ABSTRACT
Faculty and administrators often maintain that they have a constitutional right to free expression, which includes how they dress and look. Collective bargaining agreements or statutes may require that tenured persons who were terminated be given priority when the financial emergency is past and hiring of faculty is possible again. Academic freedom has been described as the freedom to inquire, to teach, and to learn. The 1923 Meyer decision contained language that came very close to finding that academic freedom was a constitutional right. Contemporary legal problems regarding academic freedom include some enormously complex questions about research. Contractual tenure is the result of a series of formal reviewing procedures. These usually begin with a review of the candidate’s academic and scholarly competence by peers in a specific discipline. The most casual observer of discriminatory employment practices in this country cannot fail to be struck by how such discrimination is affected by the overall availability of jobs.
