OU-AAUP Political Harassment Plan document is now on the OU-AAUP website and provides non-legal information in the event that an OU faculty member is harassed. It documents ways to respond to harassment and threats and lists resources. sites.google.com/view/ou-aaup...

NEW today in the New York Times: In the face of unprecedented authoritarian attacks, the AAUP is building a powerful and militant resistance movement in defense of American higher education, the freedom to learn, and our democracy. Join Us!

What has the University of Oklahoma chapter of AAUP been doing to protect academic freedom and workplace rights and safety in the last six years? It turns out a lot. Check our new web page with our press releases for six years for an overview: sites.google.com/d/1IrQajK_8D...

Today, the AAUP & @aft.org launched our national policy platform to win back an American higher education system that protects the freedom to teach & learn & strengthens our democracy. Read it in full here: www.aaup.org/blueprint-st... 🧵

“They tried to weaken higher education, but instead they built a movement to fight for the future... They can attack our institutions, but they cannot stop our movement….We will not stop until we have the higher education system and the democracy we all deserve.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

www.insidehighered.com/news/governm... OU-AAUP: “Abolishing tenure cripples and compromises scientific and creative research that benefits all Oklahomans." “It also sends a strong message that top-tier academics seeking employment at Oklahoma universities should look elsewhere immediately.”

NEW: Preliminary findings released today from the AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey reveal that real wages for full-time faculty decreased & remain below pre-pandemic levels. The FCS is the largest independent source of data on faculty salaries. Check out preliminary findings below. ⬇️

Money for wars but not for science, research, and education… 😒

"Eliminating tenure based on misunderstandings and misinformation will have far-reaching consequences, and it will negatively impact our students, our institutions of higher education, and ultimately our state’s economic growth."

“They want to do things which tend to be illegal. They have a penchant for illegality. They can be as thorough as they want, but if they want to stop freedom of speech, they're going to have a problem.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President on the Trump admin's recent fondness for launching lawsuits.

Full-time salaries for most categories of faculty have remained about the same since 2002, adjusting for inflation, while admin pay soars. Faculty have had enough. We’re fighting back nationwide. ✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿 www.chronicle.com/article/amid...

Students' freedom to learn depends on faculty's freedom to teach. Texas AAUP Conference President Brian Evans on the power of unions & organizing in the fight against censorship & attacks on academic freedom in Texas 🔥 @texasaaup.bsky.social @texasaft.org @aft.org @afthighered.bsky.social

Now, that's a nice shirt!

www.oudaily.com/news/ou-facu... The OU Faculty Senate was not consulted on the attack on Mel Curth despite claims by OU otherwise. OU-AAUP: “Providing OU’s version of information and not consulting any faculty member or group on campus is the opposite of this.”

No to SB 1782! Read Alyssa’s excellent piece - we need to protect (and expand) due process protections for all of Oklahoma’s public university and community college faculty.

“Removing tenure protection does not make universities more accountable to students or taxpayers. It makes faculty more vulnerable to political interference. For anyone who has watched what politically motivated meddling does to institutions, that should not be a selling point.” #AcademicSky

“There’s kind of a defeatism, this idea that there’s no stopping technology & that resistance is futile, everything will be crushed in its path. That needs to change … We can decide that we want to be human.” #AcademicSky

nondoc.com/2026/03/09/e... Weeks later, the OU President weighed in on the political and academic freedom attack on Mel Curth. He *claims* noninvolvement: “That’s not my role in these,” Harroz said. “As you see, there’s an appeal process going on right now that’s taking place."

The far right's new politicized higher ed accreditor is illegitimate. "Rather than protecting educational quality, the CPHE appears designed to give partisan political actors a powerful new tool to pressure universities to conform to a narrow ideological agenda" — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

www.oudaily.com/news/oklahom... “It also sends a strong message that top-tier academics seeking employment at Oklahoma universities should look elsewhere immediately,” Givel wrote. “Why pursue a job here, including at OU, under such a repressive climate?”

