Reminder: Never capitulate to tyrants. Fight Back. #DefendHigherEd #AcademicSky

Education is a public good for all. When politicians censor classroom teaching in order to narrow the field of topics that students can engage in, they rob them of a stellar world class education. This is what is happening at Texas A&M & other institutions in the state. 🧵

"As we approach the start of the new semester it falls to us to do whatever we can to keep one another safe. Please remember: while ICE agents may enter public areas of the campus, they require a subpoena or a valid judicial warrant to enter private or restricted spaces." – @umn-tc-aaup.bsky.social

In the light of ICE's unjustifiable murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, AAUP President Todd Wolfson has released a statement urging that ICE should suspend all operation in American cities. Read full statement at link below 👇 and at the graphic in this thread 🧵 #AbolishICE #AcademicSky

This is how you stand up for educators against politically motivated attacks on teaching. Please sign OU AAUP’s petition demanding that OU protect the freedom to teach & learn, & stand up against targeted harassment & intimidation. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ actionnetwork.org/forms/defend...

Student activists working in solidarity with AAUP organizers, faculty & staff across the nation has powered key victories over Trump's authoritarian agenda! We are just getting started 🔥 2026 will be the year of mass coalitional action demanding safe, affordable, and democratic campuses for all!

AAUP University of Nebraska - Lincoln is packing the Board of Regents meeting RIGHT NOW to say no to a $27.5 million budget cut and to the closure of 4 academic programs! Catch the livestream of the meeting and the testimonies of organized UNL higher ed workers here👇 nebraska.edu/news-and-eve...

"Restrictions in Texas, Florida, Hungary & elsewhere are not isolated. They're part of a long battle over what truths will shape the next generation. When universities choose openness, societies move forward. When they choose silence, societies fracture."

Fantastic win in Maryland. As the Trump admin attempts to destroy vital research, @uam-umd.bsky.social is fighting back & winning...& they're not done yet. As they celebrate this win, they're pushing for greater transparency, support for faculty & an academic freedom fund. Faculty, join your union!

Billionaires, who quite often do not see education as a common good, should not be guiding higher education policy. “I kind of yearn,” Mr. Nassirian said, “for the gilded age when billionaires satisfied their extracurricular interests by collecting Fabergé eggs and prized ponies.” #DefendHigherEd

“From attacks on academic freedom to the defunding of life-saving scientific research to arresting peaceful student protesters, Trump’s higher ed policies have been catastrophic for our democracy. We’re excited to build a coalition of workers & students fighting back." – AAUP president Todd Wolfson

For @aaup.org’s podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Vineeta Singh, Jennifer Ruth, and Ellen Schrecker about academic freedom and about the work we have to do (organize) to translate writing and thinking and teaching into action. aauppresents.buzzsprout.com/1837772/epis...

💥💥💥 DEFEND HIGHER ED STARTER PACK! We are building a movement to defend US higher education & have created a starter pack of AAUP chapter & ally accounts to follow. Please Share! (This list is not exhaustive. If you have suggestions, please shoot us a DM!) #DefendHighEd ⬇️⬇️⬇️ go.bsky.app/3YidJ7k

The resistance to Trump’s “loyalty oath” compact is growing and growing! ✅MIT ✅Penn ✅Brown ✅UVa ✅Dartmouth ✅USC ✅Arizona 🟩 Vanderbilt 🟩 Texas Organized faculty and workers in higher ed will lead us to victory and towards a better world for our students! #NoLoyaltyOaths #NoKings #DefendHigherEd

Public universities that sign onto Trump's "Loyalty Oath" will violate the constitutional rights of their students.🤯 AAUP General Counsel Veena Dubal breaks down why in this clip from our recent AAUP TV update. @veenadubal.bsky.social #DefendHigherEd

One adjunct professor put it bluntly: “When your next contract depends on staying in bounds, watching what you say is survival.” theconversation.com/college-facu...

🔥 WashU in STL rejects Trump’s loyalty oath compact! 🔥 The resistance cannot be stopped! AAUP chapters and organized higher ed workers across the nation are unified in spearheading this fight—let’s keep it up!

TONIGHT! Join AAUP president Todd Wolfson & AAUP General Counsel Veena Dubal for an update on the AVALANCHE of universities rejecting Trump’s loyalty oath compact & how the compact violates the US Constitution. 7:30PM ET / 4:30 PM PT Live on both IG & YouTube. Link: youtube.com/live/h-H-ETa...

And now there are SEVEN. UofA president Suresh Garimella announced today that the school will reject Trump’s loyalty compact. “Principles like academic freedom, merit-based research funding & institutional independence…must be preserved." Vanderbilt, TX: all eyes on you. 👀 #DefendHigherEd

Scenes from Tampa, Florida today. #nokings @utaaup.bsky.social

Hell yes, Pittsburgh. Love Yinz. No Kings.

