During these tough economic times, hold on to your wallet—and your academic freedom. As we are seeing in the Bernie Madoff scandal, even very financially astute investors can find themselves in what is actually a very simple Ponzi scheme. In higher education, we are involved in our own version of a Ponzi scheme that poses a new threat to our academic freedom. It seems every bad idea contemplated over the last 10 years ends up in a crisis plan without discussion or review. Only years later will we find out the true costs brought to us by these academic Madoffs and their schemes.

The Feb. 6 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education contains an article headlined “Balance of Power: Downturn Threatens the Faculty’s Role in Running Colleges.” It discusses how management at colleges and universities in Tennessee, Florida, and Ohio are using the economic crisis to challenge the role of faculty in faculty governance. At stake is control over the academic programs and the topics we teach. Where David Horowitz’s Academic Bill of Rights failed, will the nation’s economic crisis succeed in taking away faculty autonomy to teach without interference from political ideology?

Closer to home, the president of the University at Buffalo has proposed a plan for differential tuition by program and year, a concept strongly rejected by the New York state Legislature year after year. Why is it here again? It is back because in a crisis, the hope is that the Legislature will be afraid not to pass the plan. I propose to you a simple concept: if a plan were not acceptable after thorough review in good times, it must definitely be rejected in bad ones.

Academic freedom and faculty governance have gone hand in hand in creating the modern American university and making it the envy of the world. It is our job as members of the faculty and UUP to protect these rights. In the next few months, elections for Faculty/College Senates will take place and there needs to be vigorous elections. In a number of places, administrators are saying that the faculty is too worried about their research to be actively involved in governance. Another line given by critics of the faculty is that only the irrational fringe get involved in the Senate. It is time for each of you to consider running for a governance position if you are not already doing so and it is time for active participation in the process. Just by voting in the Faculty/College Senate elections, you are showing support for academic freedom and your rights to control your courses and educational programs. If we do not take up this challenge in these difficult financial times, we may find that our rights will not be there in the good times.