2013 Media Releases

Salaries for full-time faculty members at American colleges and universities continue to recover slowly from the ongoing recession in higher education, but the longer-term trends are not promising. That’s the finding in this year’s annual report on faculty compensation and the economics of higher education issued by the American Association of University Professors.

The report documents a major breakdown in governance at UVA, focusing on the role of the board of visitors and its rector, Helen Dragas, who initiated the effort to force the president’s resignation.

Letter raising concerns about the implications of the university's undertaking for academic freedom and the maintenance of educational standards at Yale and elsewhere.

The Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have released an advisory statement on Accreditation and Academic Freedom.

Local institutional review boards, which make decisions about the permissibility of research, often have no special competence; the AAUP recommends improvements. (9/4)

Delegates to the Ninety-eighth Annual Meeting of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) voted on June 16 to place Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, as well as Northwestern State University in Natchitoches and Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond (both components of the University of Louisiana System) on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations.

The winning entry, published by Bloomberg News, was a five article series that ran from May 5 – December 20, 2011. 

The AAUP will host its Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education on June 9–13 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.  Members of the media are welcome to attend. 

This is the third major report in five years published by the AAUP as a result of investigations in Louisiana. (4/12)

The University of Iowa AAUP chapter issued a statement of support for and solidarity with its sister AAUP chapter at the University of Northern Iowa. Read more about the situtation at Northern Iowa.

The AAUP has long held that faculty members and graduate employees at public and private institutions are entitled to choose whether to engage in collective bargaining.

This report addresses practical and legal issues involving these faculty members and reaffirms their entitlement to due process.

The AAUP stands behind the right of all employee groups to decide for themselves whether to bargain collectively. 

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."

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.

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.

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

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

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.”

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

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

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

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

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.

Guest editor Sheldon Krimsky, a professor at Tufts University and one of the nation’s experts in scientific conflicts of interest, teamed up with Academe editor Cat Warren to create this expanded special issue.

 A significant victory for the faculty and for the principles of the AAUP. 

7/27/10 Update: Hollman Morris was granted his visa today.  Now he likely will be able to participate in the Nieman  fellowship program at Harvard.  Commenting on the reversal, AAUP president Cary Nelson stated, "The idea that a well-known foreign journalist was initially denied permission to participate in a Harvard fellowship program was astonishing and embarrassing. We hope that reversing such a foolish and undemocratic decision means that the whole ideological exclusion program will soon be abandoned."

 On June 10, the AAUP awarded the Henry T. Yost Award to Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey in recognition of his outstanding leadership on behalf of higher education. 

7/6/10 Update: A Pennsylvania State University investigative committee cleared Michael Mann of ethical misconduct.  Read the report (.pdf).

AAUP issued a new investigation report regarding the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. 

The 2009–10 salary survey provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis available of faculty salaries at colleges and universities around the country.

The AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom is the first journal devoted entirely to the subject of academic freedom.