The University and Due Process / James A. Perkins.

An alarming aspect of the dramatic change in the relationship between a university and its constituents is the increasing number of court cases challenging traditionally academic decisions. The filing of these cases seems to suggest that judicial processes can be substituted for academic ones. Although many courts have recognized the distinctive nature of the academic community, the danger of shifting final decision making from campus to court remains. The great influx of public funds, the view of education as a social necessity, the strong egalitarian drive, the expansion of civil rights protection, the erosion of disciplinary supervision by home, school or college have made academic decisions vulnerable to judicial review. The university can benefit from measuring its private rules against public canons of due process, but examination differs from actual substitution of the courts. By abandoning disciplinary responsibilities, the university may be sacrificing rights to make qualitative judgements about human talent and to protect academic freedom through institutional autonomy. To prevent judicial instrusions, the purposes and values of the academic community must be clearly defined and the forces of public interest, social criticism, concern for human quality and aspiration brought into balance. Members of the academic community must make the effort required to sustain it. (JS)

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