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.”

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.

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.

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. In an interview with WSN, AAUP vice president Hank Reichman said that by condemning Ciccariello-Maher’s speech and placing him on leave, the school had given into right wing demands. He said, "The problem is that if you accede to the threats, if you give in to them, then it sends the message that it works. You have silenced the person.”

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.