What’s New with Academe?

Our April newsletter offers a preview of selected articles and book reviews from the forthcoming spring issue of Academe as well as a selection of recent posts from the Academe Blog. The spring issue, which will be published in full in May, focuses on the campaign for a New Deal for Higher Education and builds on the work of Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education, a group founded last year by Jennifer Mittelstadt. Visit https://www.aaup.org/academe to read more about the Scholars for a New Deal and the work of the faculty activists who are mapping out a new vision for the future of higher education.

The AAUP engages in advocacy and legal work on a range of issues affecting higher education, and we are pleased to report that this winter there have been positive developments in a number of areas. While much work remains to be done to ensure widespread access to quality higher education for all, these developments are good news for the higher education community.

Coronavirus Relief Package. Last week, President Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which includes an additional $40 billion in aid for higher education. Institutions must spend about half of the money to help struggling students with living expenses and the technology needed for remote classes. It is still unclear whether undocumented and international students will be eligible for relief. The law also provides dedicated support to historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and other minority-serving institutions to address the disproportionate effect of the pandemic on those institutions and the students they serve. The AAUP, along with coalition partners, is advocating for a New Deal for Higher Education that would significantly reinvest in our nation’s colleges and universities.

Graduate Employee Unionization. In a major victory for graduate employees at private universities, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced last week that it was withdrawing a rule proposed in late 2019 that would have barred graduate assistants from engaging in union organizing and collective bargaining under the protection of federal law. The AAUP has long supported the bargaining rights of graduate employees and has submitted amicus briefs in cases on this issue as well as submitting comments opposing the 2019 proposed rule and demonstrating both that graduate assistants are employees with the right to unionize under the NLRA and that unionization advances their academic freedom.

Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Immigration Reform. As one of its first acts, the Biden administration issued an executive order to preserve and fortify the DACA program, which allows undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children to remain in the country legally and expands access to higher education by providing eligibility for in-state tuition and state-funded grants and loans to participants. In 2017 the Trump administration sought to terminate the DACA program, despite overwhelming opposition to this move from the higher education community. Lower courts prevented the termination of the program, and ultimately the US Supreme Court, in a case in which the AAUP joined an amicus brief supporting the DACA program, found that the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate the program was unlawful and allowed it to stand.
The Biden administration has also proposed comprehensive immigration reform legislation to strengthen and improve the immigration system, including expanding and making permanent the DACA program and providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. The legislation could also ease the enrollment of international students, as the AAUP has advocated.

Travel Bans. On Inauguration Day, President Biden also repealed various travel bans that barred or severely limited the ability of students, exchange scholars, and other visitors from a number of predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. The Trump administration had issued four orders banning travel from certain countries. The AAUP and the higher education community overwhelmingly opposed the travel bans, and courts prevented the implementation of the first three. However, in a case in which the AAUP joined an amicus brief in opposition to the travel bans, the US Supreme Court upheld the fourth version of the ban in 2018. The Biden administration’s proclamation revokes the travel bans, finding that they are “a stain on our national conscience and are inconsistent with our long history of welcoming people of all faiths and no faith at all.”

LGBTQ Discrimination. Another executive order issued on Inauguration Day extends federal nondiscrimination protections to discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The order builds on the Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia; the AAUP joined an amicus brief in this case, arguing that workplace discrimination based on LGBTQ status is unlawful. In the case, the Supreme Court extended protection of a federal law banning employment discrimination based on sex to individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth. Reversing the Trump administration’s approach, the Biden order extends this protection to discrimination based on sex forbidden by Title IX and other federal anti-discrimination statutes and regulations.  

Race in Admissions. On February 3, the Biden administration dropped a lawsuit brought by the Trump administration against Yale University that had accused Yale of discriminating against white and Asian American applicants in its admissions process. This lawsuit was one of many brought in a concerted effort to end the consideration of race in college admissions. The AAUP has repeatedly joined amicus briefs supporting the ability to use race as one factor in university admissions. While the dropping of this suit indicates that the administration will take a more balanced approach to the issue, private parties are seeking to bring a case to the US Supreme Court in efforts to outlaw such consideration.  

