BY DON ERON The following essay was posted on Sept. 8 at the Daily Camera, the Boulder, Colorado newspaper, and is reposted with permission. Academic freedom has had a rough go of it lately at the University of Colorado Boulder. Nobody seems to like it. Chancellor Phil DiStefano finds it necessary but disagreeable, at least…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On August 31, Illinois Wesleyan University announced that three tenured faculty would be given one-year terminal contracts and then fired because of controversial plans to discontinue academic programs in anthropology, French, Italian, and religious studies while expanding programs in economics and business. The AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance…
POSTED BY THE AAUP On August 23, AAUP President Irene Mulvey advocated for community health, safety, and faculty involvement in university decision-making in an interview with Michael Holmes on CNN. Watch the clip and read the transcript below. HOLMES: Irene Mulvey is president of the American Association of University Professors. She joins me now from…
BY IRENE MULVEY AAUP president Irene Mulvey issued the following statement today: The coronavirus pandemic has impacted us all—as teachers, as researchers, as workers, and as individuals. But one thing remains constant: the public good that higher education faculty provide. AAUP clinical, medical research, nursing, and health professions faculty, along with staff and students, have…
BY THE AAUP In a mail ballot election, AAUP chapter and section delegates have elected Irene Mulvey of Fairfield University as the new president of the 105-year-old faculty-led organization. Paul Davis of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College was elected as vice president, and Christopher Sinclair of the University of Oregon was elected as secretary/treasurer. Chapter…
BY HANS-JOERG TIEDE The AAUP released today a new research report, Policies on Academic Freedom, Dismissal for Cause, Financial Exigency, and Program Discontinuance, that examines the prevalence of AAUP-supported policies in faculty handbooks and collective bargaining agreements at four-year institutions that have a tenure system. The analysis replicates a study conducted in 2000 and tracks changes that…
BY THE AAUP The AAUP issued the following statement today: The Department of Homeland Security’s July 6 ruling regarding international students and the upcoming 2020–21 academic year is but the latest example of the Trump administration’s callous cruelty, especially toward immigrants and those it deems “other.” The American Association of University Professors thus joins many…
BY HANK REICHMAN On Thursday, May 28, a website called Israel-Academia-Monitor published an “editorial note” entitled “AAUP Losing Credibility over the Palestinian-Israeli Dispute.” It begins: The prestigious academic organization, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), is losing credibility. Founded in 1915, the AAUP has helped to shape the standards and procedures of higher…
BY THE AAUP TITLE IX SUBCOMMITTEE The AAUP released on May 15 a response, prepared by a subcommittee of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the Committee on Gender and Sexuality in the Academic Profession, to new Title IX regulations. Below is an executive summary of the response. The full response is available…
POSTED BY SARAH MINK Spring 2020 | Vol. 106, No. 2 The spring 2020 issue of Academe, inspired by the AAUP’s statement In Defense of Knowledge and Higher Education, examines the complexities—conceptual, critical, structural, and political—of the production of knowledge. Joan W. Scott, professor emerita in the School of Social Science at the Institute for…