BY KATHLEEN M. ROMERO There is an undeniable level of prestige associated with achieving a Carnegie Classified level one research (R1) label for institutions of higher education. This status opens new doors to funding, innovation, and research opportunities, and elevates universities to an elite level. Achieving R1 status rebrands universities, offering the perception of a…
BY JENNIFER RUTH AAUP and other campus unions are mobilizing to defend their institutions against the Trump administration’s outright assault on higher education and insist that their university administrations do the same. I am posting some of the letters to university administrations that I’m aware of so that they might provide inspiration and models for…
BY SILKE-MARIA WEINECK The following is reposted with permission from the Michigan Daily. A few months ago, University [of Michigan] Provost Laurie McCauley banned diversity statements in hiring. Diversity statements, the argument went, imposed inappropriate ideological litmus tests. And a few days ago, University President Santa Ono told the audience at an event hosted by the…
Today, March 13, 2025, the Middle East Studies Association released the following important statement. To go directly to the statement on the site, click here. The second Trump administration has ushered in an existential threat to academic freedom and higher education in the United States. The current campaign targeting universities is an extension of earlier…
BY EMESE ILYÉS I teach at John Jay College at CUNY, and every day I thank my lucky stars for having the chance to share a learning community with each of my students. But lately, I have immense reasons to worry for all of us. As I watch Trump’s executive orders targeting education unfold, I’m…
BY EMMAIA GELMAN Yesterday, campus communities watched in horror as news unfolded that Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia University who bravely acted as negotiator between the Palestine solidarity encampment and Columbia administrators, had been snatched from university housing by ICE agents on orders from the White House. It is the cataclysm that has…
BY HANK REICHMAN I subscribe to Don Moynihan’s substack, “Can We Still Govern.” Moynihan is Professor of Public Policy at the Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan. His posts are a terrific guide to how best to understand the administrative impact of the Musk-Trump assault on governance, as well as other related topics…
Thursday 13 March, 1pm EST on Zoom BDS, International Law, and the Struggle for Rights and Representation on US Campuses Workshop Introduction and moderator: Karim Mattar (CAHE) Speakers: Omar Barghouti (Palestinian BDS National Committee) and Radhika Sainath (Palestine Legal) Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/pyyCqnJvT1ain-vG4sJ5mg Please join CAHE on Thursday 13 March, 1pm EST for our BDS, International Law, and the…
BY HANK REICHMAN As an alum of Columbia University (CC ’69) I received an email yesterday from the university’s interim president Katrina Armstrong responding to the Trump Administration’s decision to arbitrarily cancel some $400 million in federal grants “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The email…
BY JONATHAN REES Back in December, I was listening to Adam Conover’s podcast, and his guests were the directors of Union: A Documentary Film, which is about the successful organizing effort by the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island. In the discussion, I learned that the film has been unable…
SUBMITTED BY ANTHONY ALESSANDRINI Issued jointly by the Professional Staff Congress Academic Freedom Committee and the Hunter College Committee on Academic Freedom; cosigned by the Queensborough Community College Academic Freedom Committee. We write as CUNY scholars concerned with academic freedom to express our outrage at Governor Kathy Hochul’s interference in an academic job search at…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY In the past few days, as president of the Georgia conference of the AAUP, I have received two interesting comments from faculty in my state. The first was a plea to organize, rally, and protest more “to build collective strength.” The second was a plea to reform the AAUP because in the…
BY EVA CHERNIAVSKY AND AMIT R. BAISHYA We write as former members of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities (CAFPRR). Both of us resigned from CAFPRR after the refusal of the MLA Executive Council to advance Resolution 2025-1 to the organization’s delegate assembly. Responding to…
BY JOHN K. WILSON I fully agree with the first line of Tom Ginsburg’s attack in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the AAUP: “Colleges are entering what is likely to be their greatest crisis since the McCarthy period.” Although I don’t work for or speak for the AAUP, I strongly disagree with the rest…
BY DANIEL A. SEGAL Recent actions by Harvard University’s administration merit the Association’s timely consideration and—absent a satisfactory response from Harvard—adoption of a censure of the university’s administration. Issuing this censure will require, however, that the Association adapt and expand its censure practices. Whereas the AAUP’s existing practices are limited to responding to harm to…
