Nine Ideas for Improving the AAUP

Here’s a list of ideas I have for improving the AAUP that don’t require radical changes in the organization or massive amounts of funding. I think they’re feasible (albeit not always easy) ideas for a more active and effective AAUP.

Free Speech on Campus

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) just released their “annual list of America’s Best Colleges for Free Speech.” FIRE does great work in promoting free speech on college campuses, but I’ve often been critical of their ratings system for missing some campus policies that restrict free speech. In my book, Patriotic Correctness: Academic…

The Myths about Tenure

Ron Lipsman, a former senior associate dean at the University of Maryland, writes at Minding the Campus attacking tenure: “In effect, the only tenured professors who get the sack are those who have robbed a bank, raped a co-ed or pistol-whipped a colleague.” This is nonsense. Plenty of tenured professors do get fired every year…

Censorship and Cartoons at a Palestinian University

Inside Higher Ed has a fascinating article about calls for censorship at a Palestinian university because a professor put up political cartoons on his office door, the most offensive of which, apparently, depicts “Islamic Superman” with a beard. President Khalil Hindi of Birzeit University responds to the criticism of his administration’s failure to defend academic…

AAUP Launches Investigation of the University of Virginia

The AAUP has authorized a governance investigation into the situation at the University of Virginia, where the board of visitors demanded the resignation of president Teresa Sullivan. (The AAUP currently has six colleges on its “sanction” list for violations of shared governance.) At its June 16 meeting, the AAUP members passed a resolution criticizing the…

News from the 2012 AAUP Annual Meeting

The 2012 AAUP Annual Meeting and conference on higher education occurred this past week, and it was another interesting event. The AAUP censured 3 Louisiana Universities: Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, Northwestern State University and Southeastern Louisiana University. The AAUP also passed a resolution critical of the University of Virginia board for a secret…