My Favorite Posts of 2016

BY HANK REICHMAN Slowed down a bit by a lingering cold, and reflecting a bit on the past year, I decided to go back and review my various posts to this blog over the past 365 days.  Some of the 229 items I posted to this blog were largely ephemeral; others simply reposts of items…

Stand with us in 2017

BY RUDY FICHTENBAUM Rudy Fichtenbaum is AAUP president. As the year draws to a close, here’s a look at what the AAUP has done in 2016 and at what the new year may hold for us. (Not a member yet? Join us!) In 2016, we improved conditions for academic freedom and shared governance. We worked…

PODCAST: Threats to Student Media

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On December 1, the AAUP, the College Media Association (CMA), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) released a report, Threats to the Independence of Student Media, shining a light on threats to student media and faculty and staff advisers.  The report reaffirms and expands…

Important Legal Victory for Faculty Rights

BY HANK REICHMAN Is a faculty handbook a legally binding contract?  The question is not an easy one to answer, as the law may vary from state to state.  In 2015 the AAUP’s legal department updated its Faculty Handbooks Guide, which includes basic information for each state, although the Guide “is not exhaustive and is…

Are You an Intellectual?

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Ibram X. Kendi, assistant professor of African American history at the University of Florida and winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction for Stamped from the Beginning: A Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, will be the plenary speaker at the AAUP’s Annual Conference on the State of…

Student Media Under Fire

BY HANK REICHMAN Today, the AAUP, the College Media Association (CMA), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) released a report, Threats to the Independence of Student Media, shining a light on threats to student media and faculty and staff advisers.  The report reaffirms and expands upon basic principles…

The "Professor Watchlist" of the 1930s

BY JOERG TIEDE In 1934, conservative political activist Elizabeth Dilling published The Red Network—A Who’s Who and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots. The book enumerated over 460 “radical” organizations and some 1,300 individuals who were members or sympathizers. Among the organizations listed were the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the American Civil Liberties Union. The latter…

AAUP Chapters Speak Out After Election

BY KELLY HAND Several AAUP chapters have issued statements dealing with the presidential election and its repercussions on higher ed. The University of Connecticut-AAUP issued a statement supporting a statement made last week by the AAUP and the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress. The chapter affirms its “longstanding commitment to inclusiveness, democracy, and academic freedom and…