Here's the deal: the VA legislature is working on a collective bargaining bill that includes higher education workers like faculty, grad students, staff, and wage workers. Come to our collective bargaining town hall to learn more. Feb. 28 at 2pm. Ornery Beer Co., Fairfax City. RSVP: bit.ly/3OsNL0O

Academic freedom and fair employment are inseparable. @aaupmason.bsky.social leaders are fighting to prevent Virginia higher ed workers from being excluded from a historic expansion of collective bargaining for public employees. richmond.com/opinion/colu...

Let’s go @aft.org + @aaup.org! Let’s fight for inclusion and better working conditions for VA’s higher ed workers. At @aaupmason.bsky.social, under attack by Trump-Youngkin and a rogue board, we fought for President Washington’s job—and won! All workers at Mason deserve that level of fight!

“Abolishing gender programs & the lessons they have taught, will, Trump & his acolytes hope, undermine our ability not just to condemn, but also to critically analyze the policies & practices they want to impose.” Must Read by Joan Scott, member of the AAUP’s Committee on Academic Freedom.

Unions make everything better. Don't have one? Organize with us to get one!

“The Trump administration’s decision to not appeal this preliminary injunction means that for the foreseeable future, they cannot use civil rights laws or federal funding as a cudgel to remake the UC in its ideological image,”@veenadubal.bsky.social @aaup.org @aft.org www.latimes.com/california/s...

The Battalion is paying attention! #BTHOcensorship

“The word ‘Black’ is central to our mission. Compliance with state law will never require us to erase our identity — and this administration will not allow it."

“A central premise of freedom in the United States is freedom to speak our minds, to engage in critical debate or conversation without fear of state reprisal.” — Veena Dubal, AAUP General Counsel

When we are deprived of challenge in thought, we lose the ability to challenge thought. . . . At what point is a course no longer a course, but a state-sanctioned review of material?" Read the whole thing -- and join AAUP NC in fighting this syllabus policy. dailytarheel.com/article/opin...

“This would make excellent material for a Monty Python sketch. One can imagine the official censorship list: these dialogues you are permitted to teach; those you must pretend do not exist — and if you ever cross the line, you will be fired.”

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.

“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

The New School is a beacon of higher education thanks to the labor of its faculty & staff.  I strongly urge @thenewschool.bsky.social to extend the deadline for faculty to consider separation packages, engage in good faith & protect the programs that make New School a globally renowned institution.

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...

New School AAUP president Jeremy Varon called the cuts “an ideological attempt to decimate historic spaces of critical inquiry & social justice.” He said the humanities & social sciences would be “purged” under the plan. Great piece out today on the crisis at The New School in the @gothamist.com:

“What I think that professors should do is always teach the truth. We have a moral obligation. There are some things that are worth the consequences...If these red states get their way, this will fundamentally destroy higher ed, fundamentally destroy facts." — Leonard Bright, TAMU AAUP

www.highereddive.com/news/george-... Thankful to my fellow Senators who took a stand to pass this important resolution co-authored by @aaupmason.bsky.social

Institutions of higher ed should be free from political interference. I applaud GMU's faculty for standing up against this admin's campaign to coerce blind loyalty which undermines the ability to teach, research and best serve students. @aaupmason.bsky.social www.highereddive.com/news/george-...

“An instructor's freedom to teach includes the right to assess student academic performance. We are gravely concerned that a climate of escalating authoritarian assaults on academic freedom is normalizing politicized interference in classroom teaching & learning.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

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

“If there is a message to be heeded in the legislative assault on governance bodies, it is that the enemies of higher education, nonetheless, still fear faculty authority. Why else would they be so insistent on silencing faculty members?” #DefendHigherEd

This is a win for us all!! ✊👏🎉

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destruction comes for The New School "The university's cycles of austerity+consolidation, betray a pattern where we are all being asked to work more for less, and at the expense of students and workers. We must stand together." docs.google.com/document/u/2...

The abolishment of the Department of Education & the continued reckless defunding of public education is a clear path to setting America back in technology, innovation, & competitiveness. Congress can & must stand up for the American people & stop the destruction of our federal education system.

