Date: 12/08/2009

Source: University of Cape Town

Title: UP: Chetty: TB Davie Memorial Academic Freedom lecture by Nithaya Chetty

Universities in a time of change

1. Introduction
Mr Vice Chancellor, Prof Max Price, Members of the Senate, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I feel deeply honoured to present the 2009 TB Davie Memorial lecture at the University of Cape Town today, and I am especially grateful to the Senate Academic Freedom Committee, and to Prof Andrew Nash in particular, for this very prestigious invitation.

I wish to firstly recognise the late Prof TB Davie, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, who helped entrench the basic principles of academic freedom that made this one of the bastions of liberal intellectual thought for many decades through some of the darkest periods in the history of our country, and who helped establish the UCT as a top university with a leading international reputation.

There has always been a struggle for academic freedom at South African universities over the years. Even though the social and political struggles have changed fundamentally over the course of the past half century, the quest for an intellectually freer university system still continues unabated to this day. As time has evolved and as our circumstances have changed, so too has the nature of the treats to academic freedom - the only constancy has been the fragile state of academic freedom itself.

2. Declarations on Academic Freedom
It is not my intention to give you a detailed analytical account of the great many declarations that have been made on academic freedom, from the 1940 statement by the American Association of University Professors, to the Kampala Declaration of 1990, the Das-es-Salaam statement also of 1990, the Lima statement of 1988, the UNESCO statement of 1997, and the list goes on.

More closer to home, there has been an excellent set of reports produced by the Higher Education, Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom Task Team of the Council on Higher Education in 2007. And a helpful development very recently has been a statement on academic freedom that has been crafted by the Academy of Sciences of South Africa which has, to my knowledge, not been released publicly as yet. So, you might want to keep an eye out for this. There have also been a number of public commentators that have discussed the importance of academic freedom in South Africa post 1994, and the Freedom of Expression Institute has been at the very forefront in defending the principles of academic freedom.

According to the British political scientist GC Moodie, Academic Freedom has three distinct facets, namely Institutional Autonomy which refers to freedom from government interference, Scholarly Freedom which refers to freedom to teach and pursue research, and Academic Rule which refers broadly to academic governance and essentially speaks to the importance of academics deciding on matters that impact on the academic functioning of the university.

There is, in my view, a fourth aspect, which is supported by the South African constitution and that relates to Freedom of Expression: Chapter 2 of the Constitution on the Bill of Rights, Section 16(1)d states that Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes ¬ academic freedom and freedom of scientific research. Our constitution draws a direct connection between Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom, and I see this as suggesting that academic freedom can only be supported within an environment of free expression. Without academic free expression, academic freedom is undermined.

Many of the international declarations address these various aspects of Academic Freedom in different ways, and invariably university governance issues are discussed since these are inextricably linked with Academic Rule.

So, there is already a tremendous volume of literature that has been produced on academic freedom, and it is not my intention to launch into a discussion on all of this. Analysing all of these details and commentaries obviously enhances one's appreciation of academic freedom and its relevance especially in present-day South African society, and I think that it should be the business of every academic to familiarise themselves with these broad details.


3. Our responsibilities as ordinary academics
I see myself primarily as an ordinary academic - a physicist in fact - who believes fervently in the importance of academic freedom. I believe that it is our obligation and our responsibility as ordinary academics to practice academic freedom, to nurture academic freedom and to fight for academic freedom whenever and wherever it is threatened. I think that as academics we should all see ourselves as activists for academic freedom. This, I think is a part of our job as ordinary academics.

Maybe if we all donned our academic gowns more often we will be reminded about our public obligations that come with our academic vocation, however risky that may be? I don't think that one has to be an expert on academic freedom to be a practitioner of academic freedom.

Academic freedom is perhaps the single most important construct that binds us academics from our many different disciplines together. And especially now that academic freedom is increasingly under threat in South Africa, I feel that ordinary academics like ourselves need to stand together and fight for our common cause for an intellectually freer university system in South Africa.

We are very fortunate to have the constitutional clause that explicitly recognises and protects academic freedom. I am not aware of any other country that has such a clause. It would, however, be hugely presumptuous of us to assume, especially under this current climate of change in South Africa, that academic freedom is going to be freely bestowed upon us academics by the government or by the university Council or by the university management or by whomever else.

The way I see it, academic freedom appears to be a distraction, a kind of irritation that is barely tolerated by many of our politicians and a growing number of university managers who are driven by their own sets of interests. Increasingly now, even some academics and students are dismissing the importance of academic freedom in the face of other competing priorities.

Protecting academic freedom does not appear to be foremost on their minds as they go about their business largely because they seem to be guided by a very different set of values - values that are, in my opinion, very often at variance with internationally accepted academic values as discussed in many of the declarations on academic freedom that I have already referred to.

The threats to academic freedom can be summarized as follows: a lack of public understanding and appreciation of the need for academic freedom, a poor understanding by academics of their roles and responsibilities as demanded by the principles of academic freedom, an interfering government hand in higher education, the increasing corporatised model for research, the commodification of education, an excessively managerialist ethos at our universities, and a growing litigious nature of our universities.

Lest I be misunderstood, there clearly is a need for government involvement in higher education, academics can do with increasing funding for research from the private sector, and universities need some level of bureaucratic management, but it is crucial that these various relationships with the academy enhance open inquiry and not burden it as it appears to be the case at many of our universities at present.

I fear that academic freedom will continue with its downward spiral at our universities unless we academics make a stronger case for its importance - ultimately for society - and unless we remain constantly vigilant over academic freedom and unless we are prepared to be unrelenting in our fight for our right to academic freedom.


4. A foreboding for the future
Academics need to understand much more profoundly the forces that have come to bear on our quest for an academically freer university system. It is perilous for us academics to simply insist on academic freedom without understanding and engaging with those sectors who, for whatever reasons, view things differently. This is the crux of the matter, and this is what I want to primarily address in my talk today.

It is not helpful for us to look at academic freedom in isolation. Universities are shaped by the social, cultural and political environment that they are immersed in, and universities are now increasingly being influenced by commercial interests. Universities are vulnerable to political upheaval and economic turmoil which often creates shock within the system.

The tension that we currently experience between the differing and competing interests in higher education in South Africa is very real and, I claim, should hardly be surprising and is probably very necessary during this time of change. I believe that we must find better ways to manage this tension and to talk across the chasms that have been opening up on so many different fronts now, to find more common ground or else we all face a very bleak future.

And I don't believe that any particular university is impervious to the onslaught that we are currently experiencing. I would like to caution that some of the difficulties faced at other universities over recent times are only a foreboding of what could come to the relative tranquillity of the UCT if you do not pay sufficient attention to these issues - although the UCT has not been without its own challenges recently.


5. Some examples of recent problems
Whilst the UKZN has probably led the country in terms of the number of controversies, there have been many other cases that have raised searching questions about the nature of the university, and that have shaken our very notion of what a university should be.

For example, very recently, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State came under fire from the ruling party for his public criticisms of the Minister of Education. A few months ago, the Vice Chancellor of UNISA was bullied by a student grouping ostensibly because of poor management, but it is hard to overlook the political affiliations that were at play there.

An academic was fired from Fort Hare University a little more than two years ago for criticising his university administration in lectures and in the media. Although not at a university, the case last year that involved a researcher at the CSIR who faced disciplinary charges after delivering a seminar on the state of water security in South Africa is also relevant to this discussion.

In 2006, an Executive member at the UKZN failed in his attempt to sue an academic at Rhodes University for defamation after the Rhodes professor publicly criticised him for issuing what amounted to a gagging order to striking staff at the UKZN.

There has been a litany of controversial statements made by the Vice Chancellor of the UKZN over the past several years now especially on race and transformation.

In 2006, a meeting called by a group of academics to discuss transformation at the UKZN was effectively banned by the Vice Chancellor, and the individual who coordinated this meeting was vilified and racially abused.

The Black African Forum at the UKZN presented a document on transformation in 2006 that was hurtled through the Senate but a discussion document on Academic Freedom produced by the Faculty of Science and Agriculture was repeatedly blocked from appearing on the Senate agenda in 2007. Two academics spoke out publicly on this and they were charged with divulging confidential Senate information and for bringing the university into disrepute.

Earlier this year the leader of the ANC Youth League made a number of provocative statements during his visit to the UCT, and more recently, the UCT was dogged with the very public case that involved the deputy registrar that resulted in him agreeing to leave this institution.

I should also mention the outrageously racist behaviour of the students at the Reitz residence at the University of the Free State last year that sent shock waves across the world, and that precipitated in the Soudien report on "Progress Towards Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Educational Institutions" that was commissioned by the then Minister of Education, Mrs Naledi Pandor. I shall refer to this report a little later.

And there are many, many more red flags that indicate to me that all is not well within our universities in South Africa.


6. A sense of siege
I sense a state of siege within our higher education system presently. These examples are only a rather small and random selection of cases that have in one way or another sent reverberations throughout the academic community in South Africa, and in many instances internationally too. They have raised more than the proverbial eyebrow as tempers have often raged. This leads me to conclude that our universities are anything but placid places today. Our universities have become places of enormous conflict, and this is calling into question the way in which we are conducting our affairs within our universities.

It is not my intention to delve into the details of each of these cases for too many reasons, including the fact that I obviously do not have the time for that kind of analysis. Also, in many instances I have only been able to rely on limited information that has been published in the public domain. I have considered many of these cases not from a legal point of view, but from an academic point of view, and here I am guided by many of the international declarations on academic freedom.


7. Fundamental questions
I think that it is important that we take a step back to focus on some of the basic issues that are at play here which will hopefully help frame a more constructive discussion. It seems to me that we need to craft a new understanding - a new contract - amongst the different role players in higher education if we are indeed going to scramble out of this quagmire that we all seem to be sinking so deeply into.

Whilst many of these cases have raised fundamental questions about the state of academic freedom and freedom of expression within our higher education system, well beyond this, these cases have raised fundamental questions about what the university is, how it should be governed, and what our roles and responsibilities as academics are, especially in this era of change in South Africa.

This has spurred us to think more deeply about the complex relationships between the government, the council, the university executive, the academic staff with its academic structures including the senate and faculty boards, the student body, the support staff down to the cleaners and the gardeners, the role of the staff unions, our alumni, funding agents, donors, and so on.

There is a vital place for each one of these bodies in our university system, where there is much overlap between their various ambits, and there is therefore a need for careful negotiation and dialogue. However, at present I feel that we are not getting this balance right. We all seem to be talking right passed each other at the moment.

We have had to confront questions of mistrust and misunderstanding, and deep-rooted animosities and even hatred in some instances. Some relationships have become most uncivil.

We have had to deal with cultural differences and Africanisation. Ultimately, in all of this we have had to confront issues around race and racism, equity and transformation. How do we respond to the increasing politicisation of our higher education system? How autonomous are our universities?

Questions have been asked about academic standards? Who sets these and why and how? The Minister of Higher Education has recently called for a revolutionary change to the curriculum.


8. Our universities in a time of change
I have painted for you the university in a state of enormous stress and conflict in South Africa today, and I believe that this is set to grow if we do not begin to seriously address these issues. Our universities are in a time of change.

For me, it is time that we go back to the basis of the university. What is the university, and what is its purpose, and how do we go about achieving the goals of the university? How do we realise the very idea of the university? And importantly, how do we do this within a transforming social agenda in the country?

As we embark on the process of change, we need to ask: What kinds of higher education institutions are we aiming to create, what goals underlie our aspirations, and what dangers are there in how we're currently going about it?

I think that we need to focus on these overriding questions that I hope can help us reach a greater common understanding between the many different competing sectors that I have referred to.

I want to discuss various aspects related to university governance and transformation. I will discuss these matters in the context of my idea of the university where I will make the case that academic freedom is not some inalienable and divine right that has been claimed by so-called privileged academics, but it is a necessary and supporting set of constructs that are absolutely vital for sustaining the idea of the university.


9. The idea of the university
A casual glance at universities around the world quickly reveals that universities are actually not at all as universal as the term "university" might imply. Universities show enormous differences in ethos, standards, cultures, systems, reputations, and so on. Still, I think that it is useful to explore what I consider to be enduring qualities of good universities.

Critical thinking
Central to university training is the concept of critical thinking. In its research, in its scholarship, in its teaching and in its community engagement, a good university nurtures critical, independent thinking in all of its disciplines and in all of its facets.

Critical thinking is vital for the development and progress of society - from government, to industry, to commerce and to the academy itself, we need more critical, independent graduates for South Africa. We need such graduates for innovation, for creativity and for new solutions to old problems. We need critical, independent thinkers for the organs of democracy such as the judiciary and the press. It is through more lateral critical thinking that we are able to address the many social and economic challenges that we face in our country, ultimately for the good of society.

Skills are also an essential part of university training, and our students need to master the basic discipline-specific skills in order that they have the basis to develop critical, independent thinking in their chosen fields. It is very necessary that universities impart skills - not in a mechanical fashion but in ways that instil critical, independent thinking. This is what distinguishes university training from artisan training, the latter being so important for keeping the cogs of our economy moving.

The role of the academic in enhancing critical thinking
A good university academic is one that publishes in internationally accredited journals, and who is an active member of his or her local, national and international community of scholars. A good academic teaches excellently and provokes critical thinking in his or her teaching and supervision of research students, and who actively contributes to the academic functioning of the university.

A good academic also engages critically with society I don't think that we can leave it only to government agencies, technocrats and bureaucrats to make decisions that have a profound effect on our lives. Society needs an independent, credible and technically competent voice to pay attention to issues of safety and the environment, and to protect the general interests of society.

Society also needs to be protected from uninformed voices (remember the AIDS dissidents?) on projects of national importance. Who should society rely on for the truth - or the best version of the truth? Or better still, how can society make up its own mind on matters that concern it?

I want to make it clear that it is not simply a matter of having expert scientists adjudicate on the matter. Many of the Nazi scientists were probably expert scientists. What we need are expert scientists who are also critical and independent, and who are socially conscious and compassionate. We need credible voices that are unstinting in seeking the truth, and who are morally and ethically bound in telling the truth, and courageous enough to act on the truth.

Academic freedom is our protection to seek the truth. Academic freedom is not a special privilege accorded to academics, but it is a responsibility and obligation of academics to be critically engaged with society. Being public critical voices is a part of our job. This is our contract with society.

The importance of collegiality
Disagreements develop very quickly within university settings because independent thinking encourages questions and counter-questions, and arguments and counter-arguments. Dogmatic views are quickly thwarted, and dictatorial attitudes are hastily shunned.

Collegial relationships and mutual respect are vital in the decision-making processes within universities, and this ensures that the university holds together despite disagreements, no matter how fundamental these disagreements might be. Scholars rely on the independent views of their peers to help make decisions. No single individual holds unlimited power. In this way, universities operate in ways that cannot be more different from the commercial world.

Ideas and decisions emerge from cogent, logical and consistent arguments within an open, transparent and democratic ethos. Ethical behaviour and impartiality in judgement are the basis for university deliberations. Universities are principled places and are guided by the pursuit of the truth rather than by expedience.

These basic elements distinguish intellectual discourse from political discourse, which are often at variance with each other. Perhaps this is why it is so important that good universities strive to be essentially autonomous and apolitical in a democratic state?

The fragile state of universities
Universities are rather fragile places, as it can take many decades to build a "great" university - in a reputational sense of the word - but only a little while to cause reputational damage to an institution.

Reputation and public perception are harsh realities that universities must deal with, and good universities work hard to earn their reputations. Universities with good reputations are able to attract the best staff and students, and they are able to bring in private funding such as endowments. Their graduates are well sought after.

Universities find it very difficult to recover from a damaged reputation. Despite myriad university restructuring plans and vast sums of money thrown at some universities, history shows that it is very difficult to change the course of a failing university.

Beyond the bricks and mortar, there is something ethereal that is the university - it is the culture of the place. University culture helps create a stable framework within which universities operate. Stable university systems are so necessary for the optimal functioning of good universities.

Universities develop traditions over time, and each university is unique in its traditional ways. It is because of their traditional ways that universities are often construed as being conservative places. Universities are often accused of being inflexible to change. And yet it is precisely because of the security afforded by stable academic environments that free intellectual thought flourishes, and new ideas emerge, ultimately for the advancement of society. Universities are very delicate and very complex in this way as they are paradoxically conservative cultural places of lateral and even radical thought.

The evolving nature of universities
Universities are not unlike living organisms that need to adapt to the changing environment in which they find themselves. This means that good universities are always evolving as they try to redefine themselves. Universities are constantly in a state of flux, and this is ongoing and internal in nature.

Let me now explore some of the factors that are impacting on the idea of the university, the way I see it.


10. University governance
Internal threat
The University Act of 1957 separated universities stringently along racial lines, and so over the years the freedom of who to teach became a central tenet - a kind of clarion call - in the fight against Apartheid. The Freedom Charter formulated in Kliptown in 1955, for example, famously stated that "The doors of learning and culture shall be opened to all" in response to this most fundamental of violations of academic freedom by the Nationalist government of the day.

Today, institutional autonomy is less of an issue than in the past, as universities are free to set their own entrance criteria based on academic performance, although government continues to lend a meddling hand. The main threats to academic freedom today appear to come from within the university with increasing managerialism and institutional corporatisation and the emergence of neo-liberal policies in higher education.

Marginalisation of the academic voice
As an academic, I most concerned about the marginalisation of the academic voice on matters that concern the academic functioning of our universities. Nowhere is this exemplified more than in the manner in which Senates are losing their status of being the authority of the academic voice within the university. In some instances, Senates have become just another university committee.

New university statutes have vested more power in the hands of university councils. This together with the emergence of the managerialist and corporatist university in turn has led to a rise of union activism - and the environment for rational academic discourse has become even more squeezed. I refer to this as the emergence of the "blue collar university".

Academics thrive on open discussion and debate, and so it is hugely debilitating for academics to increasingly find themselves in an undemocratic environment where they are not being consulted on matters that directly affect their work, and in some instances they are being bullied into submission.

Increasingly now in South Africa, powerful university managers find it convenient to foist change on their institutions in autocratic ways. The crass use of power trumps intellectual discourse as political rhetoric and populist beliefs are increasingly holding sway within our universities. Academic systems are being bypassed by technical and legalistic procedures.

Universities need to return to democratic values or run the risk of entrenching an anti-intellectual culture that threatens the very idea of the university. Change will take firmer root within our institutions when all sectors actively participate in the process of change.

Academics need to get more involved in all aspects related to the academic functioning of the university. The Senate needs to re-assert its authority on the academic functioning of the university, and this can only happen if the processes of the Senate are open, consultative, democratic and transparent.

The increasing litigious nature of universities
The increasing managerialist ethos has bred a more litigious environment, for how else can one force compliance with the quagmire of intellectually offensive rules and regulations that have come to govern our universities? Managers are abdicating their responsibilities to the courtroom, often with devastating consequences, and with a brutal legalistic interpretation of what a university should be. This is giving rise to what Dr Jane Duncan, former director of the Freedom of Expression Institute, has referred to as the "disciplinary university".

University subsidiary policy and regulations very often run counter to constitutional norms, and in so doing contribute to an intellectually repressive environment, for example electronic communications policies that enable managers to monitor email exchanges of their staff, or the inappropriate use of confidentiality requirements that have the effect of closing down discussion and debate.

Confidentiality within a university setting should be kept to an absolute minimum and only with careful justification, and the university should encourage a free-flow of information and open discussion and debate. There should be freedom of association.

The university should find more collegial and internal ways of resolving conflicts. External lawyers should be kept out of the university disciplinary processes. A university ombudsman is helpful in easing tensions and preventing the escalation of problems, especially during this time of change.

I can understand why somebody might be disciplined for, say, vandalism, or assault or for showing up drunk for work, but I cannot fathom out the need for charging somebody for what they say. I think that no thought or utterance should be banned from a university, no matter how repugnant that view might be. The constitution, of course, gives conditions under which freedom of speech is not protected, such as inciting violence, hatred, racism, etc.

"Bringing the university into disrepute" is not a justifiable charge, for what does it mean? Its nebulous nature has meant that it is a catch-all for getting at people who might be considered to be undesirable.

I think that we should avoid defamation charges if at all possible, and we should all perhaps be a little more generous when attacked on a personal basis if only to reduce the spiralling climate of conflict.

Corporatisation of research
Generally speaking, I feel that scholarly freedom is in a reasonably healthy state in South Africa, but this could change with the increasing corporatisation of research which is having a negative impact on academics to pursue research freely.

More and more now, researchers are having to depend on the corporate sector for funds for so-called directed research. Intellectual property rights, patents, lawyers and contracts are becoming more commonplace within university settings, and the long-term effects of this on the freedom of academics to pursue their research in an unfettered manner is worrying. For example, over the past one hundred years the giant tobacco companies have shown us the extent to which they have been able to manipulate research findings to suit their own interests. This they have achieved through their own directed-research programmes. I suppose that if the money is right then any research outcome is possible!

I just want to flag this as a looming problem for the future, and I urge more (undirected!) research into this matter in South Africa.

11. Transformation
Why do we need to talk about transformation in the context of academic freedom?
I now want to turn to transformation. There are several reasons why we need to talk about transformation in the context of our quest for academic freedom. Of significance, here, are the remarks made by Dr Blade Nzimande in the April 2009 issue of Umsebenzi, which is the online newsletter for the South African Communist Party, just before he was appointed Minister of Higher Education:

"Another instance is that of an increasing and strident voice on asserting of academic freedom in institutions of higher education, but silent on the need to transform the colonial type production and reproduction of knowledge in those institutions. Even worse, as the study on racism recently released by the Minister of Education shows, not only have we not been able to defeat the racial and patriarchal regimes in many of our higher education institutions, but instead these continue to be reproduced daily in these institutions. In such situations academic freedom, in practice, means the continuation of a racialised, patriarchal and elite forms of knowledge production; that is, academic freedom in favour of the continued reproduction of a colonial-type intellectual landscape. Unfortunately it still happens that at the head of this project are minorities who have continued to dominate our academia and intelligentsia."

This view has also been expressed by many other Black African academics, that the quest for academic freedom is a front to perpetuate racist behaviour, to resist transformation, and to argue for the status quo.

We academics need to engage with these ideas, however chilling these might sound to many, and however much you might disagree with this view. Whether this is a real view or a perceived view is almost irrelevant if we indeed want to find a way to go beyond the immediate impasse that has been created. It is sufficient to know that this view exists and that it needs to be engaged with.

Another reason why we need to talk about transformation in the context of academic freedom is that in a growing number of cases, the emergence of autocratic, managerialist behaviour has its roots in the pursuit of transformation.

Also, I believe that the shift in the power relations especially with respect to the Council and the Senate has its roots in transformation. The break down of some university systems can also be traced to the pursuit of transformation. The rising politicisation and gradual erosion of institutional autonomy in our universities is due largely to transformation.

I should point you to the White Paper 3 on "A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education" that explains that transformation "requires that all existing practices, institutions and values are viewed anew and rethought in terms of their fitness for the new era".

So, Universities need to seriously engage with transformation if they care at all about academic freedom.

On the aside I should mention that I am not sure what the basis is for the growing neo-liberal, corporatist view of the university since this has a distinct impediment on transformation.

What is transformation?
"Transformation" in this context is not formally defined anywhere but there is a general understanding of the need for racial and gender redress, increasing access for all especially the previously disadvantaged, changing the university culture to make it more inclusive, responding to the multilingual nature of our society, strengthening the culture of human rights as enshrined in our Constitution, making the academic curriculum more relevant to the South African context, creating more academic support for students, making university systems work more optimally, and so on.

I believe that all South Africans who care about our future are committed to the broad principles of transformation in our higher education system, but there is strong disagreement on how transformation should be accomplished, and on the time frames for transformation.

We are still a long way away from achieving the ideals of transformation. However, I think that there is a lot more goodwill amongst academics for change and for addressing the vestiges of Apartheid than is often recognised and appreciated by many. There is also little recognition of how far we have come thus far. I think that a general lack of trust seems to be getting in the way of reaching a better understanding amongst the differing parties. In some instances, universities are in a state of war over these issues.

This continues to be the biggest challenge facing our universities today; and these disagreements are potentially catastrophic and threaten to divide and even destroy our universities if careful attention is not placed on addressing them in a more constructive way.

The means and the ends
I believe that it is hugely counterproductive and simplistic even to counter pose the transformation agenda with the agenda of academic freedom. We must find a way to ensure that both these thrusts support each other and co-exist in better harmony. This calls for much more debate and dialogue, not less, and for much creative thought - the very stuff that universities should be made of.

More importantly, I believe that the means to a transformed higher education system is as important as the end goal of a more equitable and representative system. Who is to say that intellectual freedoms are not important in a transformed university? We undermine the very goals of transformation if we do not pay sufficient attention to democratic and participatory ways of changing the system.

The Soudien Report
The Soudien report released only a couple of months ago paints a dire picture of racism and discrimination within our universities. It concludes that:

"It is clear from this overall assessment of the state of transformation in higher education, that discrimination, in particular with regard to racism and sexism, is pervasive in our institutions."

The report proposes a number of corrective steps. The recommendations are actually very broad and touch on many different facets of the university life such as Staff Development, Learning, Accommodation and Governance. For example, the four degree structure is discussed.

Many of the interventions that are recommended are top heavy, and this will continue to fuel the view of an eroding university autonomy, and an increasingly more centralised university managerialism.

I feel that academics can counter this by taking the lead on many of the issues raised in the report. Rather than being reactionary to the findings - I believe that the academic body has an important opportunity to claim ownership of this process by engaging directly with it rather than by shunning it. Of course, the UCT has a distinct advantage in having Prof Crane Soudien resident at your institution to help steer this conversation.

I would like to see the Senates discussing and debating the contents of this report. There will be some aspects that I am sure you will have strong agreement with, and some aspects that you may well have strong disagreements with. But let this be the beginning of a new process where the academics take a lead in imagining a new society free from discrimination.

A discourse on race versus a racist discourse
One of the difficulties that I have with the current discourse on race within our universities - and indeed in broader society - is that it has become a racist discourse. Race is a serious matter within South African society, and it should be taken very seriously, and the discourse should be given the respect that it deserves. It is everybody's responsibility, and especially that of our leaders, to actively espouse a non-racial ideal, and to consciously work toward this non-racial ideal.

In this respect, I feel that it is dangerous to portray racism in South Africa today as exclusively due to White supremacy, as is done in the Soudien Report. Whilst this may well be a dominant form of racism both historically and currently in South African society, to view racism exclusively due to Whites on Blacks today is an oversimplification and could mask other forms of racism. For example, it seems that it is open season now for attacks on liberal White males, and to generally blame Whites for a lack of transformation at our universities.

I think that it is profoundly racist to play the race card as nonchalantly as it is often being used today to denigrate people, to deflect criticism and to stifle debate. This has become something of a national past time. This is a very effective means to silence people whose views you do not like, and I categorically reject this manner of dealing with people in a university and anywhere else. This is racism. It should be called as such, and it should also be condemned.

12. Final remarks
In the end, those universities who will stand tall amongst all South African universities will be those who have taken the goals of transformation seriously and who have effected change by democratic means and who have worked tirelessly to protect the intellectual freedoms that are the very basis of the university.

Each university should establish its own academic freedom committee to promote the ideals of academic freedom. It is shocking that currently only three universities, namely Rhodes, Wits and the UCT have academic freedom committees. I believe that there is a need for a national organisation to champion the intellectual freedoms that are vital for the future well-being of our universities. This is a matter that I and a number of academics are giving some attention to.

If academic freedom is on the decline at our universities - and I believe it is - then it is up to us academics to, at the very least, keep the idea of academic freedom alive. When society finally wakes up to the importance of an independent, critical and credible academy, let it not be that we look about and cannot find that which we can call a university.