Chancellor Wise on Possible AAUP Censure and Donor Influence in Salaita Firing and Dismissal

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise fired Steven Salaita for extramural utterances on Twitter. She gave an interview for the influential The News-Gazette: no other paper has pipelines to the university administration as does the Champaign-Urbana paper. In her interview she rather cavalierly dismissed the impact of a possible American Association of University Professors censure. She…

University of Illinois Board Inappropriate Rejection of Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure Report

The University of Illinois Board of Trustees has issued its “final” ruling on the firing, summary dismissal and suspension of Dr. Steven Salaita for solidarity tweets with the civilian population during the latest Israel/Gaza conflict last summer. It explicitly rejected the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure report. While I found that report to be…

College and University Governance

BY LARRY G. GERBER This is a guest post by Larry G. Gerber, a contributor to the recent January-February issue of Academe. Gerber is professor emeritus of history at Auburn University. He is the author of several books, including most recently The Rise and Decline of Faculty Governance: Professionalization and the Modern American University (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). Gerber is a…

UCI and AU Clinic Surveys

By Nancy Long Two surveys currently under way offer faculty a chance to support proposed exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s provisions that control access to copyrighted work. Please take a few moments to weigh in on what kinds of material you need to access in order to create your work. The UCI Intellectual Property,…

The AAUP and Women

BY MARY GRAY This is a guest post by Mary Gray, a contributor to the January-February issue of Academe. Gray is professor of mathematics and statistics at American University. Her research interests include statistics and the law, survey sampling, economic equity, international development and education, and the history of mathematics. Founding president of the Association for Women in Mathematics, she is a long-time human rights and social justice…

The AAUP in the Courts

BY AAUP STAFF In the January–February 2015 Academe issue, Robert O’Neil explores the AAUP’s foray into the federal courts over the last century and the resulting impact the Association has had in shaping the law of higher education. In his article, “The AAUP in the Courts,” O’Neil demonstrates the major role the AAUP has played…

Investigative Procedures in Academic Freedom and Tenure Cases

BY AAUP STAFF In her January–February 2015 Academe article, “Investigative Procedures in Academic Freedom and Tenure Cases,” Debra Nails describes the AAUP’s procedures for academic freedom and tenure investigations, in which dedicated member-volunteers work closely with staff to produce widely respected reports that treat serious violations of the AAUP’s principles and standards. Using her own…

How Did We Get Here?

BY ERNST BENJAMIN This is a guest post by Ernst Benjamin, a contributor to the January-February issue of Academe. Benjamin served as AAUP general secretary from 1984 to 1994 and 2006 to 2008. He also has served as AAUP director of research, chair of the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress, and president of the Wayne State University AAUP chapter. He is coeditor of Academic Collective Bargaining.…

A Century of Change

BY AAUP STAFF In the January–February 2015 Academe issue, Ann H. Franke provides an overview of the AAUP’s century-long role in upholding and protecting the principles of academic freedom and tenure. In her article, “A Century of Change,” Franke offers her thoughts about “how things have been going and where they may be headed with that…