2020 AAUP Updates

The AAUP authored and filed yesterday an amicus brief in support of a lower court decision holding that Margaret DeWeese-Boyd, a professor at a Christian college, is not a “minister” and thus was protected by Massachusetts antidiscrimination laws.

The AAUP signed onto a long-form comment seeking an exemption from a prohibition on circumventing technological protection measures for text and data mining (TDM) of lawfully accessed motion pictures and lawfully accessed literary works distributed electronically. The comment was submitted yesterday to the US Copyright Office with Authors Alliance and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (the Berkeley Clinic).

In a December 7 virtual listening session on higher education with the Biden-Harris transition team and other higher ed advocacy organizations, AAUP president Irene Mulvey delivered remarks about planning for a better future for higher education; supporting students, faculty, and staff; and reversing Trump administration policies.

An updated demographic profile of full-time faculty by academic rank and institution type, highlighting disparities among women and people of color in an effort to analyze demographic breakdowns and salary differences.

The AAUP joined nearly one hundred other higher education associations in signing on to a letter sent yesterday by American Council on Education president Ted Mitchell to US congressional leaders, documenting the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter called for quick action to finalize negotiations for supplemental expenditures of at least $120 billion to support colleges, universities, and students.

The AAUP sent a letter to New York University president Andrew Hamilton to express concern about the academic freedom implications of a decision by the Zoom webinar platform to cancel an event hosted by the NYU chapter of the AAUP and co-sponsored by NYU departments and institutes. The event was organized to protest Zoom's previous censorship of a webinar at San Francisco State University.

The University of Akron has been added to the AAUP’s ongoing investigation of the crisis in academic governance that has occurred in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Association’s concerns regard actions taken by the University of Akron administration to terminate the appointments of ninety-six full-time faculty members in a manner that appears to have departed from normative standards of academic governance.

In this election, democracy as a concept is on the ballot. A well-functioning democracy requires respect for rules and standards, and respect for the rule of law. A vibrant democracy demands an educated citizenry and a free press. We need to vote for norms and standards, the rule of law, racial justice, social justice, and decision making with integrity based on reasoned arguments and expert knowledge. We need to vote for a living wage, for access to health care, for access to affordable high quality public higher education as a common good. To be silent now is to be complicit.