Mark your calendars for these events Feb 10th! ⬇️⬇️

Rutgers full-time faculty: The window for applying for a pay equity adjustment is open, now through March 1! Come to a Salary Equity Program info session on Zoom to learn what's involved – Tuesday, Jan 13, at 12pm. RSVP here: https://loom.ly/yaMngaw

It's the new year - time to start saving our university! See you 1/7/26 (FDOC) at 12:00pm at the South Building Let's tell the administration to stop making rash ideologically-driven spending decisions & start taking our academic mission seriously.

Virginia GOP Officials Move to End In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students

"Can professors teach without unwarranted intrusions and political interference, even if the concept is controversial yet has been upheld by academic and scientific standards in every field?" - Michael Givel, President of AAUP University of Oklahoma

The parallels between the Red Scare of the 1950s and today’s assault on higher ed remind us of the need to join communities of resistance. Read Joan Wallach Scott (former chair of AAUP’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure) on the stakes of defending higher ed as a public good.

"A petition circulated by AAUP demands the admin release full details on the processes that led to Curth’s suspension, publicly affirm faculty’s right to teach & research free from political interference & help develop a “harassment response and prevention plan” for responding to political attacks."

2025 ended with some new #UnionFamily members! More #PublicEd professionals, nurses and #HospitalStaff, #HigherEd faculty, and #CTStateWorkers said #UnionYES last month. #BetterInAUnion @aft.org @aftteach.bsky.social @afthighered.bsky.social @psrp-aft.bsky.social @afthealthcare.bsky.social @aaup.org

The firing of Sang Hea Kil from her tenured professorship at San Jose State for her pro-Palestinian speech has major implications for academic freedom and unions at public universities. Despite unanimously winning the faculty hearing, the campus president overturned the decision. Read more here👇

The parallels between the Red Scare of the 1950s and today’s assault on higher ed remind us of the need to join communities of resistance. Read Joan Wallach Scott (former chair of AAUP’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure) on the stakes of defending higher ed as a public good.

In 1950s, targets were teachers—communists, progressives, liberals—and left-wing unions. Now target is the system itself. Its value as public good is redefined as a matter of parental choice (vouchers, charter schools, paid for by public funds), and its principles of equality are being trashed.

Over 2,800 people have signed on to the AAUP petition challenging the requirement for faculty across universities in the North Carolina System to make syllabi publicly available. The petition is still taking signatures: add yours today and say no to political pressure from right-wing think tanks 👇

🤠 Hey, Texas faculty! As you prep for the spring semester check out our blog for tips + advice. 👇 1) Don’t self-censor, know your rights! 2) Report censorship of your teaching, research, or expression. 3) Organize your department. We are stronger together! aaup-texas.org/blog/f/2025-...

“We need a higher ed system that’s not rooted in students as customers, but in critical inquiry and the development of smart, thoughtful citizens in a democracy who can see through the lies and stand up for the kind of society we want to build.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Universities have a duty to safeguard the freedom to teach, learn, explore, & debate ideas, even when doing so is uncomfortable or politically unpopular. At the University of Oklahoma, the policy is to give a paid suspension to any faculty member against whom a student has filed a complaint. 👀

A petition is circulating to defend OU graduate instructor Mel Curth. You can read the letter to OU’s President and sign the petition here: actionnetwork.org/forms/defend...

“To make this a negotiation between the Trump administration and regents and lawyers as opposed to an open conversation and debate between faculty and a government that’s essentially acting like an authoritarian regime, I think is a mistake.” — Veena Dubal, AAUP General Counsel

"The policy is meant to prevent students from learning about topics the current administration deems unacceptable. This will deprive students of a robust education and put targets on the backs of faculty who choose to teach such content, despite the risks." www.citizen-times.com/story/opinio...

When the University stands firmly on the side of academic freedom, integrity, and its own stated values, we all flourish—students, faculty, staff, and the broader communities we serve.” 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

There are many sound and well-researched plans from faculty and staff that address the deficit; they are being totally ignored in a flouting of the principles of shared governance. We demand the administration rescind the cuts. www.chronicle.com/article/were...

“We need a higher ed system that’s not rooted in students as customers, but in critical inquiry and the development of smart, thoughtful citizens in a democracy who can see through the lies and stand up for the kind of society we want to build.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

If AAUP's 2025 can be summed up in a phrase, it would be: Organize, Fight, Win! We will remember 2025 as a year of membership growth, mass actions against Trump's loyalty oath compact & major legal victories for the AAUP. We invite you to organize, fight, and win with us in 2026!

