Gumming the Hand that Feeds You: Academic Policy Statements
by Elizabeth J. Carter A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal.—Mohandas Gandhi The policy statements of academic associations such as the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Modern Language Association (MLA) and Mathematical Association of America (MAA) have long served to distill and promulgate the views of their members on matters spanning academic freedom to hiring practices and distance education. They have never, though, served as engines of compelled change. Should they, though? Why, after all, do they exist? As now drafted and […]