National Communication Association Statement on Protection and Defense of Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression for Communication Scholars
(Washington, DC) — The National Communication Association’s (NCA) Legislative Assembly approved a new public statement at the organization’s 104th Annual Convention in Salt Lake City on November 10, 2018.
In keeping with its Credo for Free and Responsible Communication in a Democratic Society, its Credo for Ethical Communication, and its Credo for Free and Responsible Use of Electronic Communication:
The National Communication Association recognizes that many of its members and many scholars (nationally and internationally) are confronting increased harassment, surveillance, and threats on the basis of their political expressions and identities, both inside and extramural to the academic classroom.
The National Communication Association therefore joins with other advocacy organizations in affirming the academic freedom and the freedom of expression for all faculty members, students, and staff regardless of tenure status or employment context.
The National Communication Association also affirms the principle that scholarship and teaching are fundamentally interrelated with political and activist engagement in communities and affirms the rights of faculty members, students, and staff to engage in extramural political discourse.
The National Communication Association urges administrations, governing boards, and faculties, individually and collectively, to speak out clearly and forcefully to defend academic freedom, to protect freedom of expression, and to condemn targeted harassment and intimidation of faculty members, students, and staff.
Learn more about NCA’s credos and read other public statements here.
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The National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusiveness and diversity among our faculties, within our membership, in the workplace, and in the classroom; NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this diversity and inclusion.
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