101.17.2020 | Did China infiltrate University of Missouri with propaganda — with our permission?
The editorial board of the Kansas City Star quotes the AAUP's 2014 report on Confucius Institutes including our warning that “occasionally university administrations have entered into partnerships that sacrificed the integrity of the university and its academic staff."
01.16.2020 | AAUP Opposes Proposed Rule That Would Bar Grad Assistants From Organizing
Politico's newsletter covers the AAUP's submitted comments to the National Labor Relations Board scrutinizing a proposed rule that would not allow many graduate assistants to form unions.
01.10.2020 | Media Covers AAUP's In Defense of Knowledge and Higher Education
Inside Higher Education writes about our statement, In Defense of Knowledge and Higher Education.
12.17.2019 | Virginia Democrats Want More Transparency In University Donations
Bethany Letiecq, a professor of family science and president of the Mason AAUP chapter said faculty and students had worked with the university to craft new policies that would create a public record of gift agreements going forward. However, she said older agreements were still shrouded in secrecy.
12.06.2019 | Wisconsin’s Search for a New President Has Just Begun. Faculty Already Fear the Worst.
Nicholas Fleisher, president of AAUP's Wisconsin state conference, noted "It’s hard for anyone to think of positive change when we have a feeling of deep distrust," voicing concern fthat the board has cut the faculty out of the process of the searching for the UW systhem's next president.
11.22.2019 | Our Professor's Views Are Vile, University Says. But We Can't Fire Him
AAUP general counsel Risa Lieberwitz tells the New York Times that Indiana University's administration is right to be careful about punishing professor Rasmusen for views he expresses outside of his job.
11.19.2019 | Diversity Statements as 'Litmus Tests'
The AAUP has weighed in on the question of diversity, generally, in recent admissions-related lawsuits, taking the position that "a diverse student body is essential to the educational objectives of colleges and universities." And so his organization has recognized diversity as connected to education, said Hans-Joerg Tiede, senior program officer and researcher at the AAUP.
11.06.2019 | Regents Criticized For Not Including Faculty, Staff, Students On UW President Search Committee
Nick Fleisher, president of the AAUP Wisconsin Conference, said the exclusion of faculty, students and staff follows years of policy changes within the UW System aimed at diluting the power of shared governance groups. "Whether it’s intentionally sending a message or not it means that they simply do not value the input from those groups, and they are not willing to make people from those groups full voting members of the search committee," he said.
10.30.2019 | U.S. Naval Academy professor criticizes NU's finalist for presidency
A professor at the U.S. Naval Academy who says he was unfairly fired has had his position on the faculty restored by an administrative judge’s ruling.The AAUP had objected to the way the Naval Academy fired tenured faculty member Bruce Fleming last year.
10.16.2019 | Colleges Are Spreading Trump’s Disingenuous Notion of ‘Free Speech’
“The mission of the university is a public mission, and part of that mission is to protect free speech and the right of students and faculty to engage in vigorous and heated debate. That might be very loud, and some might view it as disruptive, but just because of that, doesn’t mean the student should be silenced," said Risa Lieberwitz, general counsel at the AAUP.
10.14.2019 | University of New Mexico Faculty to Vote on Unionization
Years of labor organizing at the University of New Mexico culminates this week as faculty members vote on unionization to join the United Academics of UNM, which is jointly affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the AAUP.
10.09.2019 | University of Akron to search for provost, do away with split academic affairs roles
The University of Akron will open a national search for an executive vice president and provost, doing away with the approach of splitting the duties of the Office of Academic Affairs. Returning to the provost structure was one of the changes the University of Akron chapter of the AAUP said it wanted to see when it released the results of a member survey back in August.
10.01.2019 | UNL faculty OK changes to disciplinary procedures resulting from lecturer's dismissal
The proposed changes, if approved by regents, would go a long way to removing UNL from the AAUP’s Censure List, said Julia Schleck, an associate professor of English and member of the Nebraska chapter of the AAUP.
09.25.2019 | Middle East Studies Program Comes Under Federal Scrutiny
Henry Reichman, the chair of AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, described the department’s inquiry into the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies’ use of federal Title VI funds as “a chillingly inappropriate political intrusion into curricular decisions best made by faculty.”
09.20.2019 | Grad student unions dealt blow as proposed new rule says students aren’t ‘employees’
"This current NLRB has a strong majority of very conservative board members; … [it’s] shown itself to be extremely political and quite focused on overruling precedent that had expanded employee rights to unionize,” noted Risa Lieberwitz, AAUP's general counsel.
09.16.2019 | Academic group challenges Kirkwood over ousted professor
If Kirkwood Community College rebuffs demands from the AAUP, over the termination of faculty member for his Facebook posts, the college could face censure. “I can’t rule it out,” Gregory Scholtz, director of the AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance, told The Gazette in an email.
09.12.2019 | These States Are Pushing Laws to Restrict Protests on College Campuses
“The legislation is part of a concerted effort by right-wing groups to portray higher education as hostile to conservatives, when there is very little evidence that this is actually the case,” said Gwendolyn Bradley, the senior program officer for the AAUP.
