BY NOËLLE MCAFEE This post is the first in a blog series, organized by Annelise Orleck, that focuses on recent crackdowns on protests at US college and university campuses against Israel’s war on Gaza. You can read other posts in the series at the links below: “On the New Guidance and Expectations of Student Conduct…
BY HANK REICHMAN When the AAUP’s special committee on political interference and academic freedom in Florida’s public higher education system, which I cochaired, issued its report last December, there was little mention of former Nebraska Republican senator Ben Sasse’s appointment as president of the University of Florida. After all, Governor Ron DeSantis’s unprecedented takeover of…
BY JONATHAN REES The Colorado Conference of the AAUP held its annual meeting in Denver last Saturday. Our special guest was Mike DeCesare from the national AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance. He gave us a primer on shared governance. I have a feeling that most of you reading this know what shared…
BY PHILIPP W. ROSEMANN On June 14, 2024, the Board of Trustees of the University of Kentucky followed President Eli Capilouto’s recommendation to approve a number of fundamental changes to the governance structures of Kentucky’s flagship university. The board’s actions included the abolition, with immediate effect, of the university senate, which for one hundred years…
POSTED BY JENNIFER RUTH On June 18, the executive committee of AAUP Local 6741 of the American Federation of Teachers issued the following statement on University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s proposal to close the College of General Studies In the United States, the university is in crisis. There is no starker evidence of this emergency than recent…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY In Georgia we decided to conduct a small survey of faculty opinions about shared governance. And the results are not merely shocking but show the direct effects from Georgia’s university system gutting tenure in 2021. Using the AAUP’s shared governance survey tool, we asked faculty at a large university to tell us…
BY THE BERKELEY FACULTY ASSOCIATION It is expected that the University of California Board of Regents will announce the appointment of a new Chancellor of the Berkeley campus on April 10. On April 1, in anticipation of this appointment, the Berkeley Faculty Association posted the following open letter. UPDATE 4/10: The Regents have announced the…
BY MARK S. JAMES Last August, my colleague wrote about how our university’s leadership has embraced a top-down corporate model as the way of running the university, and he proceeded to describe various instances when they have ignored shared governance and threatened academic freedom. This trend has continued unabated. The most recent example of this…
BY THE GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY AAUP CHAPTER From donor influence scandals to Supreme Court boondoggles, there’s never a dull moment at George Mason University (GMU). Now, once again, Mason students and faculty find themselves under attack. This time, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin and his political appointees on Mason’s Board of Visitors are coming for our…
BY JENNIFER RUTH I think he meant “scalped.” Right-wing activist Chris Rufo posted “SCAPLED: Harvard President Claudine Gay Resigns” on X at 10 am today. He then reposted someone saying, “Claudine Gay’s is a huge scalp. No doubt about it. Especially when combined with Liz Magill’s a week ago. But we cannot rest on our…