Open Letter to Students of the Third Reconstruction
BY FELICITY JONES The First Reconstruction set us free. Have courage. The Second Reconstruction was meant to let us be. Hope is not lost. The Third Reconstruction is ours to seize. This is your country too. Dear Students of the Third Reconstruction: Changes are happening quickly in federal and state governments across the United States.…
1776 Report Distorts the Past and Disregards the Truth
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…
The Department of Education as Right-Wing Troll
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…
Hesitation Blues or ‘Slow Down, Casey Jones’
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…
On Making Us Foreign for Freedom and Debate Useless
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…
Say No to Trump’s Plan for Executive Action on Free Speech on Campus
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…
Historians and Political Scientists May Have to Start Weighing In, and Sooner Rather Than Later
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…
Science History Podcast Counters Attacks on Science
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…
“Ungovernment” Is a Euphemism for an Attack on the Rights of the Most Marginalized
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…