AAUP chapter @UT Austin

Education is diminished at Texas universities as academic freedom is eroded Academic freedom is essential for universities to continue producing cutting-edge research.

Academic freedom is essential for universities to continue producing cutting-edge research. | Opinion

BTW, any story about a possible Northwestern capitulation should include this detail (screenshot is from the oped linked below)

Northwestern Agrees to a Deal With Trump Administration

We must keep calling out those that cave to the Trump Admin, and the latest is Northwestern.

As part of their "deal," NU will pay $75 million, stop vital research, renege on agreements with its students over the war in Gaza, and more.

Throwing your students under the bus to please Trump. Shameful.

Statement from NU AAUP on the University’s “Resolution Agreement” BY JACKIE STEVENS Northwestern University’s Interim President Henry Bienen announced on Friday the university had violated commitments to its faculty and students in order to appease an autoc…

“We encourage concerned alumni to withhold from NU money to pay off Trump’s extortion and to donate to the AAUP Foundation, which is successfully supporting litigation in defense of academic freedom” academeblog.org/2025/12/01/s...

This is chilling. Academic freedom is under attack. What TX Tech is doing is antithetical to that freedom, it's un-American, and honestly, kinda Soviet. Is this who we want to be?

Despicable. These are college students, not children. Violating free speech and academic freedom.

Hey, Texas Tribune, we appreciate you, but please, this summary should read:

“In an unprecedented attack on faculty’s academic freedom and students’ freedom to learn, TTU System Chancellor…”

This is an obscene violation of both the first amendment (protections which have been held to apply to professors, Kyishian v. BoR (1967)) and general guidelines of academic freedom.

So long as that process remains, to be frank, Texas Tech should be both sued and lose accreditation.

Once again: this is not something that "threatens" academic freedom, though it will doubtless be reported that way. This is only possible where academic freedom has already ended.

If you have to get your syllabus approved by an apparatchik before you can teach a class, you're not a university anymore you're a regime indoctrination center.

The end of academic freedom, Flowchart Edition.

The risks of speech in times of epistemic assault – Part I This editorial is intended as an opening to a broader dialogue about sustaining critical inquiry amid growing threats to speech and democracy. We enco…

"We write this editorial with a deep sense of unease. The forces threatening academic freedom, public institutions, and democratic life are not abstract or distant, they are immediate, coordinated, and emboldened" (Andrew et al.).

#HigherEd
#AcademicFreedom

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

As they like to remind us at Texas Tech....From Here It's Possible. I add the caveat "Not likely. Not probable. Just possible." At sure this stupid policy will result in a notable decline in academic freedom, quality of instruction, & some poor sap getting fired to appease conservatives.

Flow chart from TX Tech memo showing that most class materials must be reviewed by chair, dean, and provost, and that all curricular material must be disclosed

TX Tech has a flow chat for guidance on what can be taught in the university system. Two things:
1. Very little content seems to be permitted. This is partisan control of the curriculum.
2. I would not enjoy teaching under these conditions, but I really would not want to be a Chair or Dean.

Texas Texh Systrm instigates a staggering smount of oversight over faculty tesching about race and gender www.texastribune.org/2025/12/01/t...

🚨 Academic freedom is under attack, and we’re not standing down.

We, alongside the @unitedfacultyfl.bsky.social, have filed a petition seeking to protect academic freedom and the learning environment our students deserve.

Read more: https://bit.ly/3Y4e9zu

🗣️ “Dr. McCoul has a long and distinguished record of exceptional teaching and service to Texas A&M…The vilification, trauma, and reputational harm she has endured at the hands of Texas A&M for simply doing her job must be acknowledged and corrected.” 👇

OPEN LETTER FROM THE AAUP–TAMU CHAPTER to Interim President Tommy Williams


“Reinstatement is the only just and appropriate remedy.”

eliminated programs include:
BS in integrated major in mathematics and English
BA in medieval and renaissance studies
BM in music theory and musicology
Associate in biochemical science
Associate in landscape horticulture
Associate in sustainable agriculture
Associate in sustainable agriculture

AAUP @ Univ. of Houston Opposes Campus Censorship CONTACT:  Daniel Morales, JD, President of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Chapter at the University of Houston, daniel.ibsen.morales@gmail.com

📢📢The AAUP chapter at the University of Houston has sent the following letter to admin: “We are deeply concerned that the directives outlined in Chancellor Khator's email present significant risks to academic freedom, to the integrity of our teaching mission + to the University’s legal obligations.”

