Campus Protests

The AAUP defends the right to free speech, expression of political convictions, and peaceful protest on university campuses. Our colleges and universities are places of inquiry, and debate. Even when campus constituents disagree, the goal should be to foster communication, learning, and understanding. The critical evaluation of different points of view and the questioning of even the most deeply held beliefs are essential to education. In a democratic society based on the fundamental value of free speech, it is unacceptable to respond to demonstrations with violent repression, as has happened on many college campuses. The following are resources and information on this topic.

New

Crackdowns on Campus Protests. A new collection organized by Annelise Orleck documents a weaponization of antisemitism that some have called a “new McCarthyism.” As Orleck reflects in her piece in the collection, “A disproportionate number of those arrested that night were students of color. Their own experiences ofstate violence and discrimination have sensitized them to the suffering of Palestinians. Some of the arrested were, as I am, Jewish.” 

AAUP Statements 

AAUP Condemns Wave of Administrative Policies Intended to Crack Down on Peaceful Campus Protest. August 2024. As an apparent reaction to student protests since last October, a number of college and university administrations have hastily enacted overly restrictive policies dealing with the rights to assemble and protest on campus. These policies, which go beyond reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, impose severe limits on speech and assembly that discourage or shut down freedom of expression.

In Defense of the Right to Free Speech and Peaceful Protest on University Campuses. April 2024. The AAUP and its chapters defend the right to free speech and peaceful protest on university campuses, condemn the militarized response by institutional leaders to these activities, and vehemently oppose the politically motivated assault on higher education.

The Time Is Now to Resist Political Interference. February 2024.

Responding to Specific Situations

The AAUP staff have counseled a number of faculty about their rights in situations where administrations took or threatened punitive action as a result of protest activity and political expression. In addition, the AAUP has commented or initiated action on the situations below. 

Northwestern University Must Protect Academic Freedom. October 2024. As Professor Steven Thrasher faces potential discipline for exercising his academic freedom, the AAUP urges Northwestern University to remain committed to academic due process and academic freedom as well as anti-discrimination regulations designed to protect historically marginalized communities.

University of Minnesota Should Reinstate Raz Segal Job Offer. October 2024. AAUP president Todd Wolfson joins the UM AAUP chapter in condemning the reported action of the UM administration and board to rescind a job offer to Professor Raz Segal in response to outside political pressure.

Inquiry at Muhlenberg. September 2024. The AAUP will conduct an inquiry into the case of Professor Maura Finkelstein, who was first summarily suspended from her tenured position at Muhlenberg College and then dismissed because of a student complaint regarding her extramural speech and conduct related to the war in Gaza.

"A Moment of Clarity for Higher Education" – AAUP president Irene Mulvey denounces continued House Committee higher education interference. May 2024. The House Committee’s continued efforts to interfere with, undermine, and delegitimize American higher education in the minds of the public are deplorable. The message conveyed by these hearings—that politicians have the right to control what is or is not taught in a college classroom and the authority to dictate what can or cannot happen on a college campus—is repressive and completely unacceptable in a free society.

AAUP President Condemns Student Arrests. April 2024. The AAUP condemns in the strongest possible terms the crackdown on peaceful dissent occuring this week at Columbia, NYU, and other universities nationwide. The arrests of students and faculty are a disproportionate and wrong-headed response to overwhelmingly peaceful campus events

Columbia President Shafik Trampled on Students’ Rights. April 2024. Our campuses should be places of learning and education. Our goal should be dialogue and communication in service of understanding. Critically evaluating different points of view and putting up to debate even the most deeply held beliefs are what we should be promoting, modeling and supporting. President Shafik’s silencing of peaceful protesters and having them hauled off to jail does a grave disservice to Columbia’s reputation and will be a permanent stain on her presidential legacy.

House Committee Interference in Higher Education Must Not Be Tolerated. April 2024. AAUP president Irene Mulvey released a statement ahead of an upcoming House Education and Workforce Committee hearing.

