Fighting Political Interference in Higher Ed

• Join us May 30 from 3 to 4 p.m. ET for an online discussion of a new white paper out from the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom—Manufacturing Backlash: Right-Wing Think Tanks and the Legislative Attack on Higher Education, 2021–2023—which examines the well-funded political operatives and conservative think tanks behind this attack. Register here. Download the white paper here.
• Two new episodes of our podcast AAUP Presents cover two of the biggest stories in higher ed this spring: the campus protests and political interference in how colleges and universities operate. In the episode on campus protests, we interview three faculty members who’ve been involved in supporting the right to protest on their campuses about their very varied experiences, from negotiated solutions to arrest. In the episode on political interference, we talk to professors Isaac Kamola and Jennifer Ruth about the history of and the people behind the current wave of political interference in higher ed. All episodes can be found on our website.

AAUP Elections and Biennial Meeting

Online registration closes June 1 for the 2024 AAUP Conference and Biennial Meeting, which will take place June 13-16 in the Washington, DC, area. The conference includes informational sessions, presentations on pressing issues in higher education, AAUP awards, and plenary sessions. The biennial meeting conducts important AAUP business, including officer and Council elections. Learn more and register.

Some key dates for the upcoming biennial meeting are :

• June 13 and 14 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET: Onsite registration is open
• June 13 at 4:15 p.m ET: Delegate Orientation and Q&A
• June 14 by 5 p.m. ET: Delegates sign in and receive their delegate credentials
• June 15: Elections will be held by secret ballot of credentialed delegates

See complete information about elections and the biennial meeting.

Working to Reduce Student Debt

• As part of a coalition of 228 national, state, and local civil rights, consumer advocacy, veterans, disability, and labor organizations, the AAUP has submitted comments supporting student debt cancellation, calling on the US Department of Education to implement debt cancellation as swiftly and efficiently as possible and to ensure that it provides the maximum amount of relief to borrowers.
• We also joined allies in the Double Pell Alliance, a group of organizations and associations advocating for increased investments in the Federal Pell Grant program, in calling for the maximum Pell Grant amount to be increased to $13,000 per year for fiscal year 2025.

Summer Institute Is Coming Soon

Save the date! The 2024 Summer Institute will be held August 1 to 4 at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.Registration will open soon, and in the meantime, you can read more about the institute here.

AAUP in the News

• “The message conveyed by these hearings—that politicians have the right to control what is or is not taught in a college classroom and the authority to dictate what can or cannot happen on a college campus—is repressive and completely unacceptable in a free society,” – Irene Mulvey, AAUP president quoted in Inside Higher Education.
• “It didn’t need to happen. It could have been avoided. Our president has missed the boat on this one.” – Walt Heinecke, president of the U-Va AAUP chapter, quoted in the Washington Post on the police raid of the student protest encampment on campus.
• “When we get five or six of these cases in a two-month period, where there are suspensions related to social media posts over a current event, shall we say, the war in Gaza, that is unusual.” – Anita Levy, Senior Program Officer in the AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance, quoted in The Intercept.
• “Is someone who is drawing upon a body of expertise, communicating with students and teaching, is that in violation of a policy when it happens to take place in the midst of what has become a student encampment?” – Kristina Mendicino, president of the Brown University chapter of the AAUP quoted in Rhode Island Public Radio on professors conducting class at a protest encampment.
• “The development of this particular policy had virtually no faculty input, a tiny committee of five faculty were consulted at some point.” – Jay Smith, president of the North Carolina Conference of the AAUP quoted in Inside Higher Education. Lawmakers influencing the curriculum “should be regarded as a line in the sand that we don’t allow them to cross,” he said.
• “There’s a chilling effect where faculty are not sure what they can and can’t say. The problem is exacerbated by the increasing number of non-tenured faculty members who feel incredibly vulnerable about taking a public stance on a controversial issue such as the war in Gaza.” – Issac Kamola, director of the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, quoted on CNN.
• “The way forward is through education, dialogue, communication, talking with the students, engaging students, letting them have their voices heard,” – AAUP president Irene Mulvey quoted in Politico on the best strategy of addressing campus protests.