FOREWORD

 The idea of publishing a booklet entitled Handbook of Faculty Information was
excellent, but however meritorious it might have been in its inception, it would
have had little value if the actual writing of the booklet had been less than adequately
done. When I read the first edition of the proposed booklet, I was impressed with the
fact that it contained a great deal of pertinent information which ought to be immedi-
ately available to all members of the teaching and administrative staff of the Univer-
sity of Florida. As the second edition of the booklet points out, much of the material
is a condensation of source materials which are immediately available to faculty
members. It should be understood, therefore, that while the booklet is useful in
itself, it is also useful as a guide to additional information which appears in the
various official publications of the University.

 I am pleased that I have been invited to make a few comments in the form of a
preface to this booklet. I have been requested to direct my attention specifically
to the matter of academic freedom.

 On February 2, 1948, I was invited to address a meeting of the A. A. U. P.
chapter on the campus of the University of Florida. At that time, among other re-
marks, I made the following statement concerning academic freedom. I am not sure
I can do better than quote directly from that address, as follows:
 "There are few recesses of a college or university president's mind that
 people fail to explore. On campus and off, both the sincerely interested and
 the curious want to know what the president thinks about this or that. Soon
 rather than late the inquiry extends to cardinal principles. Soon rather than
 late there are those who want to know what the president thin ks about
 academic freedom. I am interested to find that the concern on the part of
 students at the University of Florida for this fundamental principle is as
 great as that of faculty members. In view of this general interest I am pleased
 to state my position.
 "Academic freedom in the impartation and the acquisition of knowledge is
 the indispensable condition of the expansion of mind. Notice, if you will,
 that I approach the subject of academic freedom from the point of view of
 the needs of students rather than from the point of view of the rights of the
 professor. I do not deny the right of a professor to teach objectively the
 truth, wherever it may be found. However, this right is merely a corollary to
 the right of a student to acquire human knowledge from all possible sources,
 whether it be derived from a priori reasoning, or empirically determined.
 "That students should also be given the basis for value judgments is
 taken for granted, but that they should not be denied access to knowledge
 of any kind is the heart and core of any defense of academic freedom. To
 deny academic freedom to the teacher at the level of higher education is to
 deny the student the full right to the expansion of mind and the complete
 basis for making value judgments of a discriminating kind..
 "In these terms, academic freedom is not an end in itself, but a means
 to the greater end of preparing students to take responsibility for themselves
 and for the world they have inherited from us. I am not one of those who
 believe that the destiny of the world is fixed and that man is merely taking
 a dizzy ride upon it. I believe that the mind of man may yet control his des-
 tiny, but only if that mind is free to teach and free to learn without limita-
 tion or reservation."

 J. HILLIS MILLER, President,
 University of Florida