AAUP @ Texas A&M: Reinstate Prof. Melissa McCoul CONTACT:  Leonard Bright, PhD, President of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Chapter at Texas A&M University-College Station, drleonardbright@hotmail.com

⭐️ From the AAUP Chapter at Texas A&M: “Reinstate Dr. Melissa McCoul immediately + Affirm the University’s commitment to its governing rules, ensuring that no faculty member is ever again dismissed without the due process mandated by University policy.” ⭐️

New international enrollment dipped this fall, NAFSA survey finds The poll is the second released this month to show significant declines, especially in new foreign graduate students coming to the U.S.

New NAFSA data show steep new international enrollment drops this fall. 6% in U.S. bachelor’s and 19% in master’s programs. Restrictive visa/immigration policies are the top barrier, cited by 85–90% of colleges, threatening campus diversity and finances. www.highereddive.com/news/new-int...

The entire business model of R1 public universities rests on 4 revenue sources:

1. Federal grants
2. Private gifts/endowments
3. Tuition (esp. from foreign students)
4. State $

For decades, 📈 in 1-3 offset a secular 📉 in 4. Now, 1 & 3 are being decimated & 4 ain't coming back. The math is clear.

Professors Launch PAC to Fight Back Against Trump’s Attacks The American Association of University Professors, a union whose members are fighting policies from the Trump administration and GOP Congress, launched a PAC this week to spend in federal elections.

ICYMI AAUP is starting a PAC news.bgov.com/bloomberg-go...

Professors Launch PAC to Fight Back Against Trump’s Attacks The American Association of University Professors, a union whose members are fighting policies from the Trump administration and GOP Congress, launched a PAC this week to spend in federal elections.

We launched a PAC!

“This PAC is an extension of our fight to ensure a future for American higher ed through bipartisan legislation that recognizes that college can be tuition-free, debt-free, welcoming to all, conducive to academic freedom & offer jobs with dignity.”

- Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Ind. May Reject Degrees That Don’t Commit to American “Values” Indiana may reject proposed degree programs at public institutions that don’t “cultivate civic responsibility and commitment to the core values of American society.” Earlier this month, the Indiana Co...

“This is yet another rollback of academic freedom & shared governance. It’s not the place of a state—it’s not the place of politicians—to tell faculty such things & it opens a door for political reprisal, for other ways to limit academic freedom.”

- Noor O'Neill, President AAUP Indiana Conference

Texas Private Schools Hire Relatives and Enrich Insiders. Soon They Can Do It With Taxpayer Money. An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found more than 60 instances of nepotism, self-dealing and conflicts of interest among 27 private schools that likely would have violated state law...

An investigation by ProPublica and @texastribune.org found more than 60 instances of nepotism, self-dealing and conflicts of interest among 27 private schools that likely would have violated state laws had the schools been public.

The legal, media, and academic institutions capitulating to an authoritarian ordering payments for favorable treatment are damning themselves to irrelevance. They are destroying their institutions. They will be — and should be — shunned for failing in their most basic purposes for existing.

#AAUP #DefendHigherEd

🙏 Please consider donating to a PAC created by the American Association of University Professors to fight back against Trump's attacks on academic freedom.

Spread the word! AAUP is a great organization and has been critical in this fight.

bsky.app/profile/aaup...

Indiana’s Attack on Intellectual Diversity Already used to suspend a professor, Indiana’s Act 202 curtails academic freedom and limits the plurality of viewpoints on campus.

"Indiana’s Act 202 attacks intellectual diversity. And when administrators violate the law to suspend faculty for presenting controversial views, academic freedom is under even greater threat."