2021 AAUP Updates

Many institutions faced dire challenges in the 2020–21 academic year; for some, the pandemic exacerbated long-festering conditions. We found that, at other institutions, governing boards and administrations opportunistically exploited the pandemic, using it as an excuse to put aside established academic governance processes and unilaterally close programs and lay off faculty members

The AAUP is launching investigations into the dismissals of one faculty member at Linfield University and two faculty members at Collin College. In all cases, the faculty members were dismissed without due process and for reasons that appear to have violated their academic freedom.

After a strike lasting more than a week, faculty in the Oregon Tech AAUP chapter reached a tentative agreement with the administration early this morning.

The revelation that the Penn Museum and the University of Pennsylvania have been keeping and using human remains recovered from the 1985 police bombing of the Black liberation group MOVE is deeply troubling. We call on faculty and academic staff in disciplines that involve using human remains in research and teaching to work with their institutions and disciplinary associations to ensure that they are following disciplinary standards, institutional regulations, and current law.

It appears that the termination of Daniel J. Pollack-Pelzner's tenured appointment at Linfield University was in flagrant violation of both AAUP principles and the institution's own policies.

A new report gives a brief history of campus police forces; details how campus police forces exist in tension with the AAUP’s core principles and perpetuate structural forms of racist violence; and gives guidance for AAUP chapters that wish to organize to transform campus safety.

A free community college degree is a good first step. As this proposal moves through Congress, we encourage our leaders to expand financial support to more kinds of institutions, and ensure fair pay and workplace protections for faculty.

As part of our broader push for a New Deal for higher education, we’ve endorsed two potential paths toward increased funding for colleges and universities—and, hopefully, more equitable policies to better serve faculty, staff, and students.