CFA Members Vote to Authorize Strike Action!

The results are in: Over 94% of California Faculty Association (CFA) members who voted in balloting on whether to authorize strike actions said ‘Yes’ to authorize the CFA Board of Directors to call a strike. CFA represents some 26,000 faculty members in the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system and is an affiliate organization of…

Adjunct Robin Meade Case Updated on AFT Website

The American Federation of Teachers has posted the latest developments of the Robin Meade adjunct-persecution case. Professor Meade has written for this blog, and the AAUP has provided financial and strategic assistance in her struggle for reinstatement. Moraine Valley Community College fired this on-campus union leader for criticising the administration’s treatment of adjunct faculty “as a disposable resource.”…

AAUP Statement on Presidential Searches

The following statement was issued today by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP): In recent months at a number of colleges and universities across the country controversy has emerged over decisions by governing boards to conduct searches for new presidents or chancellors in secret, abandoning the previously standard practice of inviting a select group…

Join the AAUP, People! (Guest Post by Michael Bérubé)

by Michael Bérubé Michael Bérubé is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University, a former president of the Modern Language Association, and a member of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.  The following is reposted from theprofessorisin.com: I was recently in Washington, DC for the fall 2015 meeting of AAUP’s…

AAUP Joins Defense of Affirmative Action

On Friday the AAUP joined the American Council of Education and 36 other higher education groups in filing an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court the right of colleges to consider race in admissions. The case is Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, over which the court will hear oral argument on…

Two Koch-Related Informational Items

First Item: Nation of Change has published a very succinct overview of the Koch family’s various foundations, an article that includes links to further and fuller information on each of the entities. Written by Dave Levinthal of the Center for Public Integrity, the article is available at: http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/10/31/the-koch-brothers-foundation-network-explained/.   Second Item: A website called Inspiration…

Congratulations to Kevin Cope!

Dr. Kevin L. Cope — professor of English at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; chair of the LSU Faculty Senate; and member of the AAUP’s national Council — has received the inaugural Outstanding Service to Higher Education award from the Association of Louisiana Faculty Senates (ALFS), who also named the annual award as the Kevin…

Marx, Bauer and Academic Freedom

While a lengthy exposition of Marx is more appropriate for a “scholarly” venue, I have long believed the academic community’s nineteenth-century persecution of Marx, and one of his colleagues has not been sufficiently exposed. Would Marx and Bruno Bauer have benefited from an AAUP, that was formed thirty-two years after the former’s death in 1883? The AAUP would have probably…