BY MARIAH QUINN

The AAUP has launched a podcast called AAUP Presents, which takes a look at issues such as shared governance, academic freedom, and institutional debt. The first three episodes are available now.

The series kicks off with an interview with AAUP president Irene Mulvey, who takes us through some of AAUP’s work this year as it relates to the pandemic, to academic freedom, and to the New Deal for Higher Education.

Episode two is a deeper look at the AAUP’s work on shared governance, with an examination of a special investigation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on governance. We also discuss the results of our national shared governance survey, including data on the impact of the pandemic, the demographics of senate chairs and governance structures, and faculty roles in decision-making. This podcast guests are Joerg Tiede, the director of research at the AAUP, and Michael DeCesare, a professor of sociology at Merrimack College and a consultant with the AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Shared Governance.  

The debut series closes out with a discussion about the 2020–21 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, which also features a deeper dive into the issue of institutional debt. The guests are Glenn Colby, senior researcher at the national office of the AAUP,  and Eleni Schirmer, a research associate at UCLA’s Initiative for the Future of Finance.

The episodes are on the AAUP website at aaup.org/aaup-presents, where you’ll find links to listen to them on major platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. We hope to release more episodes in 2022. Have an idea for an episode? Email Mariah at mquinn@aaup.org with your ideas.