Academic freedom has been an important issue in higher education since the Civil War, according to Robert Colley, associate dean, continuing education, at Syracuse University. “The seeds of the debate go quite far back in history,” he says. The debate has evolved with cultural changes, and the tremendous growth of distance education has lent a new urgency to faculty concerns about academic freedom. Colley outlines faculty concerns and offers a constructive response based on an analysis of the issue’s historical background.