SUBMITTED BY KEVIN L. COPE Supporters of good university governance never stop shaking their heads about Louisiana State University, the only major research university to draw a double censure from the AAUP. This frequently torpedoed flagship institution—the largest vessel in a veritable fleet of state institutions also under AAUP censure—is once again under attack, this…
BY JOSHUA M. MYERS For a moment in 2021, the national media seemed to care about the Afghan people. But the recent discourse surrounding the US withdrawal from a twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan has revealed once again that the American corporate media is anything but an honest critic of the idea of American empire. We…
BY JONATHAN FEINGOLD Earlier this month, President Biden delivered the COVID-19 speech we needed. As the Delta variant surges, Biden offered concrete policy and commanding leadership. He announced wide-ranging initiatives to maximize vaccinations, curb transmission, and protect our kids. He was also unifying but blunt, calling out “elected officials actively working to undermine the fight…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Former AAUP president Cary Nelson wrote an essay for Inside Higher Ed last week, arguing that departments issuing statements critical of the Israeli government are violating academic freedom and must be silenced: A department is an administrative entity, an arm of the university. Academic and professional standards for departments exist, such…
BY JOHN K. WILSON A Yahoo/YouGov poll last week (May 24-26, 2021) showed a notable result: 39% of Americans think “political correctness” is “a very big problem,” far more than the 32% who say that Covid-19 is “a very big problem.” This was the response even though Covid-19 is still killing 3,500 Americans every week…
BY UNC HUSSMAN FACULTY As Hussman School of Journalism and Media faculty, we are stunned at the failure to award tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize, Peabody, and MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” winner and UNC-Chapel Hill 2019 Distinguished Alumna recently inducted into the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame. This was reported…
BY KANSAS AND MISSOURI AAUP CHAPTERS In the following petition directed at state and local politicians, Kansas and Missouri AAUP chapters demand equal prioritization for Kansas and Missouri post-secondary workers as their pre-K-12 counterparts: namely, that Kansas post-secondary workers be included in vaccine Phase 2 and Missouri workers in Phase 1b, Tier 3. Seventy-two percent…
BY IRENE MULVEY The following letter from AAUP president Irene Mulvey was emailed to AAUP members on November 10: The voters have spoken. Unprecedented voter turnout has affirmed the strength of our democracy. Like others who value education and truth, science and facts, Black lives and human rights, we breathed a collective sigh of relief…
BY JENNIFER RUTH In 2016, right after the Presidential election, I wrote on this blog: Nobody has a crystal ball but given the president-elect’s words and acts during the campaign—not to mention his seedy experiment in higher education—we would be fools not to expect an attack on the liberal institutions of shared governance and academic…