Against Anticipatory Obedience

At its February 2024 meeting, the Association’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure endorsed a proposal to appoint a joint subcommittee consisting of members of Committee A and the Committee on College and University Governance to examine “nationwide incursions into academic freedom and shared governance.” As the work of the joint subcommittee progressed, “anticipatory obedience” emerged as a concept in need of elaboration in the context of higher education under a second Trump administration.

The statement produced by the joint subcommittee—published on the AAUP’s website in January—defines anticipatory obedience as “acting to comply in advance of any pressure to do so” and describes recent actions by administrators in the Florida state university system and at the University of North Texas that “depict an eagerness to obey on the part of administrative officers, portending a bleak future for higher education.”

After asserting that the higher education community must “vigorously and loudly oppose” governmental attacks on academic freedom, shared governance, and higher education as a public good, the statement concludes by encouraging faculty members to collectively resist such attacks by strengthening faculty handbooks and contracts; organizing locally, regionally, and nationally; and promoting AAUP policy standards.