When we fight, we win! ✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽

If AAUP's 2025 can be summed up in a phrase, it would be: Organize, Fight, Win! We will remember 2025 as a year of membership growth, mass actions against Trump's loyalty oath compact & major legal victories for the AAUP. We invite you to organize, fight, and win with us in 2026!

This year, the AAUP proved something powerful: When we fight, we win. Your gift to the AAUP Foundation will power legal challenges, advocacy & education that defend the core values of higher ed. Please donate at the link below. An injury to one is an injury to all. Together, we are stronger.

The New School was founded as an institution dedicated to critical inquiry and the free exchange of ideas. The current austerity measures at the university are dismantling the radical democratic aspirations it once represented.

SFSU says the quiet part out loud, meanwhile The New School hides behind mission, vision, and “realignment.” A central purpose of VSP is to “lower tenure density.” Our contract and part-time faculty, and staff will get hard and first. goldengatexpress.org/114511/campu...

Kudos to @djpressman.bsky.social of the UConn AAUP who is quoted. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

“We can’t build the vision of higher ed that we all want without first standing up to fascism.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Restructuring with a hard r

Excellent essay by Michael Schwalbe on the problem of UNC System Office now asserting that syllabi are works for hire. @aaup.org ncnewsline.com/2025/12/23/c...

The AAUP chapter at Oklahoma University released a statement demanding that the President and Board of Regents defend Mel Curth, the instructor put on administrative leave after the viral fallout for failing Samantha Fulnecke’s essay, from death threats and targeted harassment.

UVa's Board of Visitors rushed the appointment of Scott Beardsley as the next President of the University. “The appropriate next step is to fully pause the presidential appointment process until the new administration is in place and the Board of Visitors is appropriately constituted.”

“The University of Oklahoma’s decision is a deeply troubling violation of academic freedom & due process. The university’s actions are an escalation of far-right efforts to politicize, surveil & discipline instruction, undermining the integrity of higher education.” - Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

"The New School was founded a little over a century ago precisely because you can’t put a price on critical inquiry and the free exchange of ideas. The dismantling of this promise spells disaster not only for the university itself but for the radical democratic aspirations it once represented."

"Providing public access to syllabi during a period of heightened partisanship and rising political violence looks like partisan pandering with a cost." — North Carolina AAUP Link to petition challenging this dangerous decision in thread. Sign on and support faculty at the UNC system!

A narrative from a faculty member on the current escalation of ICE activity in Columbus. Please see the list of resources at the end for ways to get involved with orgs doing the work on the ground.

It's a failure of the academic imagination to think cutting core mission is the best route to right-sizing. Keep your teachers and researchers and lower class sizes (post pandemic students need more attention). Get ur savings by cutting admin fat and all the contracts with groups like Huron.

Academics! Join us!

What is happening at the University of Oklahoma is an outrageous violation of due process. "They hide behind vague statements & assertions of ‘trust us.’ At this point, they need to show us and not tell us." — OU AAUP

“Rather than heeding calls to pause the search until a fair & transparent process can be initiated, the Board regrettably chose to push an appointment without a duly constituted membership. This undermines the legitimacy of today’s appointment that will continue to be challenged.” - Todd Wolfson

"The fear is real." @thefireorg.bsky.social @aaup.org

“The message that it sends is that the people impacted by racial discrimination and harassment don’t matter,” said Paige Duggins-Clay, an attorney with a Texas nonprofit that has worked with families who’ve filed racial harassment complaints with OCR. www.propublica.org/article/trum...

The cuts at the New School in the @nytimes.com. It’s not too late to cut the cuts and stop the clock on this cruel timeline for staff and 40% of full-time faculty www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/n...

The Trump admin's appeal of AAUP Harvard v. DOJ is "just a continuation of their shameless campaign to halt critical research funding in an attempt to chill universities & faculty from engaging in any speech, teaching & research that Donald Trump disfavors.” - Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Check out this CFP for a special issue of _Academic Labor: Research and Artistry_ on arts-based engagement & intellectual work in higher ed. "We encourage submissions that theorize, reflect upon, innovate & critique the practices & discourses of academic labor through a creative/engaged lens."

Higher ed workers are The Nation's public health heroes of 2025. All year, faculty, students & staff at biomedical research institutions nationwide fought the Trump admin's funding cuts on research, health, and higher ed. That was just the beginning. The resistance will be even bigger in 2026.

“Today’s rushed appointment of Scott Beardsley as University of Virginia president by UVA’s Board of Visitors, with little meaningful faculty input, is an affront to the entire UVA community in a time of crisis.” — joint statement from @proftwolf.bsky.social & @rweingarten.bsky.social