BY ELLEN SCHRECKER As the tragic conflict unfolds in Israel and Gaza, the AAUP may now face attempts to fire pro-Palestinian professors that could make earlier academic purges look like a tea party. I know whereof I speak. I have studied academic freedom and higher education for over forty years and traced the AAUP’s failure…
BY COLUMBIA FACULTY UNION, COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO This statement was submitted by the Columbia Faculty Union, Local 6602 IFT/AFT, representing part-time faculty at Columbia College Chicago, on Monday, October 30, as they began a strike. In the heart of Chicago, the Columbia Faculty Union (CFAC) represents a diverse group of faculty members, many of whom…
BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CHAPTER, AAUP The following statement was issued on October 28, 2023. Over the past few weeks, the Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP-Penn) has heard from scores of colleagues who, like us, are gravely concerned about violations of…
BY JOHN AUBREY DOUGLASS There is much to worry about as we approach 2024: attacks on academic freedom, on free speech, on open societies, and attempts to degrade democracy, and not just here in the United States. As I discuss in my article “Here and Abroad, Universities Face an Autocratic Playbook” in the recent issue…
BY MICHAEL FERGUSON Following is the editor’s introduction to the fall 2023 issue of Academe, out this week. The full table of contents for the issue is available at https://www.aaup.org/issue/fall-2023-confronting-legislative-attacks-higher-education. Students returning to New College of Florida this fall found a campus in the midst of stark transformation. More than a third of the faculty…
BY JONATHAN GRAUBART The horrifying violence in the Hamas-Israel war has aroused great passions across the United States. Both Hamas and Israel have plenty of blood on their hands. What concerns me here is the restricted space for discussion. Almost all politicians restrict their condemnations to Hamas and have little tolerance for those who address…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY Two recent major surveys on public opinion about higher education offer differing details but the same dark picture of public opinion about higher education. They also offer the same roadmap for faculty advocacy to reverse that dangerous trend. First, there was a Chronicle of Higher Education survey in early September. The Chronicle…
BY ELI MEYERHOFF AND ISAAC KAMOLA Learning is under attack. Right-wing politicians, activists, and well-funded political organizations have organized assaults on schools, universities, and libraries with book bans, surveillance and harassment of teachers, canceling classes, and “divisive concepts” bills that limit teachers’ rights to talk about topics of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The AAUP…
BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA-TWIN CITIES AAUP CHAPTER The following Statement on Hamline University’s Recent “Academic Freedom and Cultural Perspectives: Challenges for Higher Ed Today and Tomorrow” Event – Sep 29, 2023 appeared on the website of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities chapter of the AAUP. The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities chapter of the American…
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. …