AAUP Updates

After years of cuts to academic budgets at the state’s flagship, the University of Connecticut, dozens of majors and scores of graduate programs are now on the chopping block. According to news reports, majors including philosophy; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; and animal science could be discontinued, as could all but one program within the university’s Literatures, Cultures, and Languages Department. And this is just the beginning in what could be a series of cuts unless the Connecticut legislature provides a stable funding source for the state’s system of higher education. Without adequate funding, Connecticut students will face larger class sizes, higher tuition , and fewer class offerings. They deserve better.

As Professor Steven Thrasher faces potential discipline for exercising his academic freedom, the AAUP urges Northwestern University to remain committed to academic due process and academic freedom as well as anti-discrimination regulations designed to protect historically marginalized communities.

Thrasher, holder of the Daniel Renberg chair in the Medill School of Journalism, is a nationally recognized, decorated journalist and scholar of race, LGBTQIA identity, and infectious disease. Despite his exemplary research and teaching record, Thrasher has been summarily placed on leave and suspended from teaching while an ad hoc faculty committee has reportedly been assembled to investigate whether he should be sanctioned for alleged antisemitism and “lack of objectivity.” These charges stem from attempts by Thrasher and several colleagues to de-escalate tensions at Northwestern’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment in April by forming a human chain between students and police officers.

AAUP president Todd Wolfson joins the UM AAUP chapter in condemning the reported action of the UM administration and board to rescind a job offer to Professor Raz Segal in response to outside political pressure. 

The AAUP is excited to be kicking off a new organizing campaign, Organize Every Campus. The program will help hone and develop member and leader organizing skills so that we can stand together, fight back, and build a better future for ourselves, our students, and higher education.

The AAUP has released a new statement which holds that, when appropriately designed and implemented, diversity, equity, and inclusion criteria for faculty appointment, reappointment, tenure, and promotion are compatible with academic freedom and may serve as an important means of fostering a diverse and inclusive academic environment.

Aaron Nisenson will serve as interim executive director of the AAUP while a search for a director is underway. Aaron has served as senior counsel and director of the legal department at the AAUP since 2013 and speaks and writes extensively on higher education, faculty rights, and constitutional, labor, and employment law. Aaron has litigated labor, employment, and First Amendment cases in federal and state courts and has directed the litigation and representational work of dozens of attorneys. He has authored amicus briefs submitted in the US Supreme Court, and in federal and state appellate courts on constitutional, labor and employment law issues.

AAUP in the News

Mon, 11/04/2024  |  Daily Pennsylvanian

“The unilateral and secretive decision-making that produced these policies is indicative of Penn’s unaccountable system of governance,” the Penn chapter of the AAUP said. “It underscores the need for faculty, staff, and students to work together to create legitimate, transparent, and democratic forms of decision-making. Those of us now subject to these rules had no part in creating them.”

Wed, 10/30/2024  |  Inside Higher Ed

“I decided to run for president of AAUP because I felt like we need to be able to respond to this,” Wolfson said. “We need to be able to fight back. There may have been a time when it was OK for us to pretend like we were in the ivory tower and the outside world didn’t matter. This is not that time; 2024 is not that time.”

Tue, 10/22/2024  |  Associated Press

“We have to, as faculty, organize and demand the sort of shared governance that gives us a right to review and challenge these policies,” said Todd Wolfson, a journalism and media studies professor at Rutgers University and the president of the American Association of University Professors. “They’re not made by people coming out of the academic arm of our institutions.”

Wed, 10/16/2024  |  The New Republic

“The most powerful response to the university administration’s actions is the collective power of organizations opposing the university’s actions,” she said. “When we act collectively to push back, then the university is in a position to have to respond to us. That kind of collective solidarity is essential to assert academic freedom, freedom of expression, rights of job security, [and] respect for governance.” - Risa Lieberwitz, professor of labor and employment law at Cornell and president of Cornell's AAUP chapter.

Tue, 10/15/2024  |  Oregon Public Radio

“Workers were asked to dream big for PSU this year,” PSU AAUP president Emily Ford said. “I don’t understand how workers, how the faculty can dream big when they might not have a job in June.”

Thu, 09/26/2024  |  The Intercept

“This is the first case that we’ve seen,” said Anita Levy, senior program officer at the AAUP, an organization that advocates for faculty rights and academic freedom and seeks to hold higher education institutions accountable when standards are violated. “The apparent violations of her academic freedom are quite egregious, especially because they appear to primarily involve her posts on social media, what we would call her extramural speech.”

“We are taking this case seriously.”

Upcoming Events

November 13, 2024

Join AAUP's former general counsel Risa Lieberwitz and Channing Cooper, deputy director of AFT Legal, for a discussion on what faculty and staff can do to develop and implement Title IX policies that build on the baseline provided by new regulations to prohibit sexual harassment while also protecting academic freedom and due process for all workers.

November 14, 2024

Part of our fall series of workshops for collective bargaining chapters. Participants will discuss how to gather priorities from members and develop a narrative for their bargaining campaign.

November 16, 2024 to November 17, 2024

As we’ve seen increasing attacks against our right to teach, research, and advocate for higher education as a public good, we also know what we have to do in response: organize with even greater purpose. We’ll start with a workshop on November 16–17, run by Jane McAlevey’s Skills to Win program. The program will help hone and develop member and leader organizing skills so that we can stand together, fight back, and build a better future for ourselves, our students, and higher education.

E-mail Updates

 

Announcements

For its 2025 volume, the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom invites submissions of scholarly articles that address the impact of large private donations on academic freedom and the educational mission of colleges and universities. Submissions are due by March 5, 2025.

See open positions and learn how to apply.