📢 Our open letter reminds public higher ed leaders + administrators that their actions must follow the law, not political rhetoric. The First Amendment protects the teaching of controversial topics. Executive orders and legislation to the contrary cannot override this constitutional protection.

www.chronicle.com/article/part... The moral of the story, as Dr. Bright of TAMU AAUP points out: Stick to your principles!

I attended the demonstration for Academic Freedom organized by Texas A&M’s students. Well over 100 students, faculty, staff, and administrators took part. Our message was clear: “Defend academic freedom with every breath” Whoop! 🙌

www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/t... More detailed, extremely troubling account of the debacle at Texas A&M

The fallout at Texas A&M painfully underscores the fact that many citizens do not understand the role of higher education. This lack of understanding has made them susceptible to misinformation, especially in a political environment that is actively working to keep it that way.

Melissa McCoul's firing comes after disciplinary action against administrators.

“When university presidents have little choice but to dismiss faculty members’ expertise and enforce ideological edicts, the space for free speech and open inquiry on our campuses is undeniably being suffocated.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/u...

This is a video of President Welsh responding in 2023 to a reporter's question about academic freedom. He promised to defend it with "every breath." What happened between then and now? It shows how how quickly things can change if we (faculty) fail to continually defend our most important values.

The professor fired by Texas A&M University on Tuesday for allegedly not changing her course content to match its description, is disputing her cause for termination and exploring legal options, according to a statement her attorney.

🗣️📢PRESS RELEASE: “Texas A&M University Caves to Political Pressure, Violating Faculty Rights to Academic Freedom and Due Process.” 🧵 1/5

Here is Texas A&M's official statement on Academic Freedom as written in its own policies (12.01.99.M1 section 2.1). This shows just how inconsistent Hagar's and Welsh's actions were to the the very policies they promised to uphold.

The situation at Texas A&M this week is a clear indication of the importance that higher education institutions be ran by expert educators. Politicians inside and out Texas A&M appear to be running the show.

Let’s be honest—SB 37 doesn’t solve real problems; it creates them. It strips professors and experts of protection from political pressure, putting truth in the classroom at risk. Texans deserve an education system grounded in knowledge, not political fear.

Texas Legislature’s SB 37 will turn Faculty Senates into Franken-Senates. A Frankenstein zombieish type committee without legitimacy, spirit, or the independent faculty voice. We must resist such disrespect.

Just Now: a federal judge ruled that our case (AAUP v. Rubio) seeking to block the Trump admin from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, & deportations of noncitizen students & faculty members who participate in pro-Palestinian protests can go forward. @knightcolumbia.org

Kyle Zagon’s quote: “To imply that our people, our very name, that means to wrestle with God, need to be protected from dissenting views, is infantilizing and opportunistic.” Wow, what a powerful statement!

I have a suspicion that SB 37 was never about improving higher ed, but to inflict retribution and punishment for a petty dispute between Texas LT Gov and a group a university faculty at one university. www.texastribune.org/2025/04/10/t...

At the TX Senate Education K-16 committee hearing the other day, one of the Senators made this comment about Jack Welch’s take on “shared leadership” in an attempt to diminish the importance of “shared governance” in faculty senates.   Jack Welch never said nor wrote this!

Here is my public testimony against SB 37, a bill that seeks to threaten faculty, silence our voices, and punish us for having the courage to speak truth to power.

Visiting the Texas Legislature and grading papers, as I wait to give public testimony against SB 37. I consider the bill to be an example of authoritarianism in higher education.