CFA Members Vote to Authorize Strike Action!

The results are in: Over 94% of California Faculty Association (CFA) members who voted in balloting on whether to authorize strike actions said ‘Yes’ to authorize the CFA Board of Directors to call a strike. CFA represents some 26,000 faculty members in the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system and is an affiliate organization of…

AAUP Statement on Presidential Searches

The following statement was issued today by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP): In recent months at a number of colleges and universities across the country controversy has emerged over decisions by governing boards to conduct searches for new presidents or chancellors in secret, abandoning the previously standard practice of inviting a select group…

Join the AAUP, People! (Guest Post by Michael Bérubé)

by Michael Bérubé Michael Bérubé is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University, a former president of the Modern Language Association, and a member of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.  The following is reposted from theprofessorisin.com: I was recently in Washington, DC for the fall 2015 meeting of AAUP’s…

AAUP Joins Defense of Affirmative Action

On Friday the AAUP joined the American Council of Education and 36 other higher education groups in filing an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court the right of colleges to consider race in admissions. The case is Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, over which the court will hear oral argument on…

Congratulations to Kevin Cope!

Dr. Kevin L. Cope — professor of English at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; chair of the LSU Faculty Senate; and member of the AAUP’s national Council — has received the inaugural Outstanding Service to Higher Education award from the Association of Louisiana Faculty Senates (ALFS), who also named the annual award as the Kevin…

Response to Jonathan Marks

In a post published yesterday on this blog, Aaron Barlow replied to a Weekly Standard review, by Professor Jonathan Marks of Ursinus College, of Joerg Tiede’s recently published study of the founding of the AAUP, University Reform.  But Aaron focused more on a New York Times column by Arthur Brooks so his discussion of Marks…

AAUP Brief Supports Academic Freedom in Research

The following is taken from a media release issued today by the AAUP: The American Association of University Professors filed an amicus brief on October 26 with the Arizona Court of Appeals arguing that academic freedom to conduct research is essential to a vital university system and warrants protecting certain research records from disclosure. This case…

Ben Carson, Academic Freedom, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Marty Kich has already blogged about GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson’s advocacy of campus censorship of free expression despite his shallow and hypocritical railing against the perils of “political correctness.” But I can’t resist piling on. Let’s recall that the retired right-wing neurosurgeon’s claim last week was that unlike other right-wing fanatics he doesn’t want…

House Science Committee Attacks Scientists

In a must-read article published yesterday on vox.com, David Roberts argues that “The House science committee is worse than the Benghazi committee.” “The Benghazi committee is not even the worst committee in the House,” Roberts contends. “I’d argue that the House science committee, under the chairmanship of Lamar Smith (R-TX), deserves that superlative for its…