From Kelly Benjamin, AAUP Media and Communications

These are trying times for academic freedom in American higher education. The war in Gaza has heightened tension on college campuses, leading the national AAUP and several AAUP chapters to weigh in defending the right of faculty to express politically controversial views in the midst of this crisis. You can find our most recent statements on this issue here and here.

Below are the latest round of AAUP press clips highlighting our important work in these volatile times, as well as our members’ ongoing struggle to defend higher education. As always, to stay up to date on all things AAUP, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Threads.

AAUP Top Clips:

• Syracuse University’s student paper, the Daily Orange, published the SU AAUP chapter’s statement objecting to recent emails from their provost that call into question SU faculty’s right to academic freedom.
• The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that the AAUP-Penn chapter sharply criticizedthe “erasure” of Palestinians and an absence of faculty consultation in response to a donor backlash around the ongoing violence in Gaza and Israel. AAUP-Penn asserts that the crisis has had a “chilling effect” on teaching and research, challenging the core principles of academic freedom. The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Inside Higher Education have also reported on the donor controversy.
• “Academic freedom applies regardless of viewpoint” – The Cornell AAUP chapter’s statement advising the Cornell administration to protect faculty’s academic freedom in extramural speech was published in the Cornell Daily Sun.
• The Minnesota Daily published an op-ed by the executive committee of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities AAUP chapter urging the university to affirm support for peaceful protest and the right to extra-mural speech by faculty, staff, and students.
• The announced $13 million in spending cuts at Bradley University and the Bradley AAUP chapter’s warning of “irreversible” damage to the institution has been covered extensively in Peoria.
• “Intelligent, curious people don’t like being told what they can and cannot read or discuss or think.” – Diane Roberts of the Florida Phoenix cited the recent AAUP faculty survey in southern red states in her commentary on Ron DeSantis’s censorious higher education policies in Florida.
• “In this deep dark hole of Florida, there are still glimmers of hope.” – The AAUP is cited in this Teen Vogue report on “How Young Floridians are fighting ‘Florida-grown Fascism’ under Ron DeSantis.”
• “If you look at our grad students, they are basically starving.” – University of Southern Mississippi AAUP chapter president Jeremy Scott at a recent AAUP-USM rally in support of university-wide pay increases.

In Solidarity,

Kelly Benjamin
AAUP Media and Communications