BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ACADEMIC SENATE’S UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM The following statement from the University of California faculty senate Committee on Academic Freedom was sent on December 23, 2020, unanimously endorsed by the Academic Council at its January 2021 meeting, and forwarded to the University of California provost on Feb. 4, 2021…
BY AAUP-Penn The following column by the new University of Pennsylvania chapter of the AAUP, appeared in the Daily Pennsylvanian last week. We are proud to announce the formation of the University of Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP–Penn). As scholars and teachers of all ranks, we have come together because…
BY LOIS COX AND KATHERINE TACHAU With the permission of the authors, we are reprinting this letter to the editor, published by Little Village four years after an earlier version had been published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette and the Daily Iowan. They sent their letter on behalf of the AAUP chapters at the University…
BY KANSAS AND MISSOURI AAUP CHAPTERS In the following petition directed at state and local politicians, Kansas and Missouri AAUP chapters demand equal prioritization for Kansas and Missouri post-secondary workers as their pre-K-12 counterparts: namely, that Kansas post-secondary workers be included in vaccine Phase 2 and Missouri workers in Phase 1b, Tier 3. Seventy-two percent…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The firing of Garrett Felber by the University of Mississippi keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. Earlier this month, I criticized the reasons offered for his dismissal. And Henry Reichman (who, unlike me, can officially speak for the AAUP) also expressed many concerns. However, now University of Mississippi officials have suggested some…
BY MADHUKAR VABLE Large classes, replacing tenure-track faculty with contingent faculty without fringe benefits, and subpar wages have not put brakes on tuition increases in excess of inflation, because the cost drivers prior to the pandemic were not in the instructional part of the universities. Administrative bloat is one of the cost drivers, but there…
BY JANET BOWDAN Here in Massachusetts, my university just posted a coronavirus update that notes, in passing, that “higher education is not part of Phase I and II of the vaccination plan.” Wait. Why aren’t higher education faculty and staff at least in Phase II? Obviously (at least to me), health care workers and first…
BY HENRY REICHMAN AND IRENE MULVEY The following statement was issued by Henry Reichman, chair of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and Irene Mulvey, AAUP president. The outgoing Trump administration’s 1776 Report, released on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, is an attack on the socially progressive and antiracist goals that King worked…
BY JOHN K. WILSON On November 2, the day before he lost re-election (in a failed attempt to lure voters with his faux patriotism), Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the 1776 Commission, which worked quickly to produce a report before Joe Biden could take office and rescind this terrible idea and the terrible…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The headlines declared a common story about how repressive students are today: “Study Finds Majority Of College Students Think Government Should Punish ‘Hate Speech.’” “Nearly two-thirds of college students think government should have power to punish ‘hate speech’: survey.” “U. of Wisconsin students not big fans of free speech, according to…