There are currently no books on Catholic higher education that offer a theological foundation for academic freedom. This book presents a theologically grounded understanding of academic freedom that builds on, extends, and completes the prevailing secular understanding for Catholic higher education.

Kenneth Garcia presents an edited collection of papers from the 2015 conference on academic freedom at religiously affiliated universities, held at the University of Notre Dame. These essays reexamine the secular principle of academic freedom and discuss how a theological understanding might build on and further develop it. The year 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the leading advocate of academic freedom in America. In October 2015, the University of Notre Dame convened a group of prominent scholars to consider how the concept and practice of academic freedom might evolve. The premise behind the conference was that the current conventional understandings of academic freedom are primarily secular and, therefore, not yet complete. The goal was to consider alternative understandings in light of theological insight. Theological insight, in this context, refers to an awareness that there is a surplus of knowledge and meaning to reality that transcends what can be known through ordinary disciplinary methods of inquiry, especially those that are quantitative or empirical. Essays in this volume discuss how, in light of the fact that findings in many fields hint at connections to a greater whole, scholars in any academic field should be free to pursue those connections. Moreover, there are religious traditions that can help inform those connections.

1968 witnessed perhaps the greatest revolution in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. It was led by Fr. Charles Curran, professor of Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, with more than 500 theologians who signed a "Statement of Dissent" that declared Catholics were not bound in conscience to follow the Church's teaching in the encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, that said artificial contraception is morally wrong because it is destructive of the good of Christian marriage. The battle at Catholic University centered on the major question in Catholic higher education during the turbulent years after the Second Vatican Council, "What is the meaning of academic freedom at a Catholic university?" Curran and the dissenting theologians maintained they needed to be free to teach without constraint by any outside authority, including the bishops. The bishops maintained that the American tradition of religious freedom guaranteed the right of religiously-affiliated schools to require their professors to teach in accord with the authority of their church. This book uses never-before published material from the personal papers of the key players at CUA to tell the inside story of the dramatic events that unfolded there. Beginning with the 1967 faculty-led strike in support of Curran, this book reveals the content of the internal discussions between the key bishops on the CUA Board of Trustees. This work attempts to disprove both the standard "liberal" and "conservative" interpretation of the events of 1968, suggesting that the culture of dissent was a direct fruit of the excessive legalism and authoritarianism which marked the Church in the years preceding Vatican II. Because the polarization in 1968 has continued to define the experience of many American Catholics and has had an ongoing effect on Catholic education, this work should be extremely interesting to those who want to understand the past so as to move forward with a greater awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of Catholic education in the United States.

The Christian College and the Meaning of Academic Freedom is a study of the past record and current practice of the Protestant colleges in America in the quest to achieve intellectual honesty within academic community. William C. Ringenberg lays out the history of academic freedom in higher education in America, including its European antecedents, from the perspective of modern Christian higher education. He discusses the Christian values that provide context for the idea of academic freedom and how they have been applied to the nation's Christian colleges and universities. The book also dissects a series of recent case studies on the major controversial intellectual issues within and in, in some cases, about the Christian college community. Ringenberg ably analyzes the ways in which these academic institutions have evolved over time, outlining their efforts to evolve and remain relevant while maintaining their core values and historic identities.

Covering issues from the resistance in universities to Darwinist thought, to the experience of women and ethnic minorities, to "economic" and "political correctness," from 1860 to the present.

Almost all of America's private colleges and universities started out as denominational schools, but connections with sponsoring churches gradually attenuated over the last century. Only fundamentalist Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church still maintain colleges and universities closely tied to the spirit of their denominations. Catholic higher education is the largest of these systems, producing a significant proportion of America's college graduates, trained professionals, and doctorates. Andrew M. Greeley argues that Catholic schools are no better and no worse than the vast majority of American higher educational institutions. He chooses a sample of schools varying in the degree to which changes are evident, without revealing this key to his investigator team. Greeley and his field team then visit the schools, interviewing significant segments of each, and characterize each in terms of recent growth and elements which are critical in fostering and supporting such changes. Greeley briefly summarizes information on the history of Catholic higher education. He then furnishes descriptions of three rapid-improvement, three medium-improvement, and three low-improvement schools. In a summary, he provides evidence that the quality of administrative leadership predicts academic improvement in a Catholic college or university. In the final sections, Greeley reviews the administrations, faculties, and student bodies at Catholic colleges and universities, and offers general observations about the outlook for Catholic higher education in the United States.

The freedom of academics to pursue knowledge and truth in their research, writing, and teaching is a fundamental principle of contemporary higher education in the United States. But this freedom has been hard won and regularly abridged, reinterpreted, and violated. Academic freedom has been central to many issues and controversies in higher education and has thus generated literature in a variety of disciplines. This book provides access to that literature. Included are entries for nearly 500 books, chapters, articles, reports, web sites, and other sources of information about academic freedom. Each entry includes a descriptive annotation, and the entries are grouped in topical chapters. While most of the works cited were published since the 1940 American Association of University Professors Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, some older studies have also been included. Though the volume focuses primarily on higher education in the U.S., it also includes a chapter on academic freedom in other countries.

Wilson Smith and Thomas Bender have assembled an essential reference for policymakers, administrators, and all those interested in the history and sociology of higher education.

This fourth edition of the indispensable guide to the laws that bear on the conduct of higher education provides a revised and up-to-date reference, research source, and guide for administrators, attorneys, and researchers. The book is also widely used as a text for graduate courses on higher education law in programs preparing higher education administrators for leadership roles. This new edition includes new and expanded sections on laws related to: * religious issues * alternative dispute resolution * the college and its employees * collective bargaining at religious and private colleges * whistleblower and other employee protections * personal liability of employees * nondiscrimination and affirmative action in employment * campus technology and computer networks * disabilities * student academic freedom * freedom of speech and hate speech * student organizations' rights, responsibilities, and activities fees * athletes' rights * USA patriot act and immigration status * public institutions and zoning regulations * regulation of research * coverage of retaliatory and extraterritorial acts * federal civil rights statues