BOOM. The AAUP is suing Texas A&M University System over their censorship policy that prohibits faculty from discussing topics & viewpoints related to race, sexual orientation, & gender. www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/... 1
![AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS, LEONARD BRIGHT, VANITA REDDY, LANDON SADLER, and AARON GEORGE,
Plaintiffs,
V.
ROBERT L. ALBRITTON, JAY GRAHAM, DAVID
C. BAGGETT, JOHN W. BELLINGER, JAMES R.
BROOKS, MICHAEL A. HERNANDEZ III,
WILLIAM MAHOMES JR., KELLEY SULLIVAN GEORGIADES, and SAM TORN, in their official capacities as members of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents,
Defendants.
CIVIL ACTION NO.
COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
COMPLAINT
Plaintiffs American Association of University Professors ("AAUP"), on behalf of
its members in the Texas A&M University System ("Texas A&M"), and individually named member professors Leonard Bright, Vanita Reddy, Landon Sadler, and Aaron George (collectively, "Plaintiffs") challenge Texas A&M System Policy ("System Policy") 08.01's prohibition on teaching "gender and race ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation, and gender identity" in academic coursework (the "Censorship Policy" or the "Policy").
On its face, the Censorship Policy imposes a complete prohibition, in all core-
curriculum courses, on courses "advocat[ing]" particular disfavored views of race or gender, or
any topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity, but the Policy does not impose any corresponding ban on opposing views on these issues.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jcats4toei4ybf5ibk3njty3/bafkreidml3fbnbiivajg7rverpx3nckfhv3zdron6klbxc7kaffoyslpty)
Dr. Diane Tober
@dianetober.bsky.social
Anthropologist, Professor, author, filmmaker, examining reproductive technologies and body commodification. Author of Eggonomics: The Global Market in Human Eggs and the Donors Who Supply Them.
“Seven days after the girl’s medical team infused trillions of viruses carrying the recipe for the base editor into her spinal fluid, she died of a severe immune reaction linked to the therapy…” This, in @science.org, is an important and tragic story. (It’s also an incredibly well reported one.) 🧪
Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public
Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals
science.org
Just finished my 3rd of 3 journal peer reviews in the past month-and-a-half--with a sprained wrist! Now if only reviewer 2 on my submission would finish the review they've been sitting on for the past three months!
This was me in 2023, quoted in Nature. Now see how things are going. When will the academic community wake up collectively & notice what is done to our scientific eco system. Resits. Organize. Refuse to play along. Fight slop. Take principled stands. 🖋️ openletter.earth/open-letter-...
Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia
openletter.earth
Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 3y ago"LLMs are too ethically murky to include in scientific publishing. A main concern lies in the way LLMs work: by trawling Internet content without concern for bias, consent or copyright, says Iris van Rooij, a cognitive scientist at Radboud University …” www.nature.com/articles/d41... 1/2
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... US appeals court strikes down key part of Florida law restricting campus race and gender discussions
US appeals court strikes down key part of Florida law restricting campus race and gender discussions
Ron DeSantis’s Stop Woke Act suffers another legal setback, with the state accused of ‘puppeteering’
theguardian.com
Scoop: NIH is on a mission to enlist one million Americans to share their genetic data to help with health research through a precision medicine program called “All of Us.” What participants don’t know is that at one research site, Palantir stores the data. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Palantir has a hand in NIH's most ambitious health initiative
The defense tech firm's work with public health data has largely flown under the radar.
motherjones.com
This is revolting: The Trump administration is preparing to deport brave women fleeing Iranian repression to Central African Republic, an impoverished country in the middle of a civil war. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/w...
Women Who Fled Iran Are to Be Deported to Central African Republic, Lawyers Say
nytimes.com
americananthro.org/advocacy-sta...
Setting the Record Straight on Anthropology - American Anthropological Association
The Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and the Humanistic Social Sciences identifies anthropology as the single most extreme case of scholarly deterioration in the humanities and soc...
americananthro.org
Another handful of sand in the gears: Researchers cannot serve on a panel *at all* if anyone from their institution has submitted to that panel. Recusing themselves for the proposal itself is no longer sufficient. This is needless, but will certainly slow things up even further.