09.06.2019 | Emory Wants to Fire Law Professor Who Said N-Word Twice
Emory University is seeking to terminate a tenured faculty for his use of the n-word in his classroom. The AAUP sent a letter to the university, writing that his words are protected under academic freedom, "notwithstanding any repercussions of that speech."
09.02.2019 | Nurses at University of Cincinnati Medical Center to set up picket to protest job actions
The Registered Nurses Association, representing 1,700 nurses at University of Cincinnati Medical Center, says the hospital is stalling a grievance on the actions against nurses. In response, the union has called for an informational picket line Sept. 10. The Ohio Conference of the AAUP wrote a July 11 letter on the nurses’ behalf to the chairwoman of the board of directors for UC Health, the nonprofit that operates the hospital.
08.18.2019 | Tenure and Other Variations
AAUP's Greg Scholtz, director of the department of academic freedom, tenure, and governance tells the Chronicle that while multiyear contracts provide more stability than the one-year contracts that many adjuncts contend with, they still deny professors a "presupposition of competence." "The problem with any kind of term appointment is that you’re always on probation."
08.16.2019 | Colleges and universities can do more to protect students and faculty against hate crimes. Here are some ideas.
Unfortunately many university policies leave faculty who are targeted by strategic lawsuits against public participation to fend for themselves. However there are concrete steps institutions could take to protect faculty, including some recommendations from the AAUP.
08.06.2019 | University of Akron faculty union survey shows concerns about administration, policies
The AAUP chapter at the University of Akron is raising concerns after a survey of members showed a lack of confidence in administrative leaders and policy initiatives.
07.22.2019 | ‘A Sweet Racket’? Yeah, Right
Inside Higher Ed fact checks a misleading op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on faculty work and pay.
07.10.2019 | Budget veto could put University of Alaska at risk of losing accreditation, agency warns
The agency that accredits universities in Alaska is warning legislators that a 41 percent cut in state funding for the University of Alaska could lead to the loss of accreditation.
07.01.2019 | Chinese company out as buyer of Westminster Choir College. Rider U. plans to hold on to the institution.
Rider University announced it will not sell Westminster Choir College. Rider’s AAUP chapter was the main opponent of the plan, and took the university to federal court last year seeking an injunction to the sale.
06.18.2019 | AAUP lifts sanctions against ISU
Idaho State University proudly touts to media the institution's removal from AAUP's sanctioned list.
06.17.2019 | Punishing Alleged Violations of Tenure, Academic Freedom and Governance
Vermont Law School, St. Edwards University, and Nunez Community College are asked for comment on their placement on the AAUP's sanction/censure lists as is Idaho State University, which was just removed from the sanction list.
05.28.2019 | 'Because we know that strikes work': College unions leverage publicity in tough contract battles
A recurring scene played out at local college campuses this year: picket lines. One explanation for the surge in campus labor activity is that unions have grown on college campuses since the 1970s, according to a position paper from the AAUP.
05.17.2019 | GMU to make all future gift agreements public
All future private gift agreements signed by George Mason University officials will now be treated as public records subject to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. GMU’s AAUP chapter was part of a six-person gift acceptance policy implementation task force that provided guidance to administrators as they revised the policy that outlines the university’s processes regarding private philanthropy.
05.16.2019 | Ole Miss professor slammed over political tweet gets tenure
A tenure-track faculty member from the University of Mississippi tweeted about national politics. His tenure suddenly seemed at risk. AAUP reminded the school's governing board that denying tenure for political speech violates academic freedom. He was granted tenure.
05.08.2019 | A Violation of Shared Governance
AAUP investigation finds Vermont Law School violated shared governance norms when it suddenly stripped tenure from most of its faculty.
05.02.2019 | Wright State faculty union ratifies contract after strike
The Wright State Chapter of the AAUP has ratified a contract agreement reached earlier this year with the school’s administration. The agreement came after a 20-day strike by members of the union ended in early February when a tentative deal was reached.
04.23.2019 | University of Illinois at Chicago avoids 2nd strike as faculty reach tentative contract deal
The University of Illinois at Chicago administration has announced a tentative contract agreement with UIC United Faculty, which represents about 1,200 teachers at the Near West Side campus. Faculty union members have been working without a contract since August and have been in negotiations with the administration since last summer.
04.18.2019 | Rutgers professors celebrate contract deal while adjuncts wait
A strike has been averted at New Jersey’s largest public university after Rutgers AAUP-AFT faculty union, which had been working without a contract for nearly a year. The proposed four-year contract includes pay hikes for faculty members, pay equity measures for female and minority instructors, and better job security for some non-tenured professors.
04.15.2019 | About 100 Rutgers faculty, graduates trained to lead picket lines if union opts to strike
If the Rutgers University faculty union AAUP-AFT decides to call a strike after marathon bargaining sessions with the university for a new contract, union members are ready: Official picket signs have been printed, picket line captains trained, and students prepared to provide support.
