BY NOËLLE MCAFEE This post is the first in a blog series, organized by Annelise Orleck, that focuses on recent crackdowns on protests at US college and university campuses against Israel’s war on Gaza. You can read other posts in the series at the links below: “On the New Guidance and Expectations of Student Conduct…
BY ALAN SINGER In times of crisis, academics must be public intellectuals. Why invest our lives in becoming experts in history, society, policy, science, or any other field of study and then remain isolated in an academic cocoon for safety or career advancement? The consequences of silence for our profession and our society are too…
BY SAM NOVEY AND MICHAEL ROSENBLUM We are sharing a unique, non-partisan opportunity for all faculty to bolster voter participation in this critical time. The Nonpartisan College Voter Registration and Education Project aims to increase student voter registration and turnout by asking faculty to devote five minutes of class time to voter education and on-the-spot…
BY TAMARA JACKA Since October 2023, students on campuses across Australia have been protesting in large numbers in solidarity with Palestine and against universities’ complicity in Israeli occupation and genocidal violence in Palestine. In April and May of this year, Palestine solidarity encampments were set up at eleven campuses. These were peaceful protest encampments, whose…
BY JANE S. GABIN Despite the heroic efforts of union organizers, higher education in this country remains a discouraging miasma for applicants, teachers, and families. Representatives of national groups who could take steps to stop or reverse this trend seem unwilling or unable to do so. Several years ago, the president of the National Association…
BY EVE DARIAN-SMITH Something is broken in our college and university systems. Professors are being declared “the enemy of the people” by J. D. Vance and other MAGA Republicans. Book bans, curriculum reviews, attacks on DEI programs, threats of defunding, and suspending faculty or removing their tenure are becoming widespread. Students engaged in peaceful assembly…
BY CAROLE H. BROWNER ET AL. A group of senior professors at the University of California was denied free speech and academic freedom by the administration and its nine student newspapers during the COVID-19 pandemic in furtherance of the university’s abominable policy of silencing all dissent, questioning, and criticisms of its draconian COVID policies. The…
BY ANTHONY ALESSANDRINI The AAUP’s new “Statement on Academic Boycotts,” which reverses its prior opposition to academic boycotts, is a major declaration. Stating clearly that boycotts “can be considered legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education,” it confirms there are instances in which upholding academic freedom may…
BY NATHANIEL MILLS Joe Lockard’s August 8 Academe Blog post criticizes, with multiple errors and missing contexts, a statement of the executive committee of the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities AAUP chapter. The chapter’s statement protests the role played by nonacademic groups in the UMN administration’s recent decision to block the hire of Raz Segal as…
BY JOE LOCKARD Very few people other than faculty members pay attention to faculty statements directed at administrations. It is rare that they have political impact beyond colleges and universities. We nonetheless write and publish them as instruments for establishing a faculty voice. Therein lies a problem: faculty statements can become blinkered issuances that use…