"This represents saving higher education, saving public research and the standing up of faculty, staff and students," — Veena Dubal, AAUP General Counsel & law professor at the University of California, Irvine. #DefendHigherEd

WE WON!!! The US District Court for the Northern District of California has issued a preliminary injunction in AAUP et al v. Trump et al (the wall to wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of Title VI to reshape the University of California system. Read the order here:

““The notion that politicians or high-level administrators can dictate what can be taught, researched, discussed or debated in a college classroom is fundamentally at odds with what higher education is about." - Todd Wolfson, AAUP President @aft.org

"If anything, the response by university leaders may have brought to the fore what some of us suspected all along: Academic freedom is being eroded internally by university administrators & externally by politicians." — Laura Isabel Serna, President of University of Southern California AAUP

The ICE raids in Chicago harm students’ ability to learn and the faculty’s ability to teach at Hispanic-serving institutions like the University of Illinois - Chicago. Aaron Krall, President of University of Illinois Chicago Faculty United, discusses this & more in our recent AAUP TV episode.

“The Committee’s unfounded accusations, dependence on clearly compromised sources, and selective presentation of ‘evidence’ represent an unprecedented abuse of congressional power—designed not to find the truth, but to silence leadership that refuses to yield to political pressure.” — GMU-AAUP

Happening Now: 100+ people rally outside of Apollo Management Group headquartered in NYC to protest its CEO Marc Rowan, the conservative billionaire behind Trump's Higher Ed compact deal that undermines universities ‼️

Higher education workers are out here in NYC at billionaire Marc Rowan's office to say: Hands Off Higher Education! Rowan is an architect of Trump's loyalty oath compact & the assault on higher ed today. The university belongs to the students, faculty & staff—not to the billionaires! @aft.org

"Rights, liberties, and freedoms are never secure when they lie dormant or unused." Interesting article in the latest volume of the Journal of Academic Freedom. Rather than thinking of #AcademicFreedom as a defense against attacks, we should make it an active practice. www.aaup.org/JAF16/conspi...

Solidarity to all students & higher ed workers across the country standing up to build a better future today! #DefendHigherEd

University of Oklahoma AAUP pushes back against Trump admin "unconstitutionally vague" attempts to censor research on race. #academicfreedom

A new report published today by the AAUP & @mesa1966.bsky.social finds that the weaponization of civil rights law has been central to attacks on campus speech over the past two years. Only one of 102 antisemitism complaints reviewed raise antisemitism claims unrelated to criticism of Israel. 🧵

@aaup.org @uconnaaup.bsky.social www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

UNL-AAUP is fighting back against administrator raises while programs get cut. “Decisions are being made behind closed doors & without faculty input. We weren’t invited to the table. There’s no transparency in this process. We’ve been shut out at every turn…” — Sarah Zuckerman, UNL-AAUP president

“All across NYU, students and colleagues have been undeterred in their organizing. NYU leadership should follow the example of their courage and tell the Trump administration and grifters like Rowan to keep their hands off higher education.” — @zachsamalin.bsky.social, NYU AAUP #DefendHigherEd

“Not 1 week after publicly committing to the ideals of higher education by rejecting the Compact, UVA’s Mahoney reversed course & signed an agreement betraying those same values. Indeed, he has set a precedent for future coercive deals between the federal government & state higher ed institutions.”

“Students & education workers form the backbones of communities in every state & are witnessing firsthand how Trump’s policies are wreaking havoc on campuses & beyond. We need a massive movement of higher ed workers & students...As higher ed goes, so goes democracy.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

💥💥💥 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

When Trump invited 9 elite universities to exchange blind loyalty for favoritism and federal funding, the AFT, the @aaup.org and academics across the nation called it out for what it was: a blatant attempt to control higher education. @afthighered.bsky.social

University of Texas AAUP urges admin to join seven other universities in rejecting Trump’s ‘loyalty oath’ compact. “The Compact reflects a grave threat to the mission of the University of Texas at Austin.” @utaustinaaup.bsky.social #DefendHigherEd

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