04.10.2019 | 3 Things a Faculty-Pay Survey Shows About Academic Jobs
Our annual faculty-compensation survey provides a snapshot of the earning power of full-time and part-time faculty members. The long and short of it: Pay raises were modest, faculty buying power has eroded, and many different factors are rolled into faculty pay. But the data, from nearly 1,000 two- and four-year colleges, also tell us three things about the academic workplace.
03.27.2019 | Kim Reynolds signs bill requiring Iowa universities to respect 'free speech' on campus
A new "free speech" law in Iowa will require public universities and community colleges to uphold the "fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression." Katherine Tachau, Iowa AAUP president, said freedom of expression is at the heart of universities. It's not clear how the law will change their campus, but her organization worries about "undesirable unintended consequences."
03.21.2019 | Trump targets ‘far-left’ universities with free-speech order
In a joint statement, higher education groups including the AAUP and the Association of American Colleges & Universities called the order “a dangerous solution to a largely nonexistent problem” that is “more likely to stifle than encourage free expression and diversity of opinion.”
03.19.2019 | Rutgers faculty members authorize union to call a strike
Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the bargaining unit representing full-time faculty and graduate employees at Rutgers University has its members’ blessing to call a strike if contract negotiations aren’t successful. Eighty-eight percent of its members voted to authorize union leaders to call a strike.
03.05.2019 | Opposition to Trump's Executive Order Plan
Many organizations, including the AAUP, are opposing President Trump's plan to issue an executive order to cut off federal research dollars to institutions determined not to be supporting free speech.
02.27.2019 | Purdue Global Nixes Student Arbitration Agreement
Purdue University Global confirmed it has eliminated forced arbitration agreements for students, scoring a major win for the Indiana chapters of the AAUP, which advocated against clauses.
02.15.2019 | ‘It keeps you nice and disposable’: The plight of adjunct professors
Collective bargaining has emerged as a path to improving working conditions for adjunct faculty. Higher ed administrators shouldn't look at this as a threat to their industry--the real threat is a workforce that is seen as "disposable."
02.12.2019 | 22 Years, 1 Phone Call
AAUP report says Nunez Community College fired a longtime professor of English when he asked too many questions about how it would meet reaccreditation requirements on assessment.
02.01.2019 | Too Taboo for Class?
AAUP sent a letter to Augsburg University after it suspended professor Phillip Adamo because he quoted a passage by James Baldwin which contained the N-word.
01.27.2019 | State board rules Wright State faculty strike can continue
Wright State University administration filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the State Employment Relations Board, asking it to declare the faculty strike unauthorized. But the SERB ruled against university’s complaint, allowing the faculty strike to continue.
01.25.2019 | Sen. Brown says he's "proud" of WSU faculty and students as strike continues
On the fourth day of a faculty strike at Wright State University, Ohio U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown released a statement in support of striking faculty. "I'm proud of the faculty and students demanding better benefits for those who've helped make it [Wright State] the premier institution it is today," said Brown. Brown went on to say he supports the rights of workers to band together and "fight for better working conditions."
01.22.2019 | ‘Talking Is Over’: Hundreds of Professors Strike at Wright State U
Great coverage of AAUP-WSU strike. Explains: "Years of overspending, combined with declining donations and enrollment, caused Wright State’s financial problems to snowball." It shouldn't be on faculty to pay for mistakes.
01.02.2019 | Collegiality Concerns
After controversies involving two professors, Fresno State University is considering creating a set of principles that “exemplify what we can and should be.” But Henry Reichman, chair of the committee on academic freedom and tenure, said that documents such as Fresno State’s are at best "anodyne" and quickly forgotten but at worst “used to justify censorship and conformity.”
12.28.2018 | Layoffs at Simpson College (IA)
The termination of two tenured faculty members at Simpson College has created concern the college has violated national standards for dismissals. Greg Scholtz, director of the department of academic freedom, tenure, and governance, has contacted the Simpson College administration and urged the college “to rescind the notices of termination."
12.20.2018 | Colleges’ Online Push Possible Boon to Private Firms
Online program managers, or OPMs, are becoming increasingly common as they can help schools develop, recruit and market online degrees with less financial risk to the university. But as the industry grows, so have faculty concerns about schools that are partnering with OPMs.
12.12.2018 | CNN fired him for speech some deemed anti-Semitic. But his university says the Constitution protects him.
Washington Post cites AAUP's Hans-Joerg Tiede, a member of the AAUP’s department of academic freedom, tenure and governance, on academic freedom, about Temple University board chair remarks.
11.30.2018 | AAUP Chapters Revive as Professors See Threats to Academic Freedom
Chapel Hill is the latest campus to dust off old bylaws and resurrect a chapter of the AAUP, the longtime advocacy group for academic freedom. Groups at Dartmouth College and Syracuse University have revived their chapters within the past year or so, and faculty at Cornell University are in talks to do the same. Organizers reviving the chapters say academic freedom is under attack as college “corporatization,” state politics, and an overreliance on adjunct labor threaten to stifle the faculty’s voice.
