Bepko speaks to professors

IU Interim President Gerald Bepko spoke to 20 members of the IU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors Friday at the Indiana Memorial Union's University Club addressing academic freedom and the role of university administrators.\nThe AAUP is a national organization serving to ensure protection of academic freedom for faculty members at universities across the United States as well as endorsing that protection through tenure.\nPhysics Professor Bennet Brabson is the IU Chapter president of AAUP.\n"In our roles as teachers and learners, all ideas are subject to our investigation, debate, understanding, research and publication," Brabson said in a statement. "This marvelous stuff called academic freedom is closely related to our fundamental freedom of speech as citizens."\nThe luncheon began at noon and was followed by remarks by Brabson and outgoing Bloomington Faculty Council President Bob Eno.\nBrabson joined the IU faculty in 1968 and has served two consecutive terms as Chapter President. In his opening remarks Brabson welcomed those who were attending, and congratulated incoming Chapter President Theodore Miller of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Brabson also outlined the current activities the Bloomington Chapter is undertaking by outlining a new direction the AAUP is taking. \nPresident Bepko took the podium situated beneath a portrait of IU legend Herman B Wells after he was introduced by Eno.\n"General administration must always be the servant ...," Bepko said. He equated the importance of the work done by faculty members to "the work of corporate executives without the stock options."\nBepko's remarks lasted about 20 minutes and discussed issues including the role of faculty governance, the role of the administration in universities as well as the current challenges faced by academic freedom following the United States Patriot Act.\n"I was glad the topic of freedom of expression got the airing it did, however limited. The growing political, economic, and bureaucratic constraints on the academy -- and their implications for freedom of thought and expression -- ought to be a source of concern for all of us," said Professor of Journalism Holly Stocking. "I just hope that our new president will be someone who can lead us to make choices that ensure our economic stability without compromising the traditional role of the university as an independent critic of dominant cultural institutions"