BY JAMES RIVER ROBBINS I was at an educators’ union meeting recently when a member raised the issue of reproductive care. Their argument was simple: With institutions and governments cutting away at members’ reproductive rights, the union should stand behind its members and, at minimum, connect them with accurate information about reproductive health. Before I…
BY VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY AAUP The Vanderbilt University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) registers its profound disagreement with the Vanderbilt Board of Trust’s “Declaration of First Principles” (July 29, 2026) as well as its opposition to the Department of Education’s “National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards” (August 3,…
BY STEVEN W. THRASHER On July 20, I filed a lawsuit against Northwestern University and—in his official capacity as Chairman of the US House of Representatives House Committee on Education and the Workforce— Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg. The suit is also against various actors in the federal government who have pressured Northwestern, including Secretary of Education…
BY EILEEN BORIS AND KRISTIN AHLBERG In an interview with journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, Donald Trump claimed to be a great man, on par with world-shattering figures like Mao, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, and Genghis Khan—or so a “presidential historian” told him. That this presidential historian was the caddy for golfing star Gary Player…
BY KEVIN W. CAPEHART In the last century, higher education evolved from serving an elite few to schooling a slightly broader swath of students. Yet even in the twenty-first century, too many universities remain too focused on trying to train only one kind of intelligence, human intelligence. In doing so, universities are discriminating against artificial…
BY DANIEL SPARKS Federal and state policy landscapes are changing rapidly in higher education. In July 2025, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which includes a “do no economic harm” accountability provision limiting all colleges’ access to Title IV loans if programs fail to meet state earnings thresholds as determined by the Department…
BY JOAN W. SCOTT The AAUP received a request for correction of statements in this report regarding Princeton University’s policies on faculty meetings. On August 7, 2026, the text of this post was updated to clarify the university’s policies. Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber has carefully curated his public reputation as a defender of free…
BY PRISCILLA JEBARATNAM Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming workplace practices, including how employee performance is assessed. Organizations are increasingly adopting AI-enabled evaluation systems because they promise greater consistency, efficiency, and objectivity. But an important question remains: Do more accurate evaluations automatically lead employees to perceive them as fair? A recent rapid evidence assessment examining…
BY GRANT A. MINCY Last year, when Tennessee’s HB2194 threatened to eliminate faculty peer review from tenure termination proceedings across the Tennessee Board of Regents system, those of us challenging the bill had a meaningful argument available: The bill created accreditation risk. SACSCOC’s Principles of Accreditation—especially principle 6.4 on academic freedom and principle 6.5 on…
BY ROBERT OVETZ The wave of unionization in higher education over the past decade has resulted in a new breakthrough. The first exclusive student worker union at a community college has been certified by the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). While there are some unionized student workers at private colleges and public universities, most…