11.29.2018 | How Graduate Unions Are Winning—and Scaring the Hell out of Bosses—in the Trump Era
Since the NLRB ruling in August 2016 which extended bargaining rights to graduate workers at private universities, graduate unions have spread quickly in the two years since.
11.16.2018 | ‘The Assault on Gender and Gender Studies’
Drawing parallels between the Trump administration and others around the world that have sought to diminish the rights and status of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of late, AAUP's Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure and its Committee on Women in the Academic Profession released a statement on the administration’s reported plan to narrow the definition of gender under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits gender-based discrimination.
11.07.2018 | Is Texas' Campus Carry Law Actually Making Anyone Safer?
In late August a federal appeals court rejected a challenge to Texas' controversial campus carry law, the 2015 statute allowing gun owners with legal permits to bring their weapons to campus—and the classrooms—of public colleges and universities. The three University of Texas–Austin professors who filed the case did so on First Amendment grounds. Classroom discussion, they argued, would be "dampened to some degree" by concerns that a gun owner who was "moved to anger and impulsive action would open fire." The AAUP agreed.
11.02.2018 | Wright State and Their Professors at Odds amid Recent Report Suggesting Cuts
AAUP union members at Wright State University plan to vote against the university's fact-finding report related to issues unresolved in current contract negotiations. Noelenn McIlvenna, a WSU professor and member of the AAUP-CBC's Executive Committee, said that proposed furlough days would result in faculty members doing their usual work without pay.
10.24.2018 | Empowering the Faculty in Debates Over Managing Online Programs
Faculty members' hackles have been raised in several recent cases over the terms of their institutions’ agreements with online program management providers -- and over their involvement in setting those terms. Now the AAUP wants to empower instructors in those debates with the help of a tool kit of resources under the umbrella of “Education Not Privatization.”
10.17.2018 | Statements on Professor Who Wouldn't Write Recommendation
Our Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance sent a letter to the University of Michigan’s president expressing concern that the university did not seem to have followed AAUP standards in punishing a tenured professor who refused to write a letter of recommendation for a student who wanted to study abroad in Israel. Additionally, the Middle East Studies Association's Committee on Academic Freedom also sent a letter expressing its concerns about John Cheney-Lippold's punishment.0.11.2018 | Data Snapshot: Contingent Faculty in US Higher Ed
The AAUP research department has taken a look at the data around tenure and the casualization of faculty labor. We looked at at overall trends and broke out data regarding full-time contingent faculty and part-time and graduate-student instructors. Using data drawn from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), our findings highlight the current status of the academic labor system in US higher education.
10.03.2018 | AAUP Remembers Robert O'Neil
We are very sorry to hear of the death of Robert O’Neil, a law professor and former president of the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin system, as well as the founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. Bob’s commitment to the AAUP spanned multiple decades and our association benefited greatly from his expertise and wise counsel.
09.25.2018 | AAUP Files Amicus Brief in Support of Faculty Union Rights in Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit v. NLRB
AAUP has filed an amicus brief in support of Duquesne University faculty who have voted to form a union, arguing that widespread acceptance of AAUP guidelines about academic freedom at religious institutions illustrates a straightforward path for determining the right of faculty to organize. The case, Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit v. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), is currently before the federal court of appeals in DC.
09.18.2018 | Unacceptable Attacks on Science
President Trump has attacked the credibility of a study that found some 2,975 excess deaths in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit the island in September 2017, claiming falsely that the study was "done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.”
The AAUP takes no position on the accuracy of the study. But such research can be properly evaluated only by qualified experts through open channels of review and debate. For the president of the United States to accuse scholars of political bias, without a shred of evidence, is an unacceptable assault on independent research and the academic freedom of scientists.
09.06.2018 | Purdue Global to Stop Requiring NDAs
The announcement today by Purdue Global that it will immediately stop requiring faculty to sign a nondisclosure agreement as a condition of employment is a huge victory. It demonstrates that when faculty join together they have a powerful voice to protect academic freedom, shared governance, and higher education for the common good.
09.06.2018 | AAUP Will Investigate Apparent Violations at Maricopa
The AAUP has appointed an ad hoc committee to formally investigate apparent departures from widely adopted standards of academic governance at Maricopa County Community College. The matter stems from a February resolution of the college’s governing board that terminated a “meet-and-confer” provision of the faculty policy manual and ordered the creation of a new manual that would severely limit the participation of the faculty in institutional governance.
08.28.2018 | Victory at Rutgers
Remarks about gentrification and race made by Rutgers professor James Livingston on Facebook were the subject of a review by the university's Office of Employment Equity, which found that the posts were not protected by the First Amendment and furthermore violated the university’s policy on discrimination and harassment. After hearing from the national AAUP and the Rutgers AAUP/AFT chapter, Rutgers president Robert Barchi has said that the administration will reconsider its finding and convene an advisory group of First Amendment and academic freedom scholars and attorneys.
