Something unsettling happened in my classroom late last spring. For the first time in 15 years of teaching, I told my students that I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to speak. The course is an introduction to the philosophy of education, and a few months ago I arranged this day for an opening discussion on key pedagogy. But, given the charging campus climate and wider legal threats faced by institutions nationwide, I realize that as an academic institution working on teaching and research, I am particularly vulnerable.
With it comes one of the most important lessons I have ever taught, although it has nothing to do with the topic I planned. We spent an hour investigating the institution’s academic freedom policies and asking questions about who included and excluded these policies. We found an unsettling reality: I lack safe protection, despite my expectation that I would promote complex educational discussions.
My situation reflects the growing crisis in higher education, but has received little attention. Although there has been much article on the vulnerability of accidental teachers, there is little discussion on the need for academic freedom in one of the fastest growing workforces in higher education: Third Space Professionals.
The rise of the third space
Over the past two decades, the university has greatly expanded what researcher Celia Whitchurch calls the “third space” professional: staff who integrate academic and administrative functions but operate in an ambiguous field between traditional faculty and staff roles.
These characters are not new or unprecedented. The American Association of University Professors has long recognized that despite frequent employee status, the integral role of librarians in teaching and research requires academic freedom to protect. The latest is the scale and diversity of academic work that non-teaching academic professionals are now engaged in.
This growth represents a contemporary development of the workforce transition in the 1970s, when the academic support role was developed for a diverse student who entered the university through open enrollment policies. The 1990s will expand into new areas such as teacher development and community learning as universities recognize the institutions that these roles can enhance teaching practices. Recently, universities have seen explosive growth in the role of data-driven student success and admission management.
These professionals unite their expertise in designing and delivering university academic tasks with a particular focus on student success. They lead teaching and curriculum initiatives, make decisions about learning interventions, analyze data that reveal the uncomfortable truth about institutional performance and advocate evidence-based policy revisions. They also regularly teach university courses, write and receive substantial grants, and publish in peer-reviewed journals. Essentially, they engage in academic work, but have no academic protection.
Why academic freedom is important for third space work
This problem is easy to name but difficult to solve. Institutions fundamentally reorganize how academic work is carried out based on students’ transfer needs and institutions’ priorities without the need to reorganize the way academic work is supported or protected. Third space professionals need academic freedom to protect, and there are four key reasons.
- Educational decision-making: These professionals make teaching and curriculum choices for student learning interventions, planning design and educational strategies. Without academic freedom, they will face pressures based on administrative convenience, teacher or donor preferences rather than evidence-based best practices. For example, what happens when faculty members think that the writing center approach to writing pedagogy conflicts with their own vision of writing in the classroom?
- Data interpretation and reporting: Student Success Professionals analyze retention, graduation and achievement data that may reveal uncomfortable truths about institutional performance or fairness gaps. They need protection when their discoveries challenge institutional narratives or propose expensive reforms. What happens when an analysis by institutional researchers shows that the flagship retention program does not work, but the government only introduces it in a major donor introduction?
- Policy Advocacy: Their direct work with students gives them insight into institutional policies and processes that undermine student success. They should be able to promote the necessary changes without fear of revenge, even if they conflict with administrative priorities or departmental preferences. What happens when an academic consultant discovers that the prerequisite structure of a major is to create unnecessary obstacles for students, but changing this will require a tough conversation with a strong department head?
- Research and evaluation: Many third space professionals conduct and publish studies on student successful interventions, learning outcomes, and institutional effects. This scholarship requires the same protection as traditional academic research. What happens when the assessment reveals the ineffectiveness of teaching in the first year of workshops, but suggesting that findings may damage relationships with teacher colleagues?
The problem of selective identification
The university has recognized that faculty work has been diversified and requires a differentiated policy structure. Many institutions now will study between professors (focused on scholarships and awarded acquisitions), professors of teaching (emphasized teaching practices) and professors of practice (bringing professional expertise into the academic environment). Each category receives tailored policies to facilitate, performing evaluation and professional development aligned with its unique contributions.
However, on the staff side, the agency continues to operate as if all non-teacher jobs are the same. A Writing Center Director in a Language Judicial Bulletin, the student’s assistant dean is the assistant dean who develops crisis intervention programs for student mental health emergencies, and the facility director who manages building maintenance is all dominated by the same universal “employee” policy. This is not only an administrative awkward: it is a fundamental mistake between the way of working and how institutions recognize and protect this work.
Apply consistent logic
The path forward is not revolutionary, but merely the application of the same logic that most universities have used for teachers. Universities and universities are not outdated single “employee” categories, but require at least three different categories that reflect the actual situation of employees’ work.
- Academic Staff: Professionals engaged in teaching, research, curriculum design and educational assessment, including directors of the Learning Center, faculty developers, institutional researchers, professional academic consultants and academic course directors. These roles require academic freedom to protect, academic review process and governance representation.
- Student Life Personnel: Professional professionals focus on extracurricular support, attribution and student life, including Residence Life Coordinators, Activity Supervisors and Consultants. These roles require professional professional development and advancement pathways to recognize and support their expertise in student development.
- Operators: Professionals handle business functions, facilities and administrative operations. These roles can continue with traditional employee policies and support structures.
The framework enables a differentiated policy environment and structures that support multiple domains. It is crucial that academic freedom policies can be tailored to protect inquiries from employees engaged in such jobs while recognizing that other employees have different professional needs.
The expansion of the third space/academic staff role represents a recognition of higher education that effective student success requires various forms of expertise that can be collaborated. However, without a policy framework for acknowledging and protecting this academic work, institutions could undermine the innovations they create. When professionals responsible for student success cannot make free inquiries, challenge ineffective practices, or advocate evidence-based approaches, everyone loses, especially students.
