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Academic Freedom Alliance Opposes Divisive Concepts Bans

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January 10, 2023

The Academic Freedom Alliance, an ideologically diverse group of college and university faculty members dedicated to free expression, opines against critical race theory bans and other so-called divisive concepts bans in a new statement. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the American Association of University Professors, PEN America and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, among other groups, also oppose such legislation, saying it is antithetical to the First Amendment and academic discourse.

The AFA’s statement says, in part, “Selective political interventions to override the free exchange of ideas on university campuses will inevitably damage our institutions of higher learning and hamper their ability to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. Bans on divisive concepts, or speech codes by any other name, whether they come from the right or the left, are incompatible with the preservation of great universities.”

Colleen Flaherty

Colleen Flaherty, Reporter, covers faculty issues for Inside Higher Ed. Prior to joining the publication in 2012, Colleen was military editor at the Killeen Daily Herald, outside Fort Hood, Texas. Before that, she covered government and land use issues for the Greenwich Time and Hersam Acorn Newspapers in her home state of Connecticut. After graduating from McGill University in Montreal in 2005 with a degree in English literature, Colleen taught English and English as a second language in public schools in the Bronx, N.Y. She earned her M.S.Ed. from City University of New York Lehman College in 2008 as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows program.