Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Due Process

This 2025 report considers how Title VI has been used to create an enforcement apparatus that sidesteps long-established AAUP-recommended procedures of shared governance and offers recommendations for faculties, administration, and governing boards to uphold institutional autonomy in the face of political interference.

This 2025 report concerns the actions taken against Dr. Maura Finkelstein by the administration of Muhlenberg College, namely her termination without cause following allegations of anti-Zionism and discrimination based on her social media presence. The committee found that the Muhlenberg administration wrongly utilized the college's equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policy and violated Professor Finkelstein's right to academic due process, and that the existing policies do not adequately protect academic freedom or due process according to AAUP standards.

This 2024 report examining the costs to academic freedom incurred by the current trend toward overreliance on part- and full-time non-tenure-track faculty. The report recommends that for the good of institutions, of the educational experiences of students, and of the quality of education, the proportion of tenured and tenure-track faculty should be increased.

This 2023 report details the findings of the special committee investigation into the state of academic freedom and political interference in Florida, focusing on the threats to higher education and the foundational principles of shared governance under the DeSantis regime. Following a preliminary report, this final report reaffirms the "chilling effect on academic freedom" outlined in the preliminary report and expands on how AAUP-supported principles and standards are implicated.

This 2023 report concerns the nonrenewal of the part-time appointment of Professor Erika López Prater at Hamline University after a student complained of having been offended by her presentation of two images of the Prophet Muhammad during an online session of her art history class, as well as two related cases at Hamline and a controversy over an art exhibit at nearby Macalester College. The committee found that Professor López Prater's decision to show the images was protected by her academic freedom, and her nonrenewal lacked a rationale that would be supported by AAUP standards.

This 2023 report concerns the action taken by the administration of Emporia State University to terminate the appointments of thirty tenured and tenure-track faculty members under a temporary "COVID-related workforce management policy" adopted by the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR). The investigating committee concluded that the mass dismissal "is a signal event in American higher education" and in violation of several AAUP-recommended standards concerning academic freedom and tenure. The report concludes that the Board of Regents actively enabled the administration in these violations.

This 2023 report concerns actions taken by the administration of Collin College to terminate the services of Professors Lora Burnett, Suzanne Jones, and Michael Phillips. The investigating committee found that the administration’s actions involved “egregious violations” of all three faculty members’ academic freedom to speak as citizens and to criticize institutional policies, and, in the case of Phillips, of academic freedom in teaching.

This 2023 report addresses the actions taken in September 2021 by the administration of Indiana University Northwest that led to the dismissal and revocation of tenure of Dr. Mark McPhail. The investigating committee found that IUN violated several AAUP-recommended standards of academic due process and the protection of intramural speech in the dismissal of Dr. McPhail, without any appropriate proceeding or disciplinary process.

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.

This 2022 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 Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner without demonstrating adequate cause before an elected faculty hearing body. The investigating committee also found that the administration violated his academic freedom to participate in institutional governance without retaliation.