The AAUP Foundation board meets four times a year to consider applications for funding. In the past year, the Foundation has awarded several grants for projects that advance its mission of supporting principles of academic freedom and the democratic purposes of higher education.
A grant to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, based at CUNY Hunter College, supports analysis of clauses in collective bargaining contracts addressing academic freedom and related subjects. The project enables the creation of an interactive data base of contracts available to higher education scholars.
Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD) received a grant to support the creation of webinar teach-ins related to political repression and academic freedom in partnership with Convergence magazine. H-PAD previously received a grant to help cover costs of connecting historians to K–12 teachers, parents, and community activists to counteract educational gag orders.
A grant provided funding for education and outreach materials for The Palestine Exception: What’s at Stake in the Campus Crackdowns, a documentary codirected by Jennifer Ruth and Jan Haaken. The directors planned screenings on US campuses of the film, which explores academic freedom issues related to the Palestine-Israel conflict.
The Foundation also provides funding for initiatives of the AAUP consistent with the Foundation’s mission. A grant defrayed AAUP staff costs for its involvement in three lawsuits against the Trump administration in cases that threaten higher education and implicate academic freedom principles. The AAUP also received a grant to support the promotion and distribution of two publications that advance understanding of the Association’s academic freedom principles: the twelfth edition of the AAUP’s Policy Documents and Reports (known as the Redbook) and the second edition of Henry Reichman’s Understanding Academic Freedom. A grant from the AAUP Foundation continues to support editorial costs for the production of the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom, which is releasing its sixteenth volume in October.
Information about the AAUP Foundation’s special funds and about applying for grants is available at https://www.aaupfoundation.org/special-funds.