2024 AAUP Updates

The AAUP has launched an inquiry into the decision of Hamline University administrators not to rehire part-time instructor Erika López Prater after a Muslim student complained about López Prater's showing an Islamic painting of the Prophet Muhammad in an art history class. Since this decision raises central questions of academic freedom, a committee of inquiry will visit Hamline's campus in February to interview the affected parties. The committee will prepare a report of its findings for publication.

The AAUP joined the AFT and AFSCME in filing an amicus brief supporting the Biden administration's efforts toward student debt relief. 

The US Department of Education's proposal includes promising reforms that would help numerous borrowers. The proposal would lift the qualifying discretionary income cap, reduce monthly payments, and decrease time to forgiveness for those with undergraduate loans, providing much-needed relief. There is still work to do to ease the burden for all borrowers, including many graduate student and Parent PLUS loan borrowers.

The AAUP is troubled to learn that an art history instructor at Hamline University suffered repercussions from the university’s administration after showing a slide, in a class on Islamic art, of a fourteenth-century Islamic painting of the Prophet Muhammad. According to news reports, the administration announced that “respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom” and declined to renew the adjunct instructor’s appointment, asserting that “because the instructor was an adjunct, her dismissal was not a firing.”

The package contains increased funding for Pell Grants, research infrastructure at HBCUs and minority serving institutions, and other programs that help students, as well as critical funding for the National Labor Relations Board.

Debt relief for so many is on hold during the appeal of the latest court decision. It is only fair that repayments be on hold during this time, too.

The AAUP warns of potential academic freedom consequences regarding the Department of Education's proposed expansion of a definition of antisemitism under Title VI to encompass political criticisms of the state of Israel.

The AAUP welcomes continued efforts to streamline PSLF and improve college and loan-forgiveness access.