2018 AAUP Updates

Delegates to the 104th Annual Meeting of the AAUP voted today to add the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to the AAUP’s list of administrations censured for failing to observe generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure.

Delegates to the 104th Annual Meeting of the AAUP voted today to remove the University of Iowa from the list of sanctioned institutions as well as removing Stillman College from the list of censured administrations.

A decisive majority of faculty at Oregon State University have declared their support for unionization in an official petition filed on June 6 with the Oregon Employment Relations Board. The United Academics of Oregon State University, affiliated with the AAUP and the American Federation of Teachers, will represent over 2,400 faculty members. It seeks to strengthen shared governance, improve working conditions, and create the best possible environment for teaching, learning, research, and outreach.

The faculty moved to form a union by filing a petition with the Oregon Employment Relations Board. Under Oregon’s public sector labor law, a union can petition for certification when a majority of potential bargaining unit members sign authorization cards, a process known as “card check.” The new union, representing approximately 180 full-time faculty members, including tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty members, will be a chapter of the AAUP. It aims to strengthen shared governance and to establish a legally enforceable contract with respect to working conditions, pay, and benefits.

Today the AAUP issued, jointly with Association of American Colleges and Universities, a statement on the liberal arts disciplines. The statement argues that higher education’s contributions to the common good and to the functioning of our democracy are severely compromised when universities eliminate and diminish the liberal arts.

At the AAUP's annual conference, three members will be honored for their extraordinary dedication and accomplishments as faculty activists. The AAUP's Georgina M. Smith Award will go to Deborah Smith of Kent State University. The AAUP's Outstanding Achievement Award will go to Alexander Zukas of National University. The AAUP-CBC's Marilyn Sternberg Award will go to Martin Kich of Wright State University. 

Investigators into a case at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln concluded that the dismissal of a lecturer was related to the political content of speech and thus may have violated academic freedom. The case, which crystallizes the current right-wing assault on higher education, involves issues that the AAUP has been working on intensively this year--faculty harassment and exaggerated controversies over free speech on campus.

An AAUP amicus brief filed on Friday argued that professor Teresa Buchanan’s academic freedom was violated when Louisiana State University dismissed her for making statements in the classroom that the university improperly characterized as sexual harassment.