BY MARIAH QUINN

AAUP Presents is back with three new episodes, including episodes on academic freedom in Florida and student debt’s effects on faculty. 

In our first new episode of 2022, we talk to AAUP government relations specialist Kaitlyn Vitez and Jessica Sponsler, art historian, adjunct professor, and AAUP’s Pennsylvania state conference president, about student debt and its impact on faculty and higher education. With more than 45 million borrowers saddled with $1.7 trillion dollars in debt, a movement to cancel debt and expand opportunities for debt forgiveness is underway as the return to repayment of federal loans, paused during the pandemic, looms in May. Listen here.

In episode five of our inaugural season, we sit down with Paul Ortiz, professor of history at the University of Florida and president of the United Faculty of Florida-UF, to talk about ongoing attacks on academic freedom in Florida and how the UF faculty has fought back against what Paul calls “anticipatory obedience,” awakening a growing movement of faculty members who are ready to, as he puts it, “get their hands dirty” and fight political and legislative attempts to diminish faculty right and chill academic freedom. Here’s the episode.

We stay in Florida for the sixth episode. The AAUP’s Kelly Benjamin talks to Michele Rayner, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, about attacks on academic freedom, the motivation for legislative interference in teaching about race, and the state of the broader political situation in Florida. Play that episode here. 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. Stay tuned for more episodes this spring!

Mariah Quinn is digital organizing and chapter development officer at the AAUP.