2017 AAUP Updates

Yet another faculty member, John Eric Williams of Trinity College, has become the target of a flood of threats following reports about his social media postings by the right-wing media outlet Campus Reform. We condemn the practice, becoming all too common, of bombarding faculty and institutions of higher education with threats. We support and stand with our colleagues and campus communities whose academic freedom is threatened. 

No educator—at any academic level, anywhere in the world—should be told by outside forces what to say or how to think.

We note with sadness the death of Evelyn Miller, a member of the AAUP staff from 1961 to 2002, who provided essential support to the Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

In conjunction with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the AAUP is seeking information from any faculty members who have had their cell phones or other electronic devices searched by US border patrol officers at the nation’s borders while traveling internationally.

We join with others in condemning the wave of intimidation and threats that have swept campuses and the country this year, including, very recently, in the case of Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor of African-American studies at Princeton University.

Cutting education funding to pay for tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations, as proposed by the Trump administration, is grotesque.

A former AAUP vice president, Baumol is best known for identifying the phenomenon now known as Baumol’s cost disease, which explains why the cost of services such as college educations increases more rapidly than the cost of goods.

Legislation has recently cropped up in several states that addresses issues related to campus free speech. The AAUP strongly supports freedom of expression on campus and the rights of faculty and students to invite speakers of their choosing. We oppose, however, any legislation that interferes with institutional autonomy.