2011 Media Releases

10.24.2011 | New Union Responds to Challenges

10/24/11 Update:
The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on Friday rejected a request from the University of Illinois at Chicago administration to stay an order certifying the faculty union. This is good news for the faculty and the latest in a series of findings that the faculty does have the right to bargain collectively. In its ruling, the board said "We find that granting a stay in this case would be contrary to the public policy that supports a duty to bargain. In addition, we find that there is not a reasonable likelihood that the Employer will succeed on the merits."

08.01.2011 | AAUP Report Finds Violations of Academic Freedom

Administrators at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge violated the academic freedom of two  faculty members--one tenured, one in a contingent appointment. 

06.15.2011 | "We Are Ohio” Gathers Record Number of Signatures

7/22 Update: Yesterday, the Ohio Secretary of State announced that the repeal of SB 5 will be on the ballot in November. More than 900,000 signatures were validated from all 88 counties. In addition, all 88 counties which have reported also exceeded the 3% threshold of voters from the last gubernatorial election. The response to repeal SB 5, the unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety, far outpaces any other signature collection drive in Ohio history.

06.14.2011 | Censure Removals Bring Closure

 Delegates to the Ninety-seventh Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) voted on June 11 to remove the University of New Orleans and Loyola University New Orleans, the city’s two universities that remained on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations from its censure list. 

06.13.2011 | AAUP Censures One, Sanctions Two, and Removes Censure from Two

Delegates to the Ninety-seventh Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) voted on June 11 to place Bethune Cookman University (.pdf) on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations. In addition, the delegates voted to sanction Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (.pdf) and Idaho State University. The annual meeting also voted to remove the University of New Orleans (.pdf)  and Loyola University New Orleans  from its censured administration list.

06.11.2011 | “The Real Science Gap” Receives the AAUP’s Award for Excellence in Coverage of Higher Education

Writer Beryl Lieff Benderly was honored for her entry, “The Real Science Gap,” a cover story for Miller-McCune.

06.11.2011 | Dr. Anthony S. Tricoli Receives AAUP’s Ralph S. Brown Award for Shared Governance

The Brown Award is given to American college or university administrators or trustees “in recognition of an outstanding contribution to shared governance.” 

06.01.2011 | Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education

The AAUP will host its Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education on June 8-12 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Panels providing a faculty perspective on critical issues in higher education will run all day Wednesday, June 8 through Saturday, June 11.  The conference will also include special AAUP-sponsored workshops on “Understanding Institutional Financial Information,” “Making Senates Effective,” and “Effective Faculty Handbooks.”

05.24.2011 | Idaho Board Unjustified in Axing Faculty Senate

This not only violates fundamental principles of academic governance but poorly serves the teaching and research mission of the university.

04.29.2011 | New Faculty Union in Illinois

University of Illinois Chicago becomes the first large public research university to unionize in Illinois history

04.28.2011 | Labor Studies Faculty Targeted

5/12/11 Update: University of Missouri St. Louis Chancellor Thomas George and Provost Glen Cope issued a statement declaring that adjunct professor Don Giljum remains eligible to teach at UMSL. After conducting a careful review of all 30 hours of videos of the course in question, they concluded that the excerpts made public by Andrew Breitbart were “definitely taken out of context, with their meaning highly distorted through splicing and editing.” The UMSL administration acknowledged that firing Giljum would have been a gross violation of academic freedom, while it reaffirmed the campus’s support for and commitment to “academic freedom, civility, diversity, open discourse and the pursuit of knowledge.”

04.26.2011 | AAUP Supports University’s Effort to Protect Academic Freedom

 A joint amicus brief to the Virginia Supreme Court explains why scientists and other scholars must be able to communicate freely, without fear of government intrusion. 

04.16.2011 | AAUP Elects National Council Members and ASC Chair

The AAUP elected thirteen members to its national Council and a chair for the Assemlby of State Conferences.

04.14.2011 | UVA Should Defend Academic Freedom

The attack on professor Michael Mann is similar to the recent attack on University of Wisconsin professor William Cronon.

04.11.2011 | “It's Not Over Yet”

 It’s Not Over Yet: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2010–11 is now available.

03.24.2011 | Review of Policies on Financial Exigency and Program Discontinuance

 Faced with a flood of program closings and terminations, the AAUP has established a subcommittee to review policies.

03.21.2011 | Groups Request Review of Visa Denial

3/24 Update: A U.S. Embassy today granted acclaimed Afghan human rights activist and former MP Malalai Joya, a visa, a little over a week after she was initially turned down

03.16.2011 | Decision Shows Why Arbitration is Important

AAUP chapter prevails on wages because arbitration process allowed the facts to come out.

02.18.2011 | Politically Controversial Academic Personnel Decisions

A new AAUP report issued for comment states that political or religious beliefs should not be grounds to hire, fire, or discipline faculty. 

02.02.2011 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Administration Violated Academic Good Practice

An AAUP investigating committee reports that, in suspending the faculty senate and refusing to grant governance rights to contingent faculty, the administration of RPI “contravened basic principles of shared academic governance.” 

01.13.2011 | Administration Will Address Ideological Exclusion

The Obama administration will take steps to reduce the exclusion of scholars and others from the U.S. on the basis of their political views, according to a State Department letter made public by the AAUP, the ACLU, and PEN American Center.