08.22.2018 | Purdue Global Nondisclosure Agreement Runs Roughshod Over Faculty Rights
The AAUP has released a copy of a non-disclosure agreement that appears to be a condition of employment for Purdue Global employees, including instructional faculty. Last March Indiana’s Purdue University purchased the for-profit online institution Kaplan University which was rebranded as Purdue Global. The agreement, which asserts ownership the faculty’s teaching-related materials, undermines standard academic practice, violating faculty rights to their own intellectual property as well as their academic freedom.08.08.2018 | Letter to Israeli Government On Katherine Franke
Today the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure has released a letter sent to the Israeli government about the interrogation, subsequent expulsion, and apparent banning from Israel of Columbia Law School professor Katherine Franke in April.
08.08.2018 | Statement On Anti-BDS Legislation and Universities
Today the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure released a statement calling on public universities to stop requiring speakers and others to pledge that they do not now, nor will they in the future, endorse the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS).
08.01.2018 | AAUP Supports Affirmative Action
The AAUP joined with the American Council on Education and thirty-five other higher education associations in filing an amicus brief in federal court this week opposing a challenge to race-based admissions at Harvard University. We argue that “a diverse student body is essential to educational objectives of colleges and universities, and that each institution should be able to exercise its academic judgment to determine within broad limits the diversity that will advance its own particular mission.”
08.01.2018 | Reworking an Approach to Paying Online Instructors
Online instructors at Colorado Mesa University get paid per student for overtime hours. Now the institution is tweaking a model that's enticing to instructors but may not be best for students. But Howard Bunsism, professor of accounting at Eastern Michigan University, points out; "Higher education should always be about the learning experience. When you pay people this way, it really doesn’t coincide with that mission and what we’re really trying to accomplish."
07.18.2018 | UT: Professors have academic freedom, despite what we say in court
In defending its policy allowing the concealed carry of handguns in classrooms, the University of Texas has taken a surprising position in a federal appeals court — that individual professors do not have academic freedom.
07.11.2018 | Appeals court hears challenge to Texas campus carry law
Attorneys for three University of Texas professors asked a federal appeals court to revive their challenge of a law allowing people with concealed-handgun licenses to carry weapons on public university campuses. Attorney for the professors said national studies and the views of national professional organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, attest to the harm guns in a classroom can do to academic freedom.
06.28.2018 | Supreme Court’s Ruling Against Public Unions Leaves Murky Outlook for Academic Labor
The Chronicle spoke with William B. Gould IV, a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board who is also an emeritus law professor at Stanford University, about what the ruling could mean for public colleges and the labor movement broadly.
06.27.2018 | State approves faculty union
After a lengthy organizing push, faculty members at Oregon State University now have a union.
The Oregon Employment Relations Board announced on Wednesday that United Academics of Oregon State University has been certified as the exclusive bargaining representative for teaching and research faculty at OSU.
06.18.2018 | National professors group formally censures UNL for handling of incident with conservative student
UNL now is one of 56 institutions on the AAUP’s censure list. A censure means the AAUP believes a college’s leaders have failed to live up to principles of tenure and academic freedom formed in 1940 by the AAUP and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green said Saturday that he was disappointed by the AAUP’s decision.
06.14.2018 | In Name of Free Speech, States Crack Down on Campus Protests
“The big irony is that their solution is right-wing social engineering,” said Michael Behrent, an associate professor of history at Appalachian State University in North Carolina and a co-author of a new report, for the American Association of University Professors, on speech legislation. “They’re supposedly against the idea of speech codes and authorities regulating what can and cannot be said,” Mr. Behrent added. “But they really are in fact advocating that.”
06.07.2018 | AAUP committee recommends censure of UNL administration
In spite of objections by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s administration to AAUP’s report on Courtney Lawton’s dismissal from teaching duties, the AAUP’s Committee A will recommend placing the university on its list of censured administrations. AAUP senior counsel Aaron Nisenson in a letter to UNL wrote: "The AAUP will not revise the Report or its conclusions in the Report and intends to continue with its censure process with respect to actions taken by the UNL administration."
06.01.2018 | In Defense of the Liberal Arts
A statement on the liberal arts by the AAUP and AAC&U comes at a time when some public and private colleges and universities are eliminating or scaling back long-established programs and majors. Michael Bérubé, who worked on the statement and serves on the AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, said, "Distasteful as it may be to some people in the humanities, it seems about time to be making the case not only for the intellectual value but also for the economic value of degrees in the humanities."
05.30.2018 | How a right-wing group's proposed 'free speech' law aims to undermine free speech on campus
Outsized publicity about a small number of incidents on campuses has provided a pretext for state laws regarding free speech that aim to undermine the authority of universities and colleges and mandate penalties for student protestors. A recent AAUP report documents the proliferation of campus free-speech legislation modeled on templates developed by the Goldwater Institute, a think tank advancing a conservative agenda.
