2021 AAUP Updates

The AAUP's latest report on faculty governance finds over all, faculty representation is up over time, but faculty participation in presidential searches is down, as is full participation of part-time faculty members.

AAUP president Irene Mulvey says the AAUP will investigate and censure the University System of Georgia as the board of regents nears a vote that would essentially remove tenure protections.

New regulations have been proposed by the US Department of Education to recognize the difficulties faced by contingent faculty in their pursuit of PSLF; while they are a huge improvement from the current program, the proposed rules must go further to meet the needs of faculty. Former professor and current AAUP staff member David Kociemba offered comments to the rulemaking committee during their first week of negotiations.

A pattern of egregious violations of principles of academic governance and persistent structural racism in the University of North Carolina System has prompted AAUP to take action. Among several issues the report will discuss is the widely publicized mishandling of the tenure case of New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones.

“The Build Back Better Act represents a historic and long-overdue investment in higher education—as well as a meaningful down payment on the additional changes needed to aid our colleges and universities, and the people who make them run. Increased Pell Grant funding, a new college retention and completion fund, and tuition subsidies at minority-serving institutions are important initiatives that will help students at a wide range of institutions, and go beyond the free community college funding that is the signature program of this bill."

“The unmistakable aim of such efforts is to impose thought control on American education and thereby on the American people," the brief states.

The AAUP calls on campus administrations to do everything possible to ensure the highest level of health and safety, and to follow the guidance of public health experts to use every available tool to protect students, faculty, staff, and neighboring communities from further spread of COVID this fall.

The AAUP led a coalition letter, signed by national unions with locals and chapters on college campuses, asking Congress to support higher ed workers in the American Families Plan. The letter argued that the proposed free community college plan should be expanded to better protect faculty and staff, ensure high-quality instruction for students at any institution, and promote shared governance.