BY HANK REICHMAN When last October Zoom declined to host seminars at San Francisco State University and New York University because one of the speakers, Leila Khaled, was associated with a group deemed “terrorist” by the U.S. government, which the company suggested might make it legally vulnerable, faculty groups and defenders of academic freedom protested. …
BY KEVIN L. COPE, Treasurer, Louisiana Conference of the AAUP Whether in William Herschel’s telescopic glimpses of stars, Shakespeare’s character Hamlet’s decision to unravel the state of Denmark, or the votes of faculty senates on their legislative measures, resolution tends to occur quickly, within a fleeting instant. Few stopwatches are fast enough to measure that…
BY RICHARD J. REDDICK AND LISA L. MOORE “Have you gotten the shot?” It’s springtime, and those of us in higher education are beginning to cautiously imagine some kind of return to campus later this year. Many are calling not for a return to “normal” but to a revisioning of our habits, assumptions, and structures—many…
BY KIRA T. LAWRENCE As a climate scientist, I’ve watched in disbelief as decades of denial and can-kicking have resulted in the leading edge of the climate crisis wreaking havoc across the world. For years, I have felt like I’ve been aboard the carbon train with the rest of humanity, telling passengers to brace for…
BY GINA TIGRI Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party? This question was famously asked numerous times in the hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) amid the anti-Communist frenzy known as the Red Scare in the McCarthy era. A new higher education bill was recently…
BY MATTHEW BOEDY When the AAUP made funds available to all state conferences last year, I, as the state president of the Georgia conference, had an idea. This academic year we have had six presidents in our state’s public higher education system, which includes twenty-six institutions, announce that they were leaving. When we received word…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of a press release issued yesterday by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). For background on this case see this previous post on Academeblog. Delegates to the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Council voted today to censure the University of Toronto because of the…
BY GREGORY E. RUTLEDGE The current state of the union—recurring mass shootings, raging white supremacy (manifested in voter disenfranchisement, anti-immigrant hostility, violence against Asian Americans, and efforts to foment a racial civil war), a pandemic, outrageously foxy lying by US senators and representatives, and increasing economic desperation alongside massive wealth gains by billionaires—and the complacency…
BY ALICE BROWN During Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Howard Dean spoke about her plan to set aside $25 billion for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and to make public universities tuition-free. Afterwards, I asked, “What are Hillary’s plans for the small private colleges scattered across the country, most in rural regions?” His response…
BY IRENE MULVEY AAUP president Irene Mulvey issued the following statement today. We mourn again and forever the murder of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers last May. Our thoughts are with his family and friends for their tragic loss, and all they have been through. Our relief at learning that…