2019 AAUP Updates

The AAUP joins Scholars at Risk in calling on "all parties, especially government and university authorities, to take immediate steps to de-escalate violence and ensure the safety and well-being of all persons connected with the demonstrations" in Hong Kong.

On November 1, following the announcement of the retirement of the current University of Wisconsin system, the president of the Board of Regents appointed a nine-member presidential search committee. Breaking decades of institutional precedent, he did not include any faculty members on the search committee, a clear violation of widely accepted standards for shared governance as set forth in the AAUP's Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities.

In a historic election victory, a decisive majority of faculty at the University of New Mexico voted for a union. Two UNM bargaining units consisting of more than 1,600 full- and part-time faculty across five campuses voted by a 70 percent margin to join the AAUP and our organizing partners, the American Federation of Teachers.

The AAUP, together with forty-three educational associations, signed onto an amicus brief prepared by the American Council on Education to the US Supreme Court in support of upholding the DACA program.

The AAUP has filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Jennifer Freyd, who sued the University of Oregon for pay discrimination based on significant pay disparities with male faculty members.

Multiple organizations have joined the AAUP's statement urging the Department of Education to step away from its dangerous path of political intrusion into curricular decisions best made by faculty.  

Statement from Henry Reichman, Chair, Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure on the US Department of Education's letter ordering the Duke–UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies to revise its offerings

In August, Kirkwood Community College in Iowa forced the resignation of Jeff Klinzman, an adjunct instructor of 24 years, because of social media posts (some dating to 2012) that supported antifascism and were critical of the president of the United States.