Chapter Statements

Statement from the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee on the Penn Administration's Escalating Police and Security Actions. October 2024. The AAUP-Penn EC writes they are "alarmed by the University’s pattern—established last year and extended this year—of treating all protest by faculty, staff, and students against Israeli government policies and warmaking chiefly as a security concern, rather than an expression of students’ rights to assemble and engage in political activity, and faculty’s right to freedom in extramural speech."

Informational Material

Campus Free Speech FAQ. 2023. Guidance from the AAUP and AFT to help members navigate campus free speech and academic freedom in poitically charged contexts.

Articles from the AAUP Magazine, Blog, and Podcast

Modeling the World We Seek. By Annelise Orleck. Academe, Winter 2025. The very student protesters who have been targeted in crackdowns on encampments may be showing us the path to peace.

In the Shadow of Vietnam. By Roderick A. Ferguson. Academe, Winter 2025. Last spring’s crackdowns are a legacy of the buildup of police forces and criminalization of student activism dating back to Vietnam-era antiracist and anticolonial liberation movements.

The Free Speech Movement at Sixty and Today's Unfree Universities. By Robert Cohen. Academe, Winter 2025. There’s nothing outdated about Mario Savio’s critique of the undemocratic nature of university governance and the overweening influence of a rich and powerful elite in that governing structure.

Where Do We Go from Here? By Malick W. Ghachem. Academe, Fall 2024. In the wake of the crackdown on last spring's student protests, colleges and universities must find a way to resist the pressures pushing them in the direction of discipline, policing, and restrictions on political expression.

A series of posts from Academe Blog, organized by Annelise Orleck, that focus on recent crackdowns on protests at US college and university campuses against Israel's war on Gaza:

• A Toolkit for Spotting the Authoritarian University. By Noëlle McAfee. Academe Blog. September 2024. An introduction on the tactics used by authoritarian regimes and figures to suppress free speech.
• On the New Guidance and Expectations of Student Conduct at New York University. By Rebecca E. Karl. Academe Blog. September 2024. An account of procedural changes and restrictions at New York University that have cracked down on expression of pro-Palestinian voices and protests.
• Updates on Columbia and the Columbia Antisemitism Task Force. By Robert Newton. Academe Blog. October 2024. An account of the state of student and professorial speech at Columbia University in the post-Shafik era. 
• Institutional Neutrality, Expressive Activity Policies, and Administrative Shamelessness. By Benjamin Robinson. Academe Blog. October 2024. A critique of the adoption of "institutional neutrality" as a speech-suppressing tactic at Indiana University–Bloomington.
• Fighting UT Austin’s Crackdowns on Protests and DEI. By Karma R. Chávez and Lauren Gutterman. Academe Blog. October 2024. Taking stock of the extreme backlash experienced by those advocating for the continuation of DEI initiatives at UT Austin and the crackdown on pro-Palestinian students and faculty over the past year. 
• Being Revolutionary. By Asha Nadkarni and Laura Briggs. Academe Blog. October 2024. A reflection on the various protests at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst in the 2023–24 academic year.
• Assault on Academic Freedom at UC Irvine. By Eileen Boris. Academe Blog. November 2024. Following Professor Tiffany Willoughby-Herard's arrest and subsequent misdemeanor charges for her efforts to protect student protestors from armed police, UCI has only whittled down faculty rights and self-governance.
• Cop City UCLA. By Robin D. G. Kelley. Academe Blog. November 2024. Examining the effects of UCLA's "Time, Place, and Manner" policies on student protests and the militarization of campus. 

How Far Have We Gone? By Malick W. Ghachem. Academe Blog. October 2024. Following up on his Academe article, Malick Ghachem observes how it is essential to resist the pressures seeking to marginalize, if not repress altogether, today’s student-led protests of the devastation in Gaza.

The Campus Protests: A View from the Ground, AAUP Presents podcast, May 2024. As campus protests in support of Palestine were met with often violent and repressive crackdowns, we spoke to three faculty members, all AAUP members, who reported on what happened at their respective campuses.