The snake is growing. ✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿✊🏾✊🏼 Vanderbilt, Texas, AZ…now’s the time. The world is watching. The resistance is here. #NoLoyaltyOaths #NoKings #DefendHigherEd

Ladies and Gentlemen: WE ARE OUT HERE! Send us your pics & videos! #NoKings #NoKingsAAUP #DefendHigherEd

BOOM! After over a thousand students, faculty, & workers gathered on campus to demand a rejection of Trump’s bribe, UVA SAYS NO LOYALTY OATH! ✊🏼✊🏿✊🏻✊🏾 M.I.T. ☑️ BROWN ☑️ PENN ☑️ USC☑️ UVA ☑️ This is People Power in Action. #DefendHigherEd

⭐️⭐️ Scholars of academic freedom agree: “To immunize ideas based on political standards is to impose an unacceptable test of ideological conformity. Nothing could be further from the spirit and ideals that we, despite our differences, seek for American higher education.” ⬇️

Four down. Five to go. Let’s go. Join our National Teach-In on Trump’s Loyalty Oaths. Register Here: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #DefendHigherEd

TOMORROW Friday, October 17, 2PM ET Join us to learn more about the nationwide coordinated resistance to Trump’s loyalty oaths & unprecedented assault on higher education. Together, we are turning the tide.

Students, faculty, & campus workers are leading this incredible pushback. We will not back down in defense of higher education & our democracy. There is an unstoppable wave of unified rejection of Trump’s authoritarian agenda cresting throughout higher education. Join Us. #DefendHigherEd

And now Penn rejects the compact! Students, faculty and staff unite. @aaup-penn.bsky.social @aaup.org 🔥 www.thedp.com/article/2025...

🚨🚨🚨 And THREE stood up! Penn has joined MIT & Brown in rejecting Trump’s loyalty oath compact. When we join together and fight back, WE WIN! No amount of federal bribery is worth surrendering the freedom to question, explore, and dissent. LET’S GO! #DefendHigherEd @aaup-penn.bsky.social

BOOM! 💥💥💥 Brown REJECTS Trump’s loyalty oath! “I’m concerned the compact, by its nature & provisions, would restrict #academicfreedom & undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance, critically compromising our ability to fulfill our mission.” — Christina H. Paxson, Brown University President

“The Court cannot trust the universities to enforce their policies in a constitutional way while Plaintiffs are left in a state of uncertainty, chilling their speech for fear that their expressive conduct may violate the law or university policies.” — U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra

"Once you start teaching loyalty instead of critical thinking, you stop creating scholars & you start creating followers. That's not the America we signed up for." #noloyaltyoaths #academicfreedom

Professor Karma Chávez of @utaustinaaup.bsky.social explaining how the abolishment of faculty senates in Texas strips away democracy & any notion of shared governance in TX higher education. #defendhighered

Over 100 Brown U students & 20 faculty members gathered outside the campus today to demand that the university reject Trump’s loyalty oath compact. Professors & students taped their mouths shut to symbolize the compact’s threat to free speech, #academicfreedom & diversity of thought. #DefendHigherEd

Trump is demanding nine colleges and universities sign a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." These demands will come to all of higher ed if we don't stand together and fight back now. Tell our college and university administrations: Reject the Compact! tinyurl.com/rejectthecom...

“I joined the AAUP because I wanted to connect w/ people who shared the values I hold dear — values that are under attack & need defending. I saw the opportunity to participate in the trial because of that connection. & because of that connection, I felt able to take a risk worth taking.”

NO LOYALTY OATHS IN HIGHER ED! Trump's attacks on our universities are an attempt to consolidate power. This loyalty oath directly undermines our right to academic freedom & goes against every democratic principle our country should uphold. Please click below, sign, & share. #DefendHigherEd

UC’s Academic Council calls on the Office of the President & the UC Board of Regents to unequivocally reject governmental demands that compromise institutional autonomy and #academicfreedom. This is the way. #DefendHigherEd

“Trump’s restrictions on H-1B visa applications will lead to less lifesaving research, reduced innovation, & diminished competitiveness. This short-sighted policy will hurt every American by slowing research breakthroughs, weakening our economy & putting our global leadership at risk.” —Todd Wolfson

The Trump admin’s offer to give preferential treatment to institutions that toe the party line reeks of bribery in exchange for allegiance to a partisan ideological agenda. This is corruption. Adherence to ‘loyalty oaths’ would usher in a new era of thought policing in American higher education.

Just noting that a university that signed this compact would be agreeing to gut clinics and institutes like, say, the Knight Institute, whose mandate is to promote free speech and press freedom. What would it even mean for us to be “neutral”?

In a landmark ruling in our case against the Trump admin on the deportation of international students for protected speech, Judge William Young rejected the government’s justification for the wearing of masks by ICE agents as “disingenuous, squalid & dishonorable.” #AAUPvRubio @knightcolumbia.org

Today I am especially happy to be an @aaup.org member.

This case … squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us.” “The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do’. — Judge William G. Young #AAUPvRubio

So, at the very least, we all need to be joining or starting an AAUP chapter: www.aaup.org/chapters/fin...

BREAKING: WE WON!!! 💥 💥 💥 Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment. Full ruling here:

“McCarthyism targeted individuals because of their past political activities. They were never asked about their teaching and research. Today, the attack is on the university, on the academic community; not just individuals, but on the higher education community as a whole.” — Ellen Schrecker

Academic freedom will not survive by encouraging professors to censor themselves more. “Too much of the response to the Trump admin’s repression has been driven by fear & cowardice. We need to fiercely support #academicfreedom as a fundamental right for all.” — @johnkwilson.bsky.social

Gift link! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...