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Universities have become increasingly corporatized, and the significant expansion of university administration has seriously eroded faculty authority to control or make effective recommendations about university policy. That is one of the central arguments in an amicus brief submitted by the AAUP urging the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to uphold the National Labor Relation Board’s determination that non-tenure-track faculty at the University of Southern California are not managerial employees and are therefore eligible to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act. This case arose when Service Employees International Union filed a petition to represent  non-tenure-track full-time and…

OPEN LETTER TO AAUP MEMBERS: Free speech on campuses has become a focus of contentious debate and increased media scrutiny. Campus communities—including administrators, faculty, and students—generally embrace the concept of free speech yet lack a clear consensus about its limits. The AAUP invites proposals for presentations at our June 14–17 annual conference that offer nuanced articulations of the concept of free speech in the context of higher education. Submissions are due by January 14. Presentations might explore competing claims about who has free speech rights and how far they extend; free speech and its relation to academic freedom; the politicization of free speech…

National Security, the Assault on Science, and Academic Freedom Assault on Science and Academic Freedom Threatens the Public Good and International Stature of US  Washington, DC—A new report, National Security, the Assault on Science, and Academic Freedom, released by the AAUP details troubling threats to academic freedom in the physical and natural sciences that have been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s hostility to science. International scientific exchange and, especially, the charging of innocent Chinese or Chinese American scientists with espionage in the name of national security is one focus of the report. The second is climate science, an area that has been…

Members of the UCLA Emerti Association and the UCLA Retirees’ Association were notified today that a budget agenda item that could affect all present and past UCLA employees was being considered. The UCLA chapter of the AAUP urges all members to read the information below and to make your opinions known to the Regents.   The UCLA Emeriti Association and the UCLA Retirees’ Association recently became aware that the Regents are considering an action that could significantly increase health care premiums for UC emeriti and retirees. Retiree, emeriti, faculty and staff organizations have quickly mobilized to respond to this issue…

The AAUP submitted an amicus brief on 7-12-17  in support of faculty members who have been subjected to intrusive public records requests for e-mails related to their climate-science research. The AAUP brief, filed with the Arizona Court of Appeals in the case Energy & Environment Legal Institute v. Arizona Board of Regents, argues that the academic freedom to conduct research is essential to a vital university system and to the common good, and that this warrants protecting certain research records from disclosure. The case arose from an extensive public records request that was made by the Energy & Environment Legal…

The title of this post is not mine. It’s NPR’s. It is but one of a huge number of media reports decrying the reckless, thoughtless, catastrophic budget proposed by the Trump administration. This budget proposes cuts that would have far-reaching damaging effects to almost all sectors of our society, except of course to the business sector. Other media reports concerning the Trump budget include: The Washington Post: “Trump budget seeks huge cuts to science and medical research, disease prevention.” The New York Times: “Trump’s Budget Cuts Deeply Into Medicaid and Anti-Poverty Efforts.” ABCNews: “Trump’s budget cuts funding for Superfund sites, clean air and water programs.”…

70.4%. That’s the latest AAUP data on the percentage of faculty jobs that are contingent. It’s a trend that over the past forty years has only gone in one direction: up. Related to contingency are a host of issues — a lack of due process that protects academic freedom, exploitative pay and working conditions, and, frequently, no provisions for participation in the governance of institutions of higher education. This week, the AAUP released a report on the investigation of the case of Nathanial Bork, an adjunct faculty member dismissed from the Community College of Aurora (CCA) in the fall semester…

A letter from the AAUP national office: President Trump released an initial budget proposal Thursday containing deep cuts that would severely damage scientific research, the arts and humanities, and access to higher education. The budget proposal includes a cut of nearly 20 percent to National Institutes of Health funding and deep cuts to research programs at the Department of Energy, Department of Education, and other government agencies. It decimates funding for climate change research and programs within the Environmental Protection Agency and completely eliminates the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The repercussions of…

From efforts to eliminate tenure to the online intimidation of faculty, higher education is under attack across the country. The AAUP’s work to confront these challenges and to strengthen the core values of higher education have never been more vital. Tenure, which is integral to academic freedom, has been the most recent target of concerted, state-level attacks. In Iowa, a bill would eliminate tenure at public institutions, even for faculty who already have it. A Missouri bill would end tenure for all new hires by 2018. In North Dakota, the state university system is considering a significant reduction in the…