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 JENNIFER RUTH It sounds like a bad joke. The Department of Education (DOE) has apparently launched an investigation into Princeton University. Why? Because President Eisgruber said that racism is embedded in the university structures and its history. “Based on its admitted racism, the U.S. Department of Education is concerned Princeton’s nondiscrimination and equal opportunity…
BY AARON BARLOW “Can I let you know? Why must I hesitate?” –Reverend Gary Davis Though I like the resolution passed by the House of Representatives condemning Trump’s tweets, maybe there’s something to be said for hesitating, for delaying a bit. The Democrats, though they did the right thing, walked right into Trump’s trap. For…
BY GALEN LEONHARDY Guest Blogger Galen Leonhardy teaches English and humanities classes at Black Hawk College in Moline, Illinois. On Sunday and Monday, President Trump, offered tweeted comments we need to contemplate. On Sunday, he pointed out that minority representatives he claimed were from foreign countries should return to the places from which they…
BY MARIAH QUINN The AAUP and eleven other groups issued a statement after President Trump announced in a March 2 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference that he would soon issue an executive order denying federal research funds to colleges and universities that do not “support free speech.” Read the full statement. President Trump’s…
BY MARTIN KICH When I first drafted this post about a week ago, I did not realize that the Trump administration’s talking points on the Mueller investigation would so quickly boil down to the following: (1) if the president is now openly admitting what he previously lied about, then there is no subterfuge and therefore…
BY FRANK VON HIPPEL Like many Americans, I felt distressed about the Trump Administration’s attacks on science and scientists following the 2016 election, especially as those attacks related to critical environmental issues such as climate change and pollution. I participated in the March for Science, but at the same time pondered what I could do…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH One of the neologisms related to the Trump administration with the most pernicious implications may be the phrase “task traitor.” It refers to the appointment of cabinet secretaries and other executive officers who have a deep-seated antipathy toward the departments and agencies that that are being appointed to head. Although I…
POSTED BY KELLY HAND The new issue of Academe considers the state of the academic profession in a political climate that has exacerbated existing threats to higher education. Articles focus on challenges to academic freedom and collective bargaining, the recent upsurge in harassment campaigns targeting faculty members, and faculty activism. Follow the links in the table of…