05.22.2018 | Teaching Eval Shakeup
Evidence of bias in student evaluations of teaching and a lack of relevance to learning outcomes led the University of Southern California to stop considering them for tenure and promotion decisions. USC and some other institutions are shifting to a lower-stakes approach to evaluating teachers. The findings of a 2015 AAUP survey on teaching evaluations demonstrated the need for institutions to rethink their evaluation methods.
05.10.2018 | UNL rebuked for bowing to ‘political pressure’ after incident with grad student-lecturer
A new AAUP investigative report examines the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's dismissal of instructor Courtney Lawton after a video circulated of her protest against a student recruiting for Turning Point USA. UNL faculty member and AAUP Nebraska conference past-president Julia Schleck said, “I am appalled by the elected representatives who for partisan reasons pressured the university to break its own rules,” and "deeply disappointed in our leadership for having capitulated to this pressure.”
05.02.2018 | Why George Mason’s Agreements With the Koch Foundation Raised Red Flags
The release of donor agreements that George Mason University signed with the Charles Koch Foundation and other benefactors revealed provisions allowing for donor involvement in decisions regarding faculty and curriculum. AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum expressed particular concern about undue influence in hiring faculty and the problem of "promoting a political agenda" through a designated focus on free-market principles.
04.26.2018 | University of Iowa could leave national sanction list
The AAUP's Committee on College and University Governance has voted to recommend the University of Iowa's removal from the AAUP's list of sanctioned institutions because of improvements in shared governance in the two years since the secretive hiring of president Bruce Harreld led to a sanction vote. AAUP members will vote on the committee's recommendation at their June annual meeting. AAUP senior program officer Hans-Joerg Tiede said, “Every time an institution is removed from the sanction or censure list, it confirms the importance of the standards that we advocate for.”
04.19.2018 | As pay and benefits stagnate, nontenured faculty and graduate students in Illinois, Chicago look to unions
Contingent faculty in Illinois are responding to instability and inadequate compensation with union activism. AAUP executive director Julie Schmid disagrees with claims that graduate student instructors should not have collective-bargaining rights because they are primarily students rather than employees.
04.17.2018 | New Limits on Overtime
The Labor Department has added online adjunct instructors and postdoctoral fellows to the category of academic workers ineligible for overtime pay. AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum said, “This is just a continuation of that rolling back [of protections for workers] and making sure that adjuncts continue to receive the same shitty pay they’ve been getting.”
04.11.2018 | How Much Did Professors Earn This Year? Barely Enough to Beat Inflation
A rise in the cost of living chipped away at salary gains by full-time faculty members in the 2017-18 academic year, according to new survey data published by the AAUP.
04.11.2018 | Faculty Salaries Up 3%
Each year, AAUP’s analysis touches on different aspects of faculty pay. The new report discusses salary compression, or when professors at lower ranks are paid close to what higher-ranked professors are paid due to market and other differences at their points of hire.
04.05.2018 | Accounting Professor Says EMU Will Lose Money by Cutting Four Sports
AAUP Council member and EMU accounting professor Howard Bunsis explains how Eastern Michigan University's controversial plan to cut four sports teams to save money will actually end up costing money. He says the only way for EMU to save money on sports is to switch the expensive football program from Division 1 to Division 2.
04.04.2018 | Professors Are Targets In Online Culture Wars; Some Fight Back
Colleges are meant to be a home for free inquiry. But these days, not all professors feel that freedom. Across the country, in the past year and a half, university professors have been targeted via online campaigns because of their research, their teaching or their social media posts. The AAUP's Joerg Tiede said no matter what side you're on politically, it's clear that academic freedom is under assault, as it has been many times in the past. The AAUP has been tracking this latest wave of targeted harassment and issuing recommendations for policymakers.
03.29.2018 | Tenure Under Attack in Kentucky
Late addition to budget bill would allow dismissal of tenured professors due to program changes or eliminations, ending protections previously adopted by college boards. Nancy McKenney, a faculty member at Eastern Kentucky and president of the Kentucky Conference of the AAUP said, "Introducing uncertainty about tenure and job security will make recruitment and retention of faculty even more problematic."
03.29.2018 | Increasingly Skeptical Students, Employees Want Colleges to Show Them the Money
As public confidence declines, university budgets and investments face growing scrutiny. Caprice Lawless, second vice president of the AAUP said faculty are used to researching issues and publishing findings. To raise awareness, her chapter of part-time faculty in Colorado have even woven financial figures — some obtained through public-records requests — into a tongue-in-cheek coloring book with puzzles challenging readers to match the six-figure salary with the community college president who earns it.
03.28.2018 | Competing Interests: Corporate Strategies at SU Often Conflict with Academic Traditions, Following Higher Ed Trends
AAUP Governance Committee chair Michael DeCesare weighs in on events at Syracuse University.
03.23.2018 | University Faculty Alarmed by Kentucky Budget Language that Guts Tenure Protections
University faculty around the state are raising red flags over proposed legislative language that appears to let administrators ignore tenure protections as they downsize because of financial cutbacks. The AAUP's Anita Levy said, “This is very far reaching and over-reaching on the part of the Kentucky Senate. It’s obviously very disturbing in that it completely supplants the role of faculty governance, and supersedes all governing policies.”
