The Indiana University School of Medicine requires faculty to sign a “politicized honour code”, despite warnings that such an action could be unconstitutional. This was reported by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression on Friday.
FIRE stated in its report that “The university cannot punish faculty who disagree with its values.”
“[Agreeing with IUSM’s honour code]. . .would be deeply chilling for faculty who may dissent from university-sanctioned orthodoxy. . . [Faculty] shouldn’t have to pass an ideological litmus check to be allowed to continue. . FIRE also reported that.professional growth” was another important point.
FIRE is an independent nonprofit that aims to defend freedom of speech.
“IU School of Medicine expects everyone in its community reflect on these values, and ensure that their views and beliefs, actions and inactions don’t perpetuate the problem of healthcare [sic] inequality,” IUSM honor code states.
FIRE’s report states that the honor code is an integral part of institution’s bias reduction training. The honor code signing requirement is still unclear.
FIRE stated that “this practice is unconstitutional because of two reasons” in a December 21st, 2022 letter to Dean Hess at IUSM addressing the honor-code situation.
“First, the pledge’s language is too broad and vague to be constitutionally valid. Second, while IUSM may encourage faculty to adopt or express certain views, requiring them to recite and assent to university-sanctioned views violates faculty’s First Amendment right against compelled speech.”
The letter states that the requirement is “flatly incompatible with the role played by the university as a bastion for free inquiry, and unenforceable at any public institution bound to the First Amendment.”
According to FIRE, a training document obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, “Demonstrating” conscious mitigation strategies to reduce harm and inequity as well as injustice from unconscious bias is one of the goals of IUSM’s “Mitigating unconscious bias in decision-making” training.
The request by the organization for clarification about whether the honor code was mandatory has not been answered, nor has their request to comment on the school’s recent adoption of a diversity and equity and inclusion statement for tenure and promotion.
IUSM has not been the only one to tread into territory that threatens the academic freedom and expressive rights its faculty.
IUSM required faculty to prove their woke beliefs in order to be promoted or to receive tenure. . The.IUSM published a document that outlines exactly what it wants to see. It goes beyond compelled speech and compelled behaviour,” Do No Harm reported December 22, 2022.
Do No Harm is a non-profit organization that focuses on protecting healthcare from radical, divisive and discriminatory ideologies.
Do No Harm refers to the “Example Faculty Activity Toward Diversity Equity and Inclusion” document “a deeply politicized and ideological creation that betrays IUSM’s total commitment to race-based medical care.”
Do No Harm claims that the document violates the rights of medical educators.
