TODAY at 3PM EDT: our next webinar in our AI Toolkit series, "Intervening in Local Policy & Bargaining Around Technology” drawing from recent wins in higher ed on developing community labor tables around technology issues featuring @roxanneshirazi.bsky.social & Nathan Kim.

Intervening in Local Policy and Bargaining Around Technology

Learn about how to bargain for better shared governance around technology, about recent wins for higher education, and how to develop community labor tables around technology issues.

aaup.org

Lots of galaxy brain thinking going on in Merten Hall lately @georgemasonu.bsky.social @gmupres.bsky.social

“Being in higher ed right now is just being on the receiving end of an onslaught of attacks…so it feels really good to know that we were able to build this strong coalition of people across the political spectrum to come together on this.” — Lorena Grundy, @aaup-penn.bsky.social

AAUP Nets Legal Victory Against EEOC in Penn Case

The appellate court decision could help other institutions if they face similar demands for information about Jewish employees, the American Association of University Professors said.

insidehighered.com

“What we need is everyone w/ a stake in higher education, students, parents, administrators, to go on the record & publicly say these proposed rules are going to be catastrophic for higher ed. They shouldn’t be implemented. Encourage your administration to make a public statement.” — