How the AHA Killed Viewpoint-Neutral Teaching The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
Historians and, indeed, professors as a whole have never in practice engaged in any substantial professional self-regulation. The AHA now has adopted in its professional standards a conception of history that makes it difficult or impossible even in theory to adopt any meaningful conception of professional self-regulation. For want of a better alternative, America s citizens and policymakers must take on the job of regulating university professors conduct.
California has an electrical code, as it has a code for plumbing and for fire. It has a Contractors State License Board that can take complaints for misbehavior. We possess government means to regulate craftsmen for failing to follow the standards of their trade. A profession that refuses to engage in the basic professional task of self-regulation deserves to be treated no better. Let the states establish a University Faculty Code, with means of complaint to state authorities and, ideally, recourse to private rights of action.
Mortal minds may not be able to aspire to omniscience, but they can aspire to minimum professional standards. If they refuse to do so, then they will have to accept regulation as craftsmen.