2023 AAUP Updates

Today, the AAUP published a report concerning the Collin College administration’s summary termination of the services of professors Lora Burnett, Suzanne Jones, and Michael Phillips. An investigating committee found that the  administration’s actions violated all three faculty members’ academic freedom to speak as citizens and to criticize institutional policies, and, in one case, violated academic freedom in teaching.

The AAUP urges the Department of Education to foreground faculty voices in rulemaking processes to evaluate institutional standards and accountability.

Preliminary data from the 2023 Faculty Compensation Survey are now available.

The AAUP's data snapshot documents the shift in US academic employment from mostly full-time tenured or tenure-track appointments to mostly contingent appointments, as well as disparities that remain for women faculty and faculty of color.

The AAUP joined gun violence prevention organizations Brady and Team Enough in filing an amicus brief in support of the University of Michigan’s ordinance prohibiting the possession of firearms and other dangerous weapons on university property, citing that the university's prohibition protects the free speech rights of students and faculty, safeguards academic freedom, promotes the free exchange of ideas on campus, and furthers the university’s core educational goals.

On Saturday, the governing Council of the AAUP voted unanimously to add Indiana University Northwest to the Association’s list of censured administrations after an investigation found that the administration acted against Dr. Mark McPhail in a way that violated AAUP-supported standards of academic due process. The committee further concluded that conditions for academic governance at the institution are unsound and its racial climate is unwelcoming to faculty members of color.

With the introduction of HB 999, the Florida legislature—at Governor DeSantis’s urging—has doubled down on its attacks on academic freedom with a bill that would effectively silence faculty and students across the ideological spectrum and purge whole fields of study from public universities.

AAUP president Irene Mulvey submitted public comments to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), urging the body responsible for making recommendations to the US Department of Education on issues related to accreditation and educational quality to uphold principles of academic freedom as political interference increases.