03.22.2018 | Eastern Michigan Answers the Question: Why Not Cut Football?
With EMU cutting its softball, wrestling, women's tennis and men's swimming and diving programs, football was a primary topic of discussion. Faculty and students have called for EMU to drop to Division II football or cut the program all together in the past. Howard Bunsis, accounting professor and treasurer of the EMU-AAUP, suggested to the board in April 2016 that the university consider making the shift.
03.16.2018 | Grade F for DeVos in a Year of Setbacks
It wasn’t much of a welcoming party. In January 2017, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) released a statement urging the U.S. Senate to reject Betsy DeVos’ nomination as Education Secretary, writing that “in both ideology and practice she has violated the principles of quality education that the AAUP has defended for over a century.” They weren’t alone in their objections.
03.15.2018 | EMU Faculty, Staff Protest Cuts, Say Look to Athletics 'Sacred Cow'
Amid news that Eastern Michigan University plans to cut nearly 60 positions to erase a deficit between $4.5 and 5.5 million, faculty and staff are arguing the university isn't looking closely enough at its athletics programs for budget cuts. Around 70 faculty and staff were joined by Michigan gubernatorial candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Bill Cobbs on Thursday, March 15, outside of Welch Hall, asking EMU to look closely at its "sacred cow" - the athletics budget - that was subsidized by $27.3 million in 2015, according to NCAA financial disclosure forms.
03.15.2018 | Hey Alexa, How Do You Change the Default Settings for the “Teacher, Scholar, Mother” in Academia?
Dr. Angela Colistra cites AAUP data regarding women holding more lower-ranking academic positions than men and encourages mother scholars to be an advocate for equity within their institutions.
03.14.2018 | St. Lawrence Students, Faculty Walk Out to Protest Gun Violence
More than 200 students and faculty gathered at the quad in front of Kirk Douglas Hall at St. Lawrence University just before 10 a.m. Wednesday to participate in the national and international walkouts to protest gun violence. AAUP chapter officer Christopher Buck spoke on the issue of firearms and academic freedom, saying that keeping firearms off campuses allowed free discussion without fear of violence. He said, “(The Trump administration) would rather militarize educational institutions than pursue more sensible gun laws.
03.05.2018 | Postpone Sweeping Changes to Cal State Classes, National Faculty Group Says
The AAUP has joined California State University faculty in their criticism of sweeping changes to classes ordered last year by Chancellor Tim White.
03.05.2018 | When Students Harass Professors
Academe’s Me Too movement has thus far focused on professors harassing students, or senior professors harassing junior professors. Yet a recent case highlights the fact that professors, too, may be vulnerable to abuse by students. The AAUP's Joerg Tiede says sexual harassment “should not be tolerated by members of either group,” and both accused professors and students should receive appropriate due process following a complaint.
03.02.2018 | Striking a Nerve
Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt offers strategies for when the right wing attacks. Practical tips include forwarding your administration AAUP’s recent publications on targeted online harassment and “What You Can Do About Targeted Online Harassment.”
02.28.2018 | University of Tennessee Faculty: Administrative Proposal Would Essentially Eliminate Tenure
Faculty at the University of Tennessee are concerned about proposed changes to the post-tenure review process that they say will essentially eliminate tenure. The AAUP's Greg Scholtz said, "It's strange and we've never seen it before."
02.26.2018 | One in 66,000: Is the Presidential Search Committee Lacking Student Representation?
Out of the roughly 66,000 students on UCF’s campus, only two have an official role in the search for the next president – a figure that’s worrying to some students. Michael DeCesare, chairman of the AAUP's Committee on College and University Governance, said having only one student in presidential search committees is not unusual, though the association recommends proportional student representation. DeCesare emphasized however that “each member should be selected by his or her own constituency by election,” which was not the case in UCF’s search committee.
02.23.2018 | What Will it Take for Unions to Survive Janus?
Union members, activists, and community members will take part in a day of action on February 24 to focus attention on a Supreme Court case with profound and threatening implications for the labor movement. On February 26, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31. Sherry Wolf, with Rutgers AAUP-AFT, and others discuss the current situation and possibilities for the future.
02.23.2018 | Disaster Capitalism Hits Higher Education in Wisconsin
Rachel Ida Buff, AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom editor and a member of the AAUP Committee on College and University Governance, writes about how the president of the University of Wisconsin System is trying to reconcile a well-funded assault on public institutions with the state’s deep blue sea of support for accessible education.
02.14.2018 | Budgeting for Fear and Austerity: An Interview with Howard Bunsis
AAUP Council member Howard Bunsis discusses budgets and fear. He says to faculty, "You can’t just put your head down, teach your classes, do your research, and go home. If you want to change the place, you have to act collectively. ... We’re always better off when we act together.”
