Academic Freedom on the Internet: The Uncharted Course of Intellectual Freedom in the Information Age

In this interconnected age, interpretations of academic freedom have been legally contentious for virtual environments being established in such forums as the World Wide Web and electronic mail on the Internet. This paper addresses the legal issues that arise from the conflict between the concept of academic freedom in higher education and its scope and application in cyberspace. Challenges to academic freedom are discussed by examining legal cases with a particular focus on a case involving legislation in the state of Virginia that restrained network access by professors. This paper concludes that the tension between institutional control and individual academic freedom has yet to be resolved. INTRODUCTION Tremendous attention has been paid to varying mechanisms for ensuring academic freedom of university professors and students in the recent history of American higher education. The origin of academic freedom is rooted in the concept of the German educational philosophy of “Lehrfreiheit, or freedom to teach, with a following result of Lernfreiheit, freedom to learn” (O’Neil, 1999, p. 89). In efforts to refine the core doctrines of academic freedom in the higher education community, several key issues have arisen over the past decades regarding the scope and concept of academic freedom beyond the classroom and alternative methods for protecting this right. Since the emergence and widespread adoption of the Internet, the issues of First Amendment rights, such as free speech and free press, and copyright principles have brought complexity in its interpretation for the courts. This paper explores legal aspects of academic freedom on the Internet by examining a recent legal case pertinent to the need for redefining the scope and extent of academic freedom and individual freedom of faculty, administrators, and students in light of the expansion of virtual spaces in the 21 century. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM Despite the current centrality of academic freedom in American higher education, the concept has evolved rapidly from its relatively recent inception. As O’Neil (1999) noted, the