The Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

formed by college educators to defend free expression. The mission of the organization is to challenge university administrations and provide legal help to professors who face disciplinary action over controversial speech or activities. It was founded by Keith Whittington,

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual. West was an independent candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election and is an ou ...

, Robert George, Jeannie Suk Gersen, and

Nadine Strossen Nadine Strossen (born August 18, 1950) is an American legal scholar and civil liberties activist who served as the president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1991 to 2008. A liberal feminist, she was the first woman to lead the AC ...

Overview

The organization provides legal support for professors involved in free speech controversies. It challenges university administrations and external entities on behalf of the academicians to support academic freedom and civil debate on a range of issues. Its actions have defended multiple professors including preventing a professor from getting fired from a university.

History

The Academic Freedom Alliance was founded in March 2021 by a group of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

faculty along with 200 other founding members in the United States. In March 2022, the Academic Freedom Alliance sent a letter to the administration of Princeton University calling on it to remove criticism of a faculty member's speech from the webpage of the Carl Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding. Writing for the Academe Blog of the American Association of University Professors, John K. Wilson stated that advocating for such restrictions on criticism of faculty by university staff and centers on all university webpages represents an "untenable" and "hypocritical standard" that would lead to "censorship on a breathtaking scale." Princeton President

Christopher L. Eisgruber Christopher Ludwig Eisgruber (born September 24, 1961) is an American academic and legal scholar and the 20th President of Princeton University, where he is also the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Public Affairs in the Princeton School of Pu ...

declined to remove the controversial comment from the webpage of Carl Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding.

References

External links

* * {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer, 853780742 Non-profit organizations based in the United States 2021 establishments in the United States Educational organizations established in 2021