Racial Equity. Last fall, the Trump administration ordered federal agencies and federal contractors (potentially including colleges and universities) to end trainings that address topics like white privilege and racism. The AAUP and many others in the higher education community spoke out about bans on racial equity training. President Biden reversed the Trump order and replaced it with a new executive order requiring federal agencies to assess their equity and diversity activities.

Student Debt. With coalition partners, the AAUP is calling for the cancellation of student debt for borrowers who have unjustly shouldered the burden of financing higher education the last forty years. The Department of Education has extended through September 2021 a moratorium on federal student loan payments. In response to concerns that debt cancellation could trigger damaging tax consequences for borrowers, last week’s coronavirus relief law includes a provision that says if student debt is cancelled, the value of the amount forgiven will not be taxed by the federal government.
Far more work remains to be done, but we are heartened by these first steps and look forward to continuing to advocate for equity and access in higher education.

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Yesterday, the AAUP joined an amicus brief with Brady United Against Gun Violence (formerly the Brady Center) and TEAM ENOUGH affirming that the University of Michigan’s prohibition on firearms does not infringe on Second Amendment rights. In it, we support the university’s ability to impose gun control measures that protect faculty and students from the negative impact on academic freedom resulting from firearms in classrooms and other campus locations.
The brief, filed in an appeal in the State of Michigan Supreme Court, argues that the university’s prohibition serves the “critical interest of academic freedom by protecting faculty speech and furthering the University’s core educational goals.” The freedom to teach includes “the right of the faculty to select the materials, determine the approach to the subject, make the assignments, and assess student academic performance. . . . There is widespread concern among university faculty that allowing guns on campus would threaten this freedom and force them to alter their curriculum and important classroom discussions.” The brief also cites a 2015 statement opposing campus carry laws that was issued by the AAUP, the American Federation of Teachers, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. The statement argues that “students and faculty members will not feel comfortable discussing controversial subjects if they think there might be a gun in the room.”
If you want to share this news, a summary and a link to the full brief can be found on our website.

Whether you are just forming an AAUP chapter or you are part of an established one, AAUP's webinar on advocacy chapter management will give you the practical tools you need to manage an effective organization. We’ll review some of key areas of chapter management, from chapter by-laws and finances to officer roles and establishing chapter programs, in addition to answering questions from participants.
Advocacy Chapter Management: A Practical Guide
Wednesday, February 24, 2021 • 1:30 PM • Eastern Time
Presenters: AAUP associate counsel Nancy Long, and Christopher Simeone, AAUP director of organizing and services
Register here. At this link, you can also submit questions in advance.

A primary role of an AAUP advocacy chapter is to work for the incorporation of AAUP standards on academic freedom, tenure, and governance into the institution’s faculty handbook. Which of these standards should a chapter focus on and how are they best understood?
We invite you to find out in a webinar just for AAUP chapter leaders. AAUP senior program officer Greg Scholtz will speak from his past experience as a chapter activist and from his most recent experience, since 2008, handling complaints and cases as a member of the AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance.  
Register here for Basics of AAUP Principles & Policies
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2021 • 3:00 PM • EASTERN STANDARD TIME
We'll be offering two more webinars for advocacy chapter leaders in upcoming months and will send more details and registration information as they get closer.
Advocacy Chapter Management: A Practical Guide, with AAUP associate counsel Nancy Long and director of organizing and services Christopher Simeone. Whether you are just forming an AAUP chapter or you are part of an established one, this session will give you the practical tools you need to manage an effective organization. We’ll review some of key areas of chapter management, from chapter by-laws and finances to officer roles and establishing chapter programs, in addition to answering questions from participants.

