2023 AAUP Updates

The AAUP and the Nevada Faculty Alliance filed a joint amicus brief in support of a former University of Nevada, Reno, assistant professor who alleges that her tenure denial, based largely on assessment of student evaluations of her teaching, violates the Title VII prohibition on sex-based discrimination. 

After months of organizing, more than 80 percent of the 170 faculty at Howard Community College and 100 faculty at Frederick Comunity College petitioned the state Public Employee Relations Board to join the AAUP, AFT-Maryland, and the AFT.

The AAUP urges WVU's governing board and administration to reaffirm their commitment to shared governance standards and the role of faculty in addressing financial crises. 

By limiting racial and economic diversity on college campuses, legacy admissions, particularly in highly selective schools, effectively restrict racial and economic diversity in workplaces and in economic and political power structures.

The Supreme Court has dashed the hopes of millions of borrowers who had expected to benefit from the Biden administration's 2022 student-loan-relief plan. Although the plan was not a solution to the crisis of affordability in higher education, it was a first step toward acknowledging and alleviating the burdens so many students and families face. The AAUP will continue to fight for debt cancellation and affordable access to higher education for all students.

The Supreme Court has struck a significant blow to long-standing efforts of universities to ensure that students of all races have equal access to higher education. It now falls to the higher education community to protect what we value: ensuring access to higher education for all students, promoting equity in education, and fostering vibrant university campuses characterized by the freedom to learn, teach, and conduct research.

After ten years as executive director of the AAUP, Julie Schmid will begin a new position with the American Federation of Teachers in July. Current deputy executive director Nancy Long will step into the role of interim executive director. 

Today, the AAUP filed an amicus brief in support of Florida faculty who are challenging the state’s “Stop WOKE” Act. That law, passed in 2022, prohibits professors at Florida’s public universities from expressing certain disfavored viewpoints while teaching on topics including racial and sexual discrimination and injustice. The AAUP’s brief argues that the law violates the First Amendment and threatens to destroy academic freedom, sabotage higher education, and undermine democracy.