Friday evening, the AAUP’s governing Council voted to place Muhlenberg College on the AAUP's list of censured administrations. The censure is based on the findings of a report of an AAUP committee of inquiry regarding actions by the Muhlenberg administration initially to suspend and eventually to dismiss Maura Finkelstein, a tenured associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
The suspension was the outcome of an equal opportunity investigation triggered by a student complaint about a social media repost by Professor Finkelstein that criticized Zionism and Zionists. The subsequent dismissal was based on the same post. Months after the administration dismissed her, it permitted Professor Finkelstein to appeal the decision with a faculty hearing committee, which unanimously found that the administration failed to demonstrate adequate cause for dismissal and recommended that the administration reconsider its decision. The administration responded that Professor Finkelstein’s conduct “could be viewed” as “flagrant disregard” of college policies but declined to take further action against her because Professor Finkelstein had resigned as part of an out-of-court settlement with the college.
The report concludes that the administration, in initially dismissing Professor Finkelstein solely because of one anti-Zionist repost on Instagram without demonstrating cause before an elected faculty body, acted in violation of key AAUP standards, such as those set forth in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and the college’s own dismissal policy. It further concludes that the administration’s hasty action, facilitated by the monitoring and dissemination of Professor Finkelstein’s social media posts by college administrators and staff of the campus chapter of Hillel International (a Jewish student organization) severely impaired the climate for academic freedom at Muhlenberg College.
The report also finds that the college’s equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policies, developed by outside consultants, do not sufficiently protect academic freedom and due process, nor do they comport with widely accepted standards of academic governance. The AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure accordingly recommended to the governing Council that Muhlenberg College be placed on the Association's list of censured administrations. Based on that recommendation, the Council voted to censure the Muhlenberg administration.
At its meeting Friday, the Council also removed from censure the administration of Albertus Magnus College in Connecticut.
Albertus Magnus College was added to the AAUP’s censure list in 2000 because of the administration’s action not to renew the appointment of a nontenured faculty member—and its subsequent suspension and effective dismissal of the same faculty member—without affording him the due-process protections called for by AAUP standards and the college’s own regulations. The investigating committee concluded that, in taking these actions, the administration had “acted in disregard of [the faculty member’s] academic freedom.” In 2000, the faculty member reached an out-of-court settlement with the college.
In March 2024, the college administration responded favorably to a letter from the AAUP inviting discussion of potential censure removal. Subsequent correspondence resulted in the college agreeing to revise its dismissal policy to make it consistent with AAUP-recommended standards, and the revised policy was incorporated in the new version of the faculty handbook that went into effect in September.
As a final step in the censure-removal process, an AAUP representative visited campus in February 2025 to interview faculty leaders and administrative officers to assess current conditions for academic freedom at the college. His report stated in part, “I received a consistent message from all of these meetings: Both the faculty and the administration are anxious to have AMC removed from the censure list, and both report the atmosphere to be excellent with regard to academic freedom.”
Removal of censure can only happen with the cooperation of an institution’s administration and after pertinent institutional policies have been brought into alignment with AAUP-recommended standards. Its accomplishment therefore illustrates the Association’s continued success in advocating for the adoption of institutional policies that protect academic freedom and tenure.