Nadine Strossen
President, American Civil Liberties Union
Professor of Law, New York Law School

Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law at New York Law School, has written, lectured and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights. In 1991, she was elected President of the American Civil Liberties Union, the first woman to head the nation's largest and oldest civil liberties organization. (Since the ACLU Presidency is non-paid, Strossen continues in her faculty position as well.)

The National Law Journal has named Strossen one of America's "100 Most Influential Lawyers."  Strossen makes approximately 200 public presentations per year, before diverse audiences, and she also comments frequently on legal issues in the national media.  Strossen's more than 250 published writings have appeared in many scholarly and general interest publications.

Academic Freedom Lecture Honorees

Clement Markert, Mark Nickerson and Chandler Davis

	Academic Freedom Lecture Fund
	History
	Senate Assembly Resolution
	H. Chandler Davis
	Clement L. Markert
	Mark Nickerson
	Previous Lectures
	Acknowledgments

History

In 1954, three University of Michigan faculty members, Chandler Davis, Clement Markert, and Mark Nickerson, were called to testify before a Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities. All invoked Constitutional rights and refused to answer Committee questions abut their political associations.

For these actions, the three were suspended and Professor Nickerson was denied the summer portion of his fiscal year salary. Subsequent hearings and committee actions at the University of Michigan resulted in three different outcomes. Markert was reinstated; but Nickerson, a tenured professor, and Davis were dismissed from the University.

Those events were recently revisited as a result of the centennial Celebration of Rackham Graduate School. An historical review by Professor David Hollinger led an honors student in English in 1988, Adam Kulakow to produce a video history of the events. Subsequently, the University of Michigan Chapter of the American Association of University Professors endorsed a statement on October 25, 1989, requesting a significant gesture of reconciliation for the three professors.

The Senate Assembly considered the AAUP request, endorsed it in January of 1990, and presented the request to the Regents in March and April of 1990. The Senate Assembly Chair suggested that a significant gesture of reconciliation might include reinstatement for Professors Davis and Nickerson, payment of severance pay, and the establishment of an annual University Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom. A parallel was drawn with the recognition by the federal government of the wrongful internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the issuing of an apology and financial compensation by the government. The Regents took no action on this request.

On November 19, 1990, the Senate Assembly established The University of Michigan Senate's Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom.

President Bollinger announced to Senate Assembly on September 28, 1998 that his Office will co-sponsor the Academic Freedom Lecture.

The faculty of the University of Michigan affirms that academic and intellectual freedom are fundamental values for a university in a free society. They form the foundation of the rights of free inquiry, free expression and free dissent that are necessary for the life of the university.

The faculty recognizes that such rights are human creations, the product of both the reasoned actions and the deep- seated commitments of women and men. When such actions and commitments are set in human institutions, people may secure for themselves and for others, in the present and the future, the enjoyment of those rights.

We also recognize that these values and the rights they imply are vulnerable to the fads, fashions, social movements and mass fears that threaten to still dissent and to censure carriers of unpopular ideas. Such was the case in 1954 when the University of Michigan suspended three faculty members and subsequently dismissed two of them. We deeply regret the failure of the University community to protect the fundamental values of intellectual freedom at that time. It is to guard against a repetition of those events and to protect the fundamental freedoms of those who come after us that we make this resolution today.

The protection of academic and intellectual freedoms requires a constant reminder of their value and vulnerability. To provide for that reminder, the Faculty of the University of Michigan hereby resolves to establish an Annual Senate Lecture on Academic and on Intellectual Freedom, to be named: "The University of Michigan Senate's Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom." (Adopted November 19, 1990)

H. Chandler Davis, a pre-eminent mathematician, is currently a Professor at the University of Toronto where he has held academic posts since 1962 and is Vice President of the American Mathematical Society. He has held several editorial positions in the field of mathematics, including Advisor Editor to Linear Algebra and its Applications and Review Editor and Editor-in-Chief for the Mathematical intelligence.

Professor Davis earned his academic credentials, BS, MA, and Ph.D. degrees, at Harvard University. He began his professional career as an Instructor at the University of Michigan from 1950 to 1954.

In addition to publishing research articles on mathematics, Professor Davis writes science fiction and has also authored several hortatory essays, such as "From An Exile," published in The New Professors, edited by R.O. Bowen (1960); "The Purge ," in A Century of Mathematics in America, published by the American Mathematical Society in 1989 and "Science for Good or Ill," a booklet in the Waging Peace Series (1990).

While an Instructor at the University of Michigan in 1954, Chandler Davis chose to test the constitutionality of the House Un-American Activities Committee by refusing to testify before the Committee without invoking protection from self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment. As a result of his actions, Davis was suspended from the University. His reinstatement was supported by his department and college but not by the Faculty Senate, and he was subsequently dismissed from the University. He was also cited for contempt of Congress, indicted in 1954, and convicted in 1957. His appeals to the courts were exhausted in 1959, and he served a sentence in federal prison in 1960.

Clement L. Markert, Distinguished University Research Professor of Animal Science and Genetics at North Carolina State University, is a leading authority in biological research. His research interests are focused on developmental genetics, reproductive biology, and biotechnology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and served as Co-Chair of the Developmental Biology Interdisciplinary Cluster for President Ford's Biomedical Research Panel in 1975. Professor Markert has been elected to the Presidency of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American Society of Zoologists, the Society for Developmental Biology, and the American Genetic Association.

Previously, Professor Markert was the Henry Ford II Professor of biology at Yale University, chairing the Department from 1965 to 1971. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor of Zoology at the University of Michigan in 1950 after earning his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, his M.A. at the University of California at Los Angeles, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado.

In 1954 Clement Markert was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He invoked Constitutional rights according to the Fifth amendment and refused to answer the Committee's questions concerning his political associations. Consequently, he was suspended from the University of Michigan. He was later reinstated with the support of the Faculty Senate, his department, and his college, he eventually achieved tenure.

Professor Markert passed away in 1999.

Mark Nickerson has made major contributions to the field of Pharmacology with his seminal research on adrenergic blocking drugs. He was awarded the John Jacob Abel Award in Pharmacology in 1949 and has served as President of the Pharmacological Society of Canada and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He has chaired the Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences and is the author of 250 scientific publications.

Nickerson was an Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University. He had been at McGill since 1967, chairing his department from 1967 to 1975. He also held academic positions at the University of Manitoba, the University of Michigan, and the University of Utah.

Professor Nickerson graduated summa cum Laude from Linfield College and earned his Sc.M. from Brown University, his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and an M.D. from the University of Utah.

In 1954, Mark Nickerson was an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan, with tenure. He was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities committee and chose to invoke the Fifth Amendment in response to the Committee's questions. He was immediately suspended by the University as a result. Professor Nickerson's reinstatement was supported by the Faculty Senate but not by his department or by the Medical School. He was subsequently dismissed from the University despite his tenured appointment.

Professor Nickerson passed away in 1998.