions about which methods, facts and theories have been
validated by research, academic institutions shall maintain a posture of organizational
neutrality with respect to the substantive disagreements that divide
researchers on questions within, or outside, their fields of inquiry.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to promote intellectual diversity and academic freedom in institutions of
higher education. The bill prohibits
employment decisions concerning faculty members from being based solely on
political or religious beliefs. The bill requires all tenure, search and hiring
committee deliberations to be recorded and made available to the appropriate
constituted authorities. The bill prohibits students from being graded on
political or religious beliefs. The bill requires academic disciplines to
welcome a diversity of approaches to unsettled questions and to provide
dissenting viewpoints. The bill provides that the uncertainty and unsettled
character of all human knowledge must be respected. The bill provides that the
obstruction of campus speakers or the civil exchange of ideas may not be
tolerated.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.