BY KATIE RAINWATER AND MARTHA SCHOOLMAN University administrations in red states (including Texas and Florida) are increasingly using vague statutes and oral directives to pressure faculty to trade away their academic freedom. In Florida, departments in at least two universities—including Florida International University, where we both teach—recently adopted a censored Introduction to Sociology textbook and…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday (February 5), while some 200 people protested outside the campus, two recruiters for the US Border Patrol staffed a booth at a Brigham Young University career fair in Provo, Utah. Inside the event, The Salt Lake Tribune reports, “students flocked to the ballroom for the chance to talk with recruiters from…
BY AAUP STAFF Following the extreme and widespread censorship of curriculum and courses at Texas A&M University, both the university’s local chapter (AAUP–Texas A&M) and the national AAUP have started the new year with a rigorous defense of academic freedom in the Lone Star State. Initial outcries centered on the censoring of over 200 undergraduate…
BY MICHEL DEGRAFF Editor’s note: This post was originally published on the afternoon of Friday, January 30, 2026, then unpublished to provide time for AAUP staff to consult about its accordance with an editorial policy that states, “Posts should not focus primarily on specific ongoing disputes involving individuals and their colleges or universities or AAUP…
BY MICHAEL SCHWALBE In a society free from superstition and bigotry, a society in which anti-intellectual reactionaries held no sway, Samantha Fulknecky’s complaint would have gotten no traction. Fulnecky, as most followers of higher education news are aware, is the University of Oklahoma undergraduate who submitted a religious screed to fulfill a reaction paper assignment…
BY AAUP STAFF If you’re a faculty member and Academe Blog reader who is not an AAUP member yet, now is the time to join the AAUP! During a year of unprecedented attacks against higher education, the AAUP has fought back relentlessly—harnessing the collective power and talents of its members to protect colleges and universities…
BY THE DICKINSON COLLEGE AAUP CHAPTER EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE On May 8, 2025, Dickinson College’s faculty overwhelmingly approved a resolution to propose and help establish a mutual academic defense compact (MADC) with institutions in the Annapolis Group of Liberal Arts Colleges. The purpose of the MADC is to defend academic freedom and institutional autonomy in response…
BY OU-AAUP Two recent incidents put the University of Oklahoma (OU) in the forefront of national and international news. On November 22, ICE detained Vahid Abedini, Professor of Iranian Studies at OU and H-1 B visa holder, as he was boarding his flight from Oklahoma City to attend a conference on Middle Eastern Studies in…
BY ELLIOT BENJAMIN I joined the AAUP this fall and recently attended both a general member meeting and a meeting for the AAUP’s at-large chapter. I voiced my interests and concerns about attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and academic freedom at the at-large meeting, where it was recommended that I share on…
