Though the nation’s college students may be contemplating a different kind of academic freedom at this time of year, Professors Matthew W. Finkin and Robert C. Post have published a new book that outlines the rights of professors in the American university. That work, For the Common Good, served as the subject of a recent interview with the authors in Inside Higher Ed.

The pressures of funding sources, tenure, and free speech certainly all play a role in defining academic freedom; however, Finkin and Post believe that debates about educator rights often neglect to define terms and tenets with enough specificity. Their book aims to solve that problem.

For further reading on the role of the academy, check out Yale President Richard Levin’s The Work of the University.