“Abolishing tenure cripples scientific & creative research... This sends a strong message that top-tier academics seeking employment at Oklahoma universities should look elsewhere immediately. Why pursue a job here under such a repressive climate?” — Michael Givel, OU AAUP President

The goal is to destroy knowledge.... #LetUsTeach #LetStudentsLearn

Please sign and share this petition!

What is being labeled “controversial” today is the very knowledge Texas will need to survive tomorrow. The question is no longer whether higher education can be saved as it is. The question is whether we are ready to imagine—and build—what comes next. Important op-ed in the @texasobserver.org.

Reinstate the Fired Six at VSU! Six tenured & tenure track faculty members were abruptly fired at Virginia State University without cause or any semblance of due process. Sign this petition to demand their reinstatement & a public commitment from VSU to honor tenure & end arbitrary dismissals.

www.oudaily.com/news/ou-facu... Faculty Senate’s resolution insists “OU Faculty Senate Executive Committee and Faculty Senate were neither solicited for input nor endorsed the decision of the administration on this matter.” Despite the OU Administration claiming they did.

cz.boell.org/en/2023/05/1... Where else were professors stripped of tenure? That would be in right-wing authoritarian Hungary. Make no mistake Gov. Stitt's removal of tenure at Oklahoma regional & community colleges & universities is an authoritarian attack on ideas presented in college classrooms.

www.theeduledger.com/leadership-p... "The AAUP president framed the executive order within what he described as a pattern of "democratic backsliding," arguing that weakening independent academic institutions threatens democratic norms."

www.oudaily.com/news/america... Given this development, now is a really good time for OU to resume DEI efforts on campus.

AAUP President Todd Wolfson issued the following statement in response to Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt's Executive Order issued today immediately eliminating academic tenure at the state’s public regional universities and community colleges.

"Targeting regional universities and community colleges reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of tenure—as if it were a privilege reserved for a select few rather than an essential working condition for all faculty responsible for teaching and research." @proftwolf.bsky.social @aaup.org

“Contrary to claims of being ‘1 University’ & supporting shared governance, OU has not yet deigned to respond to GSS & OU AAUP statements addressing the campus issues of transparency in the grade appeals process, including with Mel Curth, support of academic freedom & to counter political attacks."

www.oudaily.com/news/graduat... The University of Oklahoma (OU) Graduate Student Senate (GSS) is demanding answers now from OU regarding the political attack on Mel Curth, the undisclosed process in firing Mel Curth, and OU's substandard academic reputation due to firing Mel Curth. OU-AAUP agrees.

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. 🧵

If Texas A&M truly believes in the values of leadership, integrity, & service, it must defend academic freedom & protect student learning. Please sign & share this petition to TAMU leadership demanding an end to all censorship of instruction & retaliation against faculty who refuse to censor.

www.insidehighered.com/news/governm... One of the claims about "Illegal DEIA" just disappeared. Time for a new OU Provost Office secret memo reversing the August 2025 secret memo about supposed "illegal DEIA" being essentially verboten at OU?

“University administrators and state lawmakers are saying, in effect, that academic freedom won’t protect you if you teach ideas they don’t like. Never mind that decades ago, the Supreme Court described classrooms as the very embodiment of the “marketplace of ideas” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...

www.kosu.org/2025-06-18/o... A recap of a key July 2025 court victory in which the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld academic freedom for public colleges and universities in Oklahoma. OU-AAUP has been one of the plaintiffs.

“We urge OU to publicly and unequivocally affirm the right of OU faculty and instructors to conduct teaching, grading, and research without political interference, unlawful mandates, or external pressures that hinder academic freedom.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Read AAUP President Todd Wolfson's full statement here👇

“The suspension of Mel Curth, a graduate instructor at the University of Oklahoma (OU), stemming from a grading dispute with a student, is an egregious violation of widely accepted principles of academic freedom and due process.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President