NSF imposes stricter conflict-of-interest rules for grant-review panels
Researchers say changes could further burden the understaffed agency
science.org
Women, We Deserve Better Than This. Society’s approach to menopause and perimenopause reflects the deep flaws of a health system that has long treated women as an afterthought, by Melinda French Gates www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/o... via @nytopinion.nytimes.com
Opinion | Melinda French Gates: Women, We Deserve Better Than This
nytimes.com
New reproductive technologies are raising difficult ethical questions about risk, hope, and the future of medicine. playing god? podcast: “Losing Noah” (Pt 1): bioethics.jhu.edu/playing-god
This is the destruction of federal funding for scientific research & universities as we know it. A total, comprehensive politicization of the process & an end run around Congress.
Stand Up for Science!@standupforscience.net · 2mo agoBREAKING: New proposed OMB regulation, applying to all federal grants, requiring grant reviews by senior political appointees and re-emphasizes that "peer review remains advisory and does not replace agency discretion". #standupforscience public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-10817.pdf
Speaking as a “foreign” collaborator WTF?
Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 3mo ago“Units of the NIH are privately directing grantees to request permission in advance for any co-authorship with a scholar affiliated with a foreign institution, even if all the work was done in the United States.” Grantees also told to remove papers with foreign authors from progress reports.
The AAUP is committed to a higher ed system where universities are the engines of democracy & human flourishing—not silent partners in a reckless technological arms race that burns through public resources & weakens the very institutions needed for democratic society. ➡️ www.aaup.org/news/aaup-ba...
Where are the student protests? The real answer isn’t that students decided to shut up. It’s that universities and a hostile federal government have expended massive resources trying to ensure they do.
“Where have all the student protests gone?”
Trump wanted campus crackdowns. Colleges couldn't wait to oblige.
motherjones.com
More university boards overruling the judgement of expert faculty 🤮 www.theassemblync.com/news/educati...
UNC-Chapel Hill Trustees Reject Hiring of Tenured Women’s Studies Professor
The rare move comes a year after the Board of Trustees delayed dozens of votes to confer tenure, sparking outcry from faculty.
theassemblync.com
I've heard this my entire life. You need to sit down and BE QUIET. Men don't like to hear anyone but themselves speak.
Fiona "Fi" Webster 🌎🌍🌏@fiona-webster22.bsky.social · 3mo ago"Far from being a fringe belief system, *masculinism* has become the single most important force uniting the American right, bringing together an unlikely constellation of pastors, posters, senators, preachers, influencers, podcasters, 7 fanboys." They don't want women to vote. Gift link.
Doctors accused of inseminating their patients with their own sperm — without consent — rarely face legal consequences. While dozens of cases have become public across the U.S., few perpetrators have faced criminal charges or were forced to stop practicing. From @civilbeat.bsky.social:
A doctor was accused of fertility fraud. In Hawaiʻi, no law prevents it.
The allegations expose a lack of accountability mechanisms in this state for doctors who use their sperm to artificially inseminate unwitting fertility patients.
19thnews.org
We proposed this before the Canvas outage, but we’d like to thank the Canvas hackers for driving home the need for this language: "Provided instructors are meeting accessibility and pedagogical needs, faculty shall NOT be required to use ed-technologu." Full proposal here: https://loom.ly/rBZQFeA
“Red states are trying to outdo one another on who can create the most undemocratic, antifaculty legislation.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
New State Laws Land Blows Against Shared Governance, Tenure
Many legislatures have wrapped up their regular sessions. Inside Higher Ed provides a rundown of major legislation that passed in nine of these states.
insidehighered.com
More details on the firing of the National Science Board. The NSF now has no director, deputy director, or board. They have issued almost no new awards in 2026. The plan appears to be to completely destroyed the agency. The details are horrifying and have Russ Vought written all over them.
Board Ouster Raises Further Concerns About NSF’s Future
The White House axed all members of the board overseeing the National Science Foundation Friday, leaving the agency with no board, director or deputy director. It finally provided a reason Monday afte...
insidehighered.com
The National Science Foundation is the main source of funding for basic sciences in the US. For decades, they have supported a scientific R&D ecosystem in the US that has been an engine of economic growth and competitive advantage. Destroying the agency is no less than an act of sabotage.
💡Reminder: The proposed elimination of NSF's SBE Directorate would affect 63% of U.S. funding for social and psychological sciences. If you haven't had a chance to take action yet, our member guide has three quick steps you can take today: https://ow.ly/rwyq50YQAOM
NEW from me: New restrictions on sexual orientation and gender identity at Texas Tech extend to student research @chronicle.com www.chronicle.com/article/at-t...
At Texas Tech, Even Some Student Research on Gender Will Be Banned
A ban on theses or dissertations about sexual orientation or gender identity has faculty worried about the consequences for graduate students — as well as future attacks on research.
chronicle.com