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The AAUP office reopened on September 7, 2021. Contact information for all staff, including those working remotely or on a hybrid schedule, is available here. 

 

 

AAUP Policies & Reports

Academic Freedom and Tenure Investigative Reports

2022 | Academic Freedom and Tenure: Linfield University (Oregon)

The report of the investigating committee concerns the dismissal of a tenured professor and endowed chair at Linfield University in Oregon. The report finds that Linfield’s administration violated the 1940 Statement and the institution’s own regulations when it dismissed the professor, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, without demonstrating adequate cause for its action before an elected faculty hearing body. The investigating committee also found that the administration violated Pollack-Pelzner’s academic freedom to participate in institutional governance without retaliation. General conditions for academic freedom and shared governance at Linfield University, the report states, are “deplorable.”

2021 | Academic Freedom and Tenure: University System of Georgia

This report, prepared by the Association’s staff, concerns the action taken on October 13, 2021, by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia to remove the procedural protections of tenure from the system’s post-tenure review policy.

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College and University Governance Reports

2022 | Governance, Academic Freedom, and Institutional Racism in the University of North Carolina System

This report details an investigation of governance, academic free­dom, and institutional racism in the University of North Carolina system. The report considers the influence of the gerrymandered North Carolina state legislature on the systemwide board of governors and campus boards of trustees and how political pressure has obstructed meaningful faculty participation in the governance of the UNC system. It also assesses how the environment for academic freedom in the UNC system has been weakened by the politiciza­tion and increased centralization of system governance and by mounting political interference in university policy. Finally, the report focuses on key issues of institutional racism within UNC: the racial climate, institutional inequities, and retention of faculty of color. It demonstrates how the areas of governance, institutional racism, and academic freedom overlap significantly.

2021 | COVID-19 and Academic Governance

This report details an investigation of the crisis in academic governance that has occurred in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on eight institutions: Canisius College (NY), Illinois Wesleyan University, Keuka College (NY), Marian University (WI), Medaille College (NY), National University (CA), University of Akron, and Wittenberg University (OH). AAUP governance investigations are conducted under the aegis of the Association’s standing Committee on College and University Governance by AAUP members who have had no previous involvement in the cases under investigation. The investigating committee is charged with independently determining the relevant facts and the positions of the principal parties before reaching its findings.

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Committee Reports

2022 | Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom: Redefinitions of Antisemitism and Racism

This statement by the AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure addresses recent partisan efforts in state legislatures to restrict teaching that critically examines the history and policies of the state of Israel and the United States. The statement notes that conservative politicians have justified restrictive legislation on these two topics under the guise of protecting students from harm and urges the defeat of these legislative initiatives and others of their kind in order to protect the academic freedom that is vital to the preservation of democracy. 

 

2021 | On Academic Freedom and Transphobia

The statement that follows was prepared in 2018 and approved in 2019 by the Association’s Committee on Gender and Sexuality in the Academic Profession (formerly the Committee on Women in the Academic Profession) and approved by Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure in 2021. It was adopted by the Association’s Council in 2021.

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Research Reports

2022 | The 2022 AAUP Survey of Tenure Practices

The 2022 AAUP Survey of Tenure Practices, the first survey of its kind since 2004, offers a snapshot of prevailing tenure practices and policies at four-year institutions with tenure systems. Among the findings, the survey found that tenure is highly prevalent throughout US higher education, with 87 percent of four-year institutions that have a Carnegie Classification of bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral institution reporting having a tenure system.

2021 | The 2021 AAUP Shared Governance Survey: Findings on Faculty Roles by Decision-Making Areas

The 2021 AAUP Shared Governance Survey, the first such survey in two decades and the subject of this report, included questions about the level of faculty authority in twenty-nine areas. The survey provides a new snapshot comparing findings from previous years and gauging the impact of developments that have occurred in the intervening years. To achieve the latter objective, this year’s survey includes such topics as policies on intellectual property rights and modes of course delivery.

Audit Reports

2020 | AAUP Audit Reports

Audited reports of the AAUP's financial statements from the past three years.