2024 AAUP Updates

11.29.2023 | Academic Freedom and Outside Speakers

A statement released today reaffirms the "right to hear" principle concerning the presence of controversial outside speakers on college campuses, and expands on the relationship between controversies involving invited speakers and increasing partisan political intrusion in higher education.

11.15.2023 | Polarizing Times Demand Robust Academic Freedom

The AAUP condemns the climate of intimidation that now attempts to silence people who express unpopular views on the current conflict in the Middle East. College and university leaders have no obligation to speak out on the most controversial issues of the day. Their duty is to protect the academic freedom, free speech, and associational rights of faculty and students to speak on all topics of public or political interest without fear of intimidation, retaliation, or punishment.

10.30.2023 | Defending the Freedom to Learn

The AAUP joins four other education advocacy groups, spanning from pre-K to higher education, in launching a Freedom to Learn pledge, highlighting how far-right attacks on public education and academic freedom are part of the same extremist push to hurt learning and undermine trust in public schools.

10.30.2023 | Remembering John T. McNay

We were saddened to learn of the death of longtime AAUP leader John T. McNay this past Friday, October 27. John was active in the University of Cincinnati chapter, a former president of the Ohio state conference, a member of the AAUP's governing Council, and the chair of the Committee on Government Relations.

10.24.2023 | Academic Freedom in Times of War

As the Israel-Hamas war rages and campus protests proliferate, institutional authorities must refrain from sanctioning faculty members for expressing politically controversial views and should instead defend their right, under principles of academic freedom, to do so.

10.20.2023 | Attack on ASU Professor a New Low

AFT president Randi Weingarten and AAUP president Irene Mulvey released a statement condemning the attack on Arizona State University professor David Boyles by Turning Point USA operatives.

10.18.2023 | Draconian Compensation Plan Violates Principle of Tenure at Tufts

The AAUP filed an amicus brief in a case involving Tufts University's implementation of a compensation plan that requires medical school faculty to raise a portion of their salaries through external grant funding. The plan violates Tufts’s own definition of tenure, which was lifted virtually verbatim from the AAUP’s recommendations and states that faculty should have “academic freedom” and “economic security.”

10.06.2023 | Illinois State University Faculty File for Union Authorization

An overwhelming majority of tenure-line faculty at Illinois State University filed union authorization cards this week. Upon certification, the United Faculty of ISU will be affiliated with the AAUP, the AFT, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, serving as what assistant professor Xiaoying Zhao called "a strong voice to advocate for the needs of our students, this institution, and our colleagues.”

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