AAUP Intervenes in Intramural Speech Cases at Collin College

The AAUP today wrote H. Neil Matkin, president of Collin College (TX), to urge the immediate rescission of nonrenewal notices issued to Professors Audra Heaslip and Suzanne Jones, both of whom had served the institution beyond what the AAUP regards as the maximum period of probation. The administration failed to afford them a faculty hearing, as the AAUP requires in such cases, and a stated basis for the nonrenewals was their critique of the administration’s COVID-19 policies, in evident violation of their academic freedom to address any institutional policy or action while exercising their governance responsibilities.

The letter states that “Professors Heaslip and Jones have alleged that the actions against them responded to their conduct as faculty representatives on Collin College governance bodies, their criticisms of Collin’s COVID policy, and their affiliation with the Texas Faculty Association. If so, their summary dismissals were effected in violation of their academic freedom to participate in institutional governance.”

Read the letter.