POSTED BY JENNIFER RUTH This open letter to the world from Gaza academics and university administrators was published yesterday by Al Jazeera here. On May 6, Israel’s cabinet voted to ban Al Jazeera and shut down its local offices. Among the many things American academics might do in response to help, one would be to…
BY JOE LOCKARD I am not a stranger to protests on behalf of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination. I have attended numerous protests in Israel and the occupied territories, including the 1983 Peace Now rally where a far-right murderer threw a hand grenade that killed the Israeli teacher and activist Emil Grunzweig.…
BY HASSAN MELEHY “That flag will stand here as long as I’m chancellor,” Lee Roberts, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, proudly proclaimed on Tuesday, April 30, after restoring the American flag to the pole adorning Polk Place on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill. As the campus community and many…
POSTED BY JENNIFER RUTH AAUP President Irene Mulvey and the AAUP chapters of Barnard and Columbia released statements regarding Minouche Shafik’s testimony before the House Education and Workforce Committee. Below is Mulvey’s statement, followed by the chapters’ statement. Wednesday, before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, President Shafik threw academic freedom and Columbia…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On March 27, 2024, Texas governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order compelling “all Texas higher education institutions” to “update free speech policies to address the sharp rise in antisemitic speech and acts on university campuses and establish appropriate punishments, including expulsion from the institution,” ensure that “groups such as the…
We are posting this March 21 letter from the executive committee of the University of Virginia AAUP chapter with the chapter’s permission. James Ryan, UVa President Ian Baucom, UVa Provost Deans, UVa Schools Michael Kennedy, Chair Faculty Senate Amanda Flora, Chair General Faculty Council Dear Colleagues, The University of Virginia (UVa) Chapter of the American…
BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY AAUP CHAPTER The following statement was issued on December 18, 2023. Since October 7th, our university community has experienced extraordinary challenges to academic freedom. These challenges emerge in a global climate of restrictions on Palestine- related speech, along with a national climate of attacks against the…
BY ALAN SINGER An earlier version of this blog post appeared on the Daily Kos. We are reposting it here with permission of the author. Many of us have seen the congressional sound bites. MAGA superstar Elise Stefanik made mincemeat out of Ivy League college presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard, Liz Magill of the University of…
BY BENJAMIN N. LAWRANCE This past election cycle many, if not most, eyes were on Ohio. Would it be the seventh state in a row to recognize a woman’s bodily integrity as a constitutional right? In the excitement (or disappointment) last Tuesday, however, the ongoing national struggle over history education received short shrift. Buried in…
BY CORY JAMES YOUNG I was having a conversation with a graduate student in my department about a possible collaboration when we noticed the television. One of our colleagues was on the Iowa City news providing historical context about the ongoing crisis in Palestine and Israel. Then, even more unexpectedly, a student from my previous…