BY JAMES VERNON Ed. note: On Monday, February 3, Michael Burawoy, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley and lifelong activist, was killed by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the street near his Oakland home. We in the AAUP join with our colleagues at Berkeley and world-wide in mourning his untimely…
POSTED BY JENNIFER RUTH As readers are no doubt aware, the problem of undemocratic professional associations is coming more and more to the fore as members attempt to hold their scholarly and professional associations accountable in some way over the genocide in Gaza and its concomitant scholasticide. A veritable new and necessary genre has emerged:…
BY JENNIFER RUTH Yesterday, the Department of Education announced investigations into Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, explaining that “widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported” at these five institutions. Given the confusion that reigns in and over higher education today, it’s worth trying…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The AAUP has issued a new statement, “Against Anticipatory Obedience,” that warns colleges to avoid “acting to comply in advance” before repression is actually required by the Trump administration. The danger of anticipatory obedience applies not just to colleges censoring speech, but also to national organizations seeking to influence Trump’s actions.…
BY FELICITY JONES The First Reconstruction set us free. Have courage. The Second Reconstruction was meant to let us be. Hope is not lost. The Third Reconstruction is ours to seize. This is your country too. Dear Students of the Third Reconstruction: Changes are happening quickly in federal and state governments across the United States.…
BY ANDREA BROWER A version of this post was also published at Common Dreams. For many months before Trump took office, nearly daily reports rolled in of students and professors on trial for their activism for Palestinian life. NYU suspended eleven students who were part of a peaceful flyer distribution and sit-in, including students who…
BY DAVID MOSHMAN On January 6, at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA), members voted 428 to 88 in support of a “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza.” The resolution noted that Israel has killed hundreds of teachers and professors and has destroyed eighty percent of Gaza’s schools, all its university campuses,…
BY HANK REICHMAN This week the AAUP released a statement, “Against Anticipatory Obedience,” prepared by a joint subcommittee of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the Committee on College and University Government. I also served on this subcommittee. The statement noted with concern how “recent events suggest that some administrations are not only…
BY DAVID M. RABBAN In the process of writing my recently published book, Academic Freedom: From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right (Harvard University Press, 2024), I increasingly realized that the AAUP’s treatment of academic freedom as a professional norm provides a revealing counterpart to the judicial development of academic freedom as a First Amendment…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY Amid our new national situation that officially began this week I hope readers of this blog find useful two books published this month.Asking you to forgive the self-promotion, I note from the start that I have chapters in both. The first book is about exile, specifically in higher education. The collection of…