BY THE TEXAS CONFERENCE OF THE AAUP This week’s events are the clearest example yet: We are bargaining away Texas’s future so politicians can have material for fundraising emails and viral social media content. This week, Texas A&M University has presented the most startling example yet of the consequences of our state and federal governments’…
This blog post originally appeared on Academic Freedom on the Line, the Substack newsletter of the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom (CDAF). We are republishing it here with the author’s permission. BY JOHN WARNER I want to believe at this point that I am immune to shocks to the system when it comes…
BY JENNIFER RUTH “We stand determined to see that Mason—the largest public institution of higher education in Virginia with one of the most diverse student bodies in the US—remains a university of, by, and for the people.” — Bethany Letiecq, Professor in the College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University George Mason University…
BY JENNIFER RUTH “The disaster that we fear will happen to us is happening to us. Our good deans aren’t holding back the worst; they are legitimating it.” – Associate Professor of Germanic Studies Ben Robinson The IndyStar recently reported a story that contains lessons for us all about the overcompliance of administrators during this…
BY MICHAEL BANERJEE A July 26, 2025 New York Times article brought to light the federal government’s desire to have Penny Pritzker, the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, Harvard University’s governing board, step down as part of Harvard’s negotiations with the federal government, which the university sued in April after the government demanded that…
By Matthew Boedy Most if not all Georgia institutions got a public records request last week from a shadowy media group linked to a politically conservative “government transparency” coalition. I have been able to confirm 13 schools got the request. Here is what the group requested: A complete list of course syllabi for all undergraduate…
BY HANK REICHMAN I’m old enough to remember when the venerable business magazine Forbes used to identify itself as a “capitalist tool.” The publication, now run by former flat-tax presidential candidate Steve Forbes, is unsurprisingly conservative and Republican in its editorial policies. Forbes endorsed Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2024. And while Forbes the magazine has…
BY COLUMBIA ALUMNI FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM The Trump Administration’s abuses have placed Columbia University leadership in an agonizing position, pitting the welfare of Columbia’s faculty, staff, and students – and the fate of critical research projects – against considerations of institutional independence, academic freedom, constitutional democracy and rule of law. We recognize that, in reaching…
BY HILTON OBENZINGER Dear Claire Shipman, President, Columbia University. I received your letter and other notices about Columbia’s settlement with the Trump administration, and I’m disappointed and angry. I know you have a tough job, but perhaps unwittingly you harmed me. By agreeing to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, you have turned…
BY THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CHAPTER OF THE AAUP The Agreement between the federal government and Columbia University announced on July 24, 2025, has been presented as a settlement of Title VI violations, specifically the university’s alleged failure to curtail bias and harassment directed toward Jewish faculty, staff, and students. However, as has been pointed out by…