Academe Blog has posted an article by Jennifer Ruth that describes how red state anti-Critical Race Theory laws are both an impingement of freedom of speech — and so will be challenged on First Amendment grounds — but also are direct attacks on academic freedom. “Despite all its old Cold War fear mongering and all its talk of freedom, the Republican Party now harbors a sizable contingent of politicians who are increasingly willing to use authoritarian tactics to get what they want. The legislative bills banning so-called divisive concepts are the biggest assault on academic freedom this country has ever faced.”
Category: academic freedom
Report from the National AAUP Convention
Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA, of which UCLA-FA is the UCLA chapter) President Constance Penley attended the historic National AAUP convention on June 16-18 in Arlington, VA, as the CUCFA delegate, which meant that she had an opportunity to vote on the proposed alliance between the AAUP and the AFT (AFL-CIO) and to fill six open AAUP Council seats. Read her report from the Convention at the CUCFA website.
New 2022 AAUP Survey of Tenure Practices
Tenure practices vary among institutions, however systematic studies of these practices are rare. The 2022 AAUP Survey of Tenure Practices is the first survey of its kind since 2004. It “offers a snapshot of prevailing tenure practices and policies at four-year institutions with tenure systems. Among the findings, the survey found that tenure is highly prevalent throughout US higher education, with 87 percent of four-year institutions that have a Carnegie Classification of bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral institution reporting having a tenure system.” Available online.
AAUP / AFT Affiliation Agreement
The AAUP and AFT have drafted a new affiliation agreement that will be voted on at the June AAUP meeting. Some details:
“Under the terms of this affiliation agreement, all AAUP members, by virtue of their membership in the AAUP, will also be members of the AFT/AFL-CIO… AAUP members and AAUP chapters will have access to AFT support and services, including specific AFT member benefits… This affiliation will not result in an increase in national AAUP dues and, for current AAUP members, AFT per capita will be covered as part of the AAUP dues… The national AAUP and its chapters will remain autonomous organizations with full control over their own finances, policies, programs, and staff. The national AAUP will continue to be governed by the AAUP Council; will continue to have its own committees; and will have complete autonomy over the Redbook, our policies and statements on behalf of the profession, investigations, censure, and sanction.”
This is what AAUP told CUCFA would be the effect of the affiliation to CUCFA/AAUP partner members:
“Assuming the proposed affiliation goes through at AAUP’s Biennial Meeting this June, CUCFA members will not see any appreciable change to their memberships. They will still be AAUP members, with all the rights and benefits conferred under that status and the CUCFA agreement. Their dues rate will continue to be the AAUP dues rate. They will, by virtue of being AAUP members, also become AFT members, with all the rights, privileges, etc., that go with that status. For AAUP advocacy and at-large members, which is the status that the UC members have in AAUP, their main interface remains the AAUP and their interaction with support and services will still be through the AAUP staff and leadership. They do have as “value added” access to AFT member benefits (discounts on mortgages, car purchases, etc.). But they are not required to pay any extra dues to AFT or any AFT subsidiary.”
More details (an overview of the agreement, a frequently asked questions document, and the agreement itself) are available to AAUP members on the AAUP website (member login required) at https://www.aaup.org/member-information-aaupaft-affiliation
Spotlight on Speech Codes, 2022
Fire (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) has just released its yearly summary of the state of free speech at 481 public and private colleges and universities in the United States. FIRE defines free speech as “the overwhelming majority of speech protected by the First Amendment.” Few exceptions exist. The survey addresses a wide variety of issues with relevance to free speech, including:
Free Speech Zone Policies
Prior Restraints
Security Fee Policies
Policies Governing Speakers, Demonstrations, and Rallies
Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Internet Usage Policies
Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Bullying Policies
Threats and Intimidation
Harassment
Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Obscenity
Incitement
The report is both disappointing and encouraging. It is disappointing because 86% of the institutions surveyed had some impediments to free speech, while only 12% had no impediments. UCLA, but no other UC schools, had no impediments to free speech. The report is encouraging because, for the 14th year in a row, the percentage of schools that were “red-lighted” declined (from 65% in 2012 down to 18% this year).
The report (43 pages) makes for interesting reading. We encourage you to click the link above and take a look.
Higher Ed Labor United Vision Platform
Over the summer, Faculty Associations on University of California campuses joined over 75 organizations representing over 300,000 academic workers in a statement on the future of higher education. The Higher Education Labor Summit’s statements, Building a Movement to Transform U.S. Higher Education, calls for greater federal investment to reverse declining conditions in universities. The statement emphasizes a commitment to shared governance across various employee groups, and strongly backs academic freedom. The summit also called on organizations representing higher education employees to work together to achieve these goals.
University of California Faculty Associations endorsed the summit’s statement, which you can read here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e8bjmEZzaRY0ET434bpbO-k40vlV6hkK/view .
Academic Council knocks UCOP data policy
The Academic Council of the UC Academic Senate called for significant revisions to a proposed new university policy on “Research Data and Tangible Research Materials.” The Council characterized the proposed policy as, “overly broad, difficult to enforce, and a potential danger to faculty intellectual property.” Previously, the Berkeley Faculty Association criticized the policy as a solution in search of a problem, and a danger to faculty academic freedom. As the BFA noted, the policy opens with a sweeping assertion of new university rights, “The Regents of the University of California owns all Research Data and Tangible Research Materials,” and goes on to specify how the Regents should manage these newly asserted rights. A potential danger, as the BFA noted, include the possibility that the university could re-use faculty data that it claims to own, dispossessing faculty of their intellectual property. The Academic Council recommended a total rewrite, something “more limited in its scope, perhaps targeted to areas for which there is a clear need and purpose.”
Academic Capitalism & the Future of Academic Freedom
Henry Reichman on the future of academic freedom, May 20, 12 noon. Continue reading “Academic Capitalism & the Future of Academic Freedom”
UC Workers to Strike: 10/23-25
Campus workers affiliated with AFSCME local 3299 and UPTE-CWA local 9119 voted overwhelmingly to authorize strikes at the University of California after bargaining stalled. After the vote, AFSCME announced that members in several bargaining units would strike on October 23, 24, and 25. UPTE then announced its members would strike on the same dates. Last Continue reading “UC Workers to Strike: 10/23-25”
Support Academic Freedom for UC Librarians
In a recent bargaining session with unionized librarians, UC administrators rejected the a proposal to recognize academic freedom for librarians. According to UC-AFT, negotiators for the university argued that academic freedom is “not a good fit” for librarians and claimed to have consulted Senate faculty on the topic.
Quite the opposite is true, and faculty Continue reading “Support Academic Freedom for UC Librarians”