University campuses are meant to be places where people can express themselves freely. Officially, most Western universities have policies defending academic freedom. Some countries have even enshrined these principles in law. In theory, Ireland’s universities enjoy both protections. Despite this, academics are increasingly being forced to adopt and promote contentious political positions.
Both University College Dublin (UCD) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) maintain that free speech is a core value of each university. In its statement on academic freedom, UCD insists that ‘no policy should be adopted that would deliberately or inadvertently diminish or inhibit freedom of expression among members of the university – staff or students’. TCD’s statement is almost identical. Both universities also say they’re opposed to compelled speech. ‘Academics should not be required to present as valid what they believe, on the basis of experience and informed opinion, to be untrue or inaccurate’, says TCD.
Academics also have a right to academic freedom that’s recognised in law. Ireland’s Universities Act 1997 offers protection for the freedom to question and test received wisdom, and to state controversial or unpopular opinions, either on or off campus. An academic, in other words, need not and should not self-censor out of fear of being disadvantaged or treated unfavourably by the university. Moreover, the law imposes a duty on the university not merely to protect, but also to promote, academic freedom.
And yet, despite all this, every university in Ireland has adopted, or is in the process of adopting, a set of commitments that explicitly undermine free speech and academic freedom. At the behest of Ireland’s Higher Education Authority, with the endorsement of then higher-education minister Simon Harris, almost all Irish universities are party to the ‘Athena SWAN Ireland’ charter.
This charter demands that academics accept and promote a particular view on subjects that ought to be – and indeed are – up for debate. For instance, the basic premise of Athena SWAN, to which it demands full allegiance, is that diversity, equity and inclusion policies strengthen higher education. But this is not uncontroversial. Indeed, it was vigorously contested only recently in the Irish Times by former University College Cork professor William Reville.
The most obviously provocative demand made by Athena SWAN Ireland is for academics to commit to ‘fostering an environment that creates collective understanding that individuals can determine and affirm their gender’.
Think about that for a moment. Issues to do with gender identity are matters that have been debated and discussed a great deal in Ireland, like everywhere else in the West. Leading Irish doctors have highlighted the dangers of so-called gender-affirming care. There have been debates on a whole host of trans-related topics, in particular with regard to women’s sport and women’s prisons, in our national newspapers and on broadcast media. During last year’s Irish General Election, the conservative Aontú party proposed repealing the 2015 Gender Recognition Act in its manifesto.
Academics, students and graduates are not all of one mind on this, either. Far from it. In this year’s elections for the Seanad, the upper house of the Irish parliament, candidates opposed to gender ideology stood for election in Ireland’s two university constituencies. Sitting senator Rónán Mullen, who was returned comfortably to office by graduates of the National University of Ireland, has himself raised important questions about the Athena SWAN charter on the floor of the Seanad, calling it an ‘ideological monster’.
The point is this: gender ideology is now a matter of public debate in Ireland. It’s discussed in parliament, on the national broadcaster, on the pages of our newspapers. But as soon as you enter an Irish university campus, the discussion has to stop. For here, you are committed, or have been committed by your superiors, to ‘fostering’ or supporting one side of this controversy.
The demand to promote gender ideology is only the most obviously illiberal commitment of the Athena SWAN Ireland charter (it is notable that this has been removed from the UK equivalent). Really, the whole charter is unacceptable, simply by dint of the fact it is, as its own proponents describe it, a ‘sanction-led initiative’. Irish universities have effectively been coerced into adopting it by research-funding bodies, which now tie eligibility for funding to Athena SWAN accreditation. ‘Coerced’ is no exaggeration. In its literature, Athena SWAN boasts that tying research funding to accreditation is ‘an effective “stick”’ to ensure ideological compliance.
This threat of sanctions goes beyond research funding. Colleagues of mine have been told directly that failure to engage in Athena SWAN will affect their career prospects. This cuts clearly against the promise of the Universities Act to protect academics who express dissenting opinions. It encourages not only self-censorship, but also dishonesty.
It would be unconscionable for any workplace to coerce its employees to promote what may be the opposite of their political, philosophical, or indeed religious beliefs. But in a university, where debate over hot-button topics ought to be at its most open and most vigorous, this is a travesty.
Tim Crowley is a member of the UCD School of Philosophy and convenor of the Dublin branch of Academics for Academic Freedom.
