Universities are not ivory towers. They are an integral part of the existing social and economic order. Responding to social movements for equality and justice, the Canadian state has pushed universities to adopt employment equity policies and practices, and has provided limited incentives for more inclusive interventions such as women's access to traditionally male dominated fields of study. However, the state has also promoted the establishment of stronger ties between these institutions and a market that is dominated by powerful economic and financial monopolies. Under the circumstances, academic institutions are in a difficult position to promote diversity and, as long as their survival depends on it, will continue to favor monopolies of knowledge enhancing the capitalist economy.

The university and society change constantly. This means that academic life, including the question of freedom, will change. The current debate on academic freedom is not inspired by a desire for enhancing or even protecting the democratization of higher education. It is motivated by conservative forces seeking to defend the academic traditions of the past, and is determined by an attack on diversity and the struggle for democratization under the rubrics of "political correctness." Academic freedom is then held up as endangered by the forces seeking to change the existing relations of power.

Although the conservative offensive is backed by powerful market forces, it is unlikely to succeed in the long run. We can learn some lessons from history. The universities, which were initially in the grip of the church and the aristocracy, were able to free themselves in spite of relentless repression. The struggle for secularization of knowledge was bound to succeed as the social bases of the student population and faculty changed steadily. Members of other classes and women entered the academy; new perspectives and new disciplines replaced the metaphysical world view. Now at the end of this century, the institutions of higher education again experience a crisis that entails change and leads toward a radical rupture with the past.

For those who advocate democratization of the system, engaging in this process of change is challenging. We should enhance the diversity of perspectives, dare to innovate, and struggle for an inclusive academic freedom that allows us to change the system. Faculty and students must both enjoy the academic freedom to engage in sound scholarship that aims at contributing to justice, equality and democracy. We do have the knowledge, the human and natural resources to eliminate poverty and injustice. If we fail to do so, it is to a large extent a failure of our higher education. And at the heart of this failure is the lack of genuine academic freedom.

Shahrzad Mojab is Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Social Science, Concordia University. Her teaching and research focuses on anti-racism education, minority women in academe, equity reform in Canadian universities, and academic freedom and human rights.