BY ZACHARY M. SCHRAG This is a cross-post of a blog post by Zachary M. Schrag, who published it on his Institutional Review Blog. Schrag, a professor of history at George Mason University, was one of the authors of a 2013 report by a subcommittee of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, Regulation of…
BY HANK REICHMAN On this, perhaps the most meaningful Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial holiday ever, it is appropriate to turn to King’s words for inspiration. Frequently cited, of course, is his last “I have seen the mountaintop” speech, delivered in Memphis just before his assassination. Less frequently quoted is his remarkable speech at the…
BY MARTIN KICH Gordon Aubrecht passed away at age 73 on Monday, November 21. Gordon was the long-time President of the advocacy chapter at Ohio State University. For almost a decade, I had had contact with him through the Ohio Conference of AAUP. But our acquaintance went much farther back than that. Gordon and I…
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…
BY HANK REICHMAN I first met Tom Hayden, who died eight days ago at age 76, when we both participated in the occupation of Mathematics Hall during the Columbia University student rebellion of 1968. Tom was, of course, no longer a student and had no institutional affiliation with Columbia, but he joined the protesters both…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Here’s an important point to remember this Halloween: Trump is a narcissistic con man dressed up as a presidential candidate, as I reveal in my book Trump Unveiled: Exposing the Bigoted Billionaire. It’s the scariest costume anyone will ever wear. Inside, he’s as hollow as a Trump piñata that my cats Sunspot and…
BY AARON BARLOW When I first taught at New York City College of Technology fifteen years ago, I immediately noticed a glassed-in display of an old flatbed printing press with a dummy dressed as Ben Franklin next to it. Peering in, I saw that the press was in working condition—still is. In fact, it is…
BY JOERG TIEDE Quincy Wright (1890-1970) served as the 20th president of the AAUP from 1944 to 1946. At the time of his election to the presidency, Wright had already served for almost two decades on Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and he would continue to serve on the committee for another decade.…
BY DAVID J. WEERTS Guest blogger David J. Weerts is associate professor and faculty director of the jCENTER for Innovative Higher Education at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. His research focuses on state-university relations, community-university engagement, and alumni giving, volunteerism, and advocacy. For those interested in the politics of higher education, the ongoing sparring in…