02.06.2018 | More Scrutiny for Confucius Institutes; One to Close
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio wrote to four Florida colleges and universities Monday asking them to close their Confucius Institutes, centers of Chinese language and cultural education that are housed in U.S.
02.06.2018 | Faculty Groups Slam UW System President Ray Cross for Secretly Planning Sweeping Restructuring
Another faculty backlash is brewing against University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross because Republican lawmakers got a heads-up about his far-reaching plans to restructure the two-year colleges while faculty, staff and students were kept in the dark. Several emails obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio revealed the UW System president intentionally kept his plans a secret from campus governance groups so they wouldn't be thwarted.
02.05.2018 | Secret Lives of Bay Area Part-Time Profs: Here's Why They Work at Safeway, Live out of Cars
Far from the comfort of an ivory tower, the world of academia has led many Bay Area part-time college instructors into secret lives of hardship. The AAUP's Howard Bunsis said, "I see this at institution after institution," he said. "The number and salaries of instructors is flat or down; the number and salaries of admins goes up."
02.04.2018 | How Do Students Feel about Professors Who Teach Their Own Textbooks?
The Daily Tar Heel examines the practice of assigning texts with their authors and cites an AAUP statement that says, "The right of individual professors to select their own instructional materials, a right protected under principles of academic freedom, should be limited only by such considerations as quality, cost, availability and the need for coordination with other instructors or courses."
02.01.2018 | UW Restructure Described As 'Open Secret' Prior To Public Announcement
The AAUP's Greg Scholtz said keeping faculty in the dark early in the process was wrong. "If you don’t have the right process, you’re not going to get the right product, and we don’t believe that you can get a good decision-making product if you leave the faculty out of the equation," he said.
02.01.2018 | AAUP Looking into Rosenstein's Case
The AAUP is looking into the case of a University of Illinois professor accused of videotaping members of a pro-Chief Illiniwek group. The AAUP, which placed the UI on its "censure" list for two years because of the Steven Salaita case, wrote to Chancellor Robert Jones about his decision to place Professor Jay Rosenstein on paid administrative leave while the campus reviews the Jan. 22 incident. The letter suggests that the campus may have violated Rosenstein's right to academic due process and raised the prospect of future censure.
01.26.2018 | White Supremacists Target Georgia Professor with Web of Lies
An associate professor and educational psychologist, Joshua A. Cuevas detailed his harrowing experiences in an essay for the AAUP's Academe online and in print. He said he’s been amazed at the number of fellow academics this week who contacted him to say, “Me, too.”
01.25.2018 | Wright State Faculty Rally for Better Contract
Wright State University’s faculty union is rallying this morning for a better contract with the school’s administration. Contract negotiations are expected to move into fact-finding at the end of the month. Rudy Fichtenbaum, AAUP President and Professor Emeritus of Economics, at WSU said that he will recommend to the AAUP-WSU’s executive committee to initiate a strike process in case the administration or the union reject a fact finder’s report.
01.24.2018 | UT-Austin Professors Join Campaign Against Faculty-Productivity Company
The University of Texas at Austin became one of the most prestigious research institutions to join a faculty rebellion against Academic Analytics, a data company that promises to identify low-performing professors. The AAUP issued a statement in March 2016 urging extreme caution toward Academic Analytics. Among other issues, the AAUP said, "While such services promise ‘objective’ data about faculty productivity, some of the firm’s metrics lack any qualitative dimension."
01.23.2018 | “We Are All a Single Outrage Campaign Away from Having No Rights at All”
Over the course of the last year, targeted online harassment of faculty has emerged as a significant threat to academic freedom. Fueled by websites such as Professor Watchlist, Campus Reform, and College Fix, campaigns of threats and harassment are directed against faculty members for what they are reported to have said in the classroom or posted on social media. The AAUP's Joerg Tiede points out efforts to silence faculty members who speak out on matters of race are not new and summarizes recent cases.
01.22.2018 | Drexel Professor Taken on as Visiting Scholar
Former Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher, who drew controversy last year for his tweets, has been taken on as a visiting scholar at NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. He resigned from Drexel on Dec. 31 after facing harassment for his online presence and being placed on administrative leave in early October for what Drexel described as security concerns. This response led some academic groups, such as the AAUP, to criticize Drexel’s condemnation.
01.11.2018 | AAUP Committee Set to Investigate Due Process Lapse at UNL
A three-person committee with the AAUP will investigate whether or not the University of Nebraska-Lincoln violated the due process rights of a graduate student lecturer dismissed from her teaching duties in November. Joerg Tiede said, “Due process is tied to what kind of power someone has over you. We, as citizens of the United States, are entitled to due process when it comes to government prosecution. Faculty are entitled to due process when it comes to disciplinary actions against them.”
01.11.2018 | Police Stand Guard Outside Florida University Class on 'White Racism'
A Florida university posted campus police outside a sociology class titled "White Racism" after the professor was flooded with harassing emails and messages -- some of them openly racist. Thornhill's experience is not unusual. Last year, the AAUP documented more than 100 incidents of harassment targeting professors were reported on college campuses around the country.