2017 AAUP Updates

On July 12, the AAUP submitted an amicus brief in support of faculty members who have been subjected to intrusive public records requests for e-mails related to their climate-science research. 

The AAUP urges the American Bar Association to reject proposed weakening of accreditation standards.

The AAUP today urged the Trinity College administration to immediately reinstate professor Johnny Eric Williams to his normal faculty duties. Professor Williams, an associate professor of sociology with twenty-one years of service at Trinity College, was placed on leave Monday evening after being targeted with of a flood of threats following reports about his social media postings by the right-wing media outlet Campus Reform

We believe that the travel ban is at odds with fundamental AAUP principles and our nation’s historic commitment to the free exchange of ideas. We plan to remain engaged around the continuing legal fight. We have also partnered with the Knight First Amendment Institute to look closely into the search of electronic devices at US borders.

Yet another faculty member, Johnny 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.