An Incredible Week at Wright State University
BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM It has been an incredible week at Wright State University. The weather has been terrible (temperatures in the single digits followed by snow and freezing rain).But everyday this week, hundreds of faculty have been on the picket line from 8am to 6pm at the four main entrances to the campus. Our faculty…
U. of Mississippi Faculty Senate Reaffirms Commitment to 1940 Statement
BY HANK REICHMAN On December 5, the University of Mississippi Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution to reaffirm the university’s commitment to academic freedom. The move came in response to growing concerns about the commitment of the administration and the chancellor to the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, formulated jointly by…
Proposed Changes to AAUP Organizational Structure
BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM AND PAUL DAVIS At their November 2018 meetings, the Council of the AAUP and the AAUP-CBC Executive Committee voted overwhelmingly to move forward with changes to our shared organizational structure. The changes, should they be approved at the June 2019 annual meeting, will streamline our governance and organizational structure. As is the…
AAUP Annual Conference
BY GWENDOLYN BRADLEY Save the date for the AAUP 2019 Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education: June 12-16, 2019! Conference highlights include a plenary session on the state of academic freedom, Friday night reception, and an awards and recognition luncheon. In lieu of paper panels this year, we will organize peer-to-peer sessions in which…
Call for Papers: Who’s a Bully?
BY RACHEL IDA BUFF Who’s a Bully? Civility, Authoritarianism, and Power in the Contemporary Academy For its next volume, scheduled for publication in fall 2019, the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom seeks original, scholarly articles that consider how “bullying” is implicated in conflicts taking place around discourses of civility and academic freedom. How do admonitions of “civility”…
Well, I Am Not Un-Thankful for Property Rights
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH When I started to draft this post, I saw the daily newsletter from Reason, which has this teaser: “On Thanksgiving, Be Grateful for Property Rights.” Really? In the current political climate, I doubt that property rights are the rights that most Americans are most concerned about preserving. I’m guessing that freedom…
Freedom of the Press Prevails at Nassau Community College
BY JOHN K. WILSON Last week, the Nassau Community College Board of Trustees unanimously approved a new News Media Relations policy that is a tremendous victory for freedom of the press, reflecting the importance of the AAUP and other groups fighting for campus liberty. At the Nov. 13 Board meeting, President W. Hubert Keen declared, “We’ve…
Committee W in the Age of Intersectionality
BY ANNE SISSON RUNYAN As Committee W (the AAUP’s Committee on the Women in the Academic Profession) marks its hundredth year since its founding, it is worth reflecting on its role in the age of intersectionality. The rise of feminist intersectional scholarship and activism discussed in my piece on “What is Intersectionality and Why Does…
Working in Non-Harvard Higher Education
BY CHRISTOPHER NEWFIELD Christopher Newfield is professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara. This is reposted from the Remaking the University blog. The biggest mainstream media higher ed story last week–and this–has been the lawsuit charging Harvard with discrimination against Asian American applicants. My piece on it has been delayed by…