BY LOGAN JOHNSON In 2020, state bans on teaching “divisive concepts” in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education began sweeping our nation. These prohibitions, referred to as educational gag orders, have put educators at risk of penalties if they incorporate materials and discussions in their classrooms regarding race, gender, LGBTQ+ identities, and minority narratives of United…
BY BERNIE MACHEN The following is the text of remarks by University of Florida President Emeritus Bernie Machen at a naming celebration for the Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies at UF on September 7, 2023. The Jewish people are integral to the development of our world and have made many contributions over the ages. …
BY HANK REICHMAN Last month the New York Times Magazine published an article, “The Instagram Account That Shattered a California High School,” by journalist Dashka Slater. It recounted the troubling tale of a racist Instagram account, created by a California high school student and followed by just thirteen of his fellow students, all white and…
BY JUDY ROHRER This past Fourth of July weekend was one of the hottest in history, not just because of climate catastrophe but also the white-hot imperialist racism “born in the U.S.A.” The scorching weekend started with the Supreme Court’s denial of historical and ongoing US settler-colonial and racial structural violence in its decision to…
BY MARK S. JAMES In section II of his concurring opinion in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Justice Clarence Thomas seems to suggest that affirmative action can be justified for elite colleges and universities, such as Harvard and the University of North Carolina, if they can explain how their past discriminatory treatment against people…
BY MARK S. JAMES One of the most discussed passages from the Supreme Court’s majority opinion on affirmative action comes at the very end. It reads: At the same time, nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality…
BY JENNIFER RUTH My colleague on various AAUP committees, Dr. Derryn Moten, emailed me and others today on the occasion of the ruling. His words offer perspective that someone like John Roberts is incapable of contributing and I asked if I could share the email on the blog. He begins with a quote from the…
POSTED BY THE AAUP The history of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) since its founding in 1915 has coincided with racial upheaval and transformation in the academy at large, from desegregation to current struggles for racial justice. Academe, the magazine of the AAUP, invites proposals for articles that would examine the Association’s work over…
BY CHRISTIAN K. ANDERSON AND PATRICIA SULLIVAN We are reprinting with permission this guest column published yesterday in the University of South Carolina Daily Gamecock. On April 25, 1963—60 years ago—Robert F. Kennedy spoke at a meeting of the University of South Carolina chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). He was invited by…
BY KELLY BENJAMIN Students from at least nine universities across Florida walked out of class yesterday in protest of Governor Ron DeSantis’s relentless barrage of attacks on the state’s higher education system. The walkouts, organized by the Dream Defenders and Stand for Freedom, come in response to DeSantis’s crackdown on all things “woke” in state education, including…