C.__To not be excluded from tenure, search and hiring committees on the basis of political or religious beliefs.

3.__Publishing of rights.__A postsecondary institution under this Part shall fully inform students, faculty and instructors of the rights under this section and of the institution's grievance procedures for violations of academic freedom by notices prominently displayed in course catalogs or student handbooks and on the institutional publicly accessible site on the Internet.

4. Protection of academic freedom and rights of faculty and students.__The governing board of each postsecondary institution under this Part shall develop institutional guidelines and policies to protect the academic freedom and the rights of students and faculty under this section and shall adopt a grievance procedure by which a student or faculty member may seek redress of grievance for an alleged violation of a right specified in this section. A governing board under this subsection shall publicize the grievance procedure developed pursuant to this subsection to the students and faculty on every campus that is under the control and direction of the governing board.

Sec. 2. Hiring policies of postsecondary institutions. A public postsecondary institution under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, Part 5 shall include in the institution's hiring policies that the institution endeavors to ensure a diversity of political and philosophical viewpoints in faculty members and instructors and that the institution may not discriminate in its hiring policies against applicants for a faculty position or instructorship for reasons of political or philosophical viewpoints.

SUMMARY

This bill creates an academic bill of rights that ensures an academic environment for both students and faculty members that allows freedom of political viewpoint, expression and instruction. This bill requires all public postsecondary institutions in the State to publish this bill of rights and to adopt a grievance procedure to address complaints of violations of these rights. This bill also requires public postsecondary institutions in the State to include in their hiring policies