Dear Colleague:
This has been a year of unprecedented challenges for higher education. 
The AAUP Foundation—especially its Academic Freedom Fund—needs your support.
As we look toward 2021 with hope for relief, we must remain vigilant about protecting academic freedom and shared governance. Too many administrations and governing boards have used the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to take unilateral actions that jeopardize public health, the educational mission of colleges and universities, and the economic security of academic professionals. Your tax-deductible contribution to the AAUP Foundation will provide essential funding for the AAUP’s work on behalf of faculty, including many faculty members who have lost their positions during the past year and those who remain vulnerable. 
The AAUP Foundation is funding a sweeping governance investigation that will address the crisis in academic governance that has occurred in the wake of the pandemic. The investigation, currently focusing on eight institutions, comes at a time when the AAUP’s Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance has received numerous complaints about unilateral actions taken, in the words of the department’s director, Gregory Scholtz, “to dictate how courses are taught, to suspend key institutional regulations, to reduce and close departments and majors, to compel faculty members to teach in person, and to lay off long-serving faculty members.” It is the broadest investigation the AAUP has conducted since its 1956 report on attacks on academic freedom at eighteen institutions during the McCarthy era.
Your contribution of any amount will help to sustain the Foundation’s work.
As the charitable and educational arm of the AAUP, the Foundation enables work that membership dues alone cannot fund. The Foundation's Legal Defense Fund supports faculty members involved in appellate litigation that protects academic freedom and professional rights. It also provides funding for the AAUP’s work on amicus briefs in cases with important implications for higher education. The Academic Freedom Fund supports both governance and academic freedom investigations and underwrites publication costs for the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom and for materials related to academic freedom in Academe and the annual Bulletin. It also provides grants to individual faculty members whose academic freedom has been violated.  
If the AAUP Foundation is to continue its important work, we must expand its efforts and strengthen its urgently needed financial resources. Please donate today.
You can also remember the AAUP Foundation in your will and leave a legacy to protect academic freedom in the future. For more information about the Foundation, and about giving options, visit our website.

Henry Reichman
Chair, AAUP Foundation

What’s New with Academe? (the magazine of the AAUP)

December's newsletter offers a preview of selected articles and book reviews from our forthcoming winter issue. Follow the links below or visit https://www.aaup.org/academe to read other highlights from Academe and the Academe Blog.

FEATURES
Do Adjuncts Have Academic Freedom? or Why Tenure Matters
The costs of contingency.
By Henry Reichman
Now What? Adding Accessibility Midstream
Accommodations in the online classroom.
By Martina Svyantek, Scott D. Dexter, and Ashley Shew

BOOK REVIEWS
Diverse Women as Guests in the Academic House
Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner reviews Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia edited by Yolanda Flores Niemann, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, and Carmen G. Gonzalez.
Challenging Merit from a Place of Privilege
Mitchell L. Stevens reviews The Merit Myth: How Our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America by Anthony P. Carnevale, Peter Schmidt, and Jeff Strohl.

FROM THE ARCHIVES
Chronic Illness and the Academic Career
The hidden epidemic in higher education.
By Stephanie A. Goodwin and Susanne Morgan

FROM THE BLOG
A Telling Blame Game at UNC
By Jay M. Smith
Another Pandemic Danger—Union Busting
By a Saint Leo University Faculty Member
Blog Survey Seeks Reader Feedback
By Academe Blog
Perspective: Retrenchment Has Been Suffocating My Voice, But I Won’t Let It
By Gretchen McNamara
University of Toronto Facing Censure Over Hiring Scandal
By David Robinson
Administrative Crackdowns on “Appropriate” Faculty Expression during the Pandemic
By Cathryn Bailey
Perspectives and Decisions in a COVID-19 World
By Dane C. Joseph
What Have We Learned? Lessons from the Last Decade
Posted by Jennifer Ruth

Budget cuts, the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing contingency among academic workers—the threats to academic freedom, shared governance, and quality higher education are many. While there are no easy solutions, an AAUP chapter can accomplish a surprising number of things that even the most committed faculty member can’t do alone. Join us for a webinar on how to start an AAUP chapter. 

If you are an AAUP member on a campus without an active chapter, or a potential member interested in what an AAUP chapter can do on your campus, this webinar is for you. You'll learn how to form an AAUP chapter and how a chapter can help you change the status quo. From drafting bylaws to organizing your colleagues to fight for shared governance and better working conditions, we will give you the tools and knowledge you need to start an AAUP chapter at your institution.

Time: Wednesday, November 18, 2020 • 3:30 PM Eastern time

Presenters: Michael Magee is an organizer with the national AAUP. Bethany Letiecq is president of the George Mason AAUP chapter.

Register here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/how-and-why-to-start-an-aaup-chapter
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