AAUP Receives Mellon Grant for Academic Freedom Center

The AAUP has received a grant of more than $1.5 million from the Mellon Foundation to estab­lish a Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, with the aim of examining and confronting the recent surge of political and ideo­logical attacks on American higher education. The Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom will bring together higher education and academic freedom experts over the course of the next two years to develop a comprehensive understanding of the scope and nature of political interference in higher education and means of countering this assault.

The Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom will compile a database of the political organiza­tions, think tanks, donors, and political operatives most responsible for the current wave of attacks and evaluate their success in shaping the trajectory of US higher educa­tion. Using this research, the AAUP intends to formulate a strategic campaign to fight back to protect academic freedom in America’s col­leges and universities and to ensure that the unrestricted search for knowledge in service of the common good remains the guiding force in American higher education.