BY HANK REICHMAN When the AAUP’s special committee on political interference and academic freedom in Florida’s public higher education system, which I cochaired, issued its report last December, there was little mention of former Nebraska Republican senator Ben Sasse’s appointment as president of the University of Florida. After all, Governor Ron DeSantis’s unprecedented takeover of…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY The 2024 AAUP Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are a faculty member of any kind in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas we want to hear from you. Here is the link to the survey. Please fill out the survey…
BY JOE LOCKARD Very few people other than faculty members pay attention to faculty statements directed at administrations. It is rare that they have political impact beyond colleges and universities. We nonetheless write and publish them as instruments for establishing a faculty voice. Therein lies a problem: faculty statements can become blinkered issuances that use…
BY DAVID MOSHMAN Academic freedom, in the definitive 1940 AAUP Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, includes “full freedom in research and in the publication of the results.” Any law that prevents publication of academic research because it reaches conclusions the government deems objectionable is a clear violation of academic freedom. In recent…
BY DANIEL A. SEGAL Several AFT locals—including Local 6741, which represents all AAUP members in advocacy chapters—have put forward resolutions for consideration at next week’s AFT convention in support of divestment by the AFT of its Israeli state bond holding. Calls for divestment typically face questions about the opacity and complexity of particular financial instruments.…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY “When you read about this kid–he was 20, no longer a child, but far from a mature adult too–it all seems very confused. He’s a sad kid, of a kind I’ve seen dozens of times in my classrooms.” This quote is from American historian John Haas about the young man who tried…
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY At the AAUP Conference and Biennial Meeting last month, one of the most widely discussed sessions featured the presentation of a recent white paper written by Isaac Kamola, director of the AAUP’s new Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. Manufacturing Backlash: Right-Wing Think Tanks and Legislative Attacks on Higher Education, 2021–2023…
BY ALAN SINGER Founded in 1636 as Harvard College, Harvard University is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Today, as one of the elite American universities, it is at the center of much of the conflict over how a university should respond to protests over the war in Gaza. Claudine Gay…
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY In 2020, the AAUP began the process of designing a Racial Equity Initiative that would transform the organization at every level. President Irene Mulvey appointed Dr. Glinda Rawls, Associate Professor of Counselor Education at Western Michigan University and At-Large Council Member, to lead the AAUP on this journey. At the AAUP Biennial…
BY JONATHAN REES The Colorado Conference of the AAUP held its annual meeting in Denver last Saturday. Our special guest was Mike DeCesare from the national AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance. He gave us a primer on shared governance. I have a feeling that most of you reading this know what shared…