Great article by our student newspaper, The Eagle, about faculty, staff, and student concerns about limits to freedom of expression on American University's campus.

“Our administration has taken a series of actions which, in an attempt to placate the Trump administration, have weakened academic freedom & shared governance & accelerated an institutional slide toward executive rule, echoing the authoritarian ethos now holding sway in Washington.“ Statement:

AU's AAUP Chapter firmly believes the university should request MPD drop the charges against this graduate student. Their presence at the inauguration, and their free expression during it, did not violate any AU policy. The student should never have been removed from the event, much less arrested.

American University has still NOT dropped criminal charges against a student arrested for engaging in silent expression during our new president's inauguration. She did not violate AU's freedom of expression policies & she should not have been arrested. If You are at AU, sign our petition!

AU leadership has been strangely silent as the new administration wages a frontal assault on higher ed. Kudos to the student newspaper, The Eagle, for calling them out: "AU needs to publicly commit to defending students’ rights to protest, speak and assemble without any qualifiers or delays."

2 weeks ago AU police arrested a student engaged in silent protest (holding a flag) at our new president's inauguration. The arrest should not have happened bc the student's protest did NOT violate AU's freedom of expression policy. Our statement⬇️ americanuniversityaaup.wordpress.com/2025/04/13/a...

Come one, come all for American University AAUP's Day of Action for Higher Ed! We need to protect the core mission of universities and the folks who deliver it every day--students, staff, and faculty!

Like many universities, AU has an excellent free expression policy that tracks the First Amendment. But unfortunately, we have no recourse when the institution burdens speech, expression, and academic freedom. This proposed "backstop" would remedy that.

This week American University's AAUP membership endorsed the attached proposal that would prevent AU administrators from burdening speech, expression, and association and provide a mechanism for blocking and reversing policing that do so!

Hi everyone! We're the American University AAUP chapter! Stay tuned for updates as we get started up on Bluesky!