Mindy Madden, age 16, of Hattesburg, miss., for her question:

WHEN WAS ACADEMIC FREEDOM ESTABLISHED?

Academic freedom is the right of teachers and research workers, particularly in colleges and universities, to investigate their respective fields of knowledge and express their views without fear of restraint or dismissal from office. The concept and practice of academic freedom, as recognized presently in Western civilization, dates roughly from the 17th Century.

The right of academic freedom rests on the assumption that open and free inquiry within a teacher's or researcher's field is essential to the pursuit of knowledge and it is a proper educational function.

Although academic freedom existed in universities during the Middle Ages, it signified at that time certain juristic rights, for example, the right of autonomy and of civil or ecclesiastical protection enjoyed by the several guilds that constituted a university.

Before the 17th Century, intellectual activities at universities were circumscribed largely by theological considerations, and opinions or conclusions that conflicted with religious doctrines were likely to be condemned as heretical.

During the first half of the 20th Century, academic freedom was recognized broadly in most Western countries. However, infringements of the right increased as totalitarianism emerged in various countries, notably in Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union.

In the Soviet Union, academic freedom was and is limited by the necessity of making all instruction and research conform to particular Communist doctrines in every field of learning. From time to time the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party lays down decrees establishing the Marxist Leninist viewpoint in various academic disciplines.

In the early 1950s many institutions of higher learning in the United States adopted regulations requiring loyalty oaths from members of their faculties. Some of these oaths were declared unconstitutional by state courts, but the Supreme Court upheld Congress' right to ask questions about Communist party membership                           

During the 1960s and 170s in the United States and other countries, groups of students asserted their right to what they considered academic freedom for students, claiming an active role in determining policy on curricula, examinations, evaluation of professors, student life and behavior and privileges. They often accompanied their demands with demonstrations and even violence.

Consequently, theirs seemed the dominant voice, although in the United States the majority of college students remained moderate and nonviolent.

In many countries the tendency was to grant concessions to students more for the sake of peace than out of principled agreement. As a result, students began to enjoy more freedom of expression not only in political matters but in educational matters as well.

With the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in 1973, a marked change occurred in U.S. student attitudes. For the most part, activists lost their influence and students returned to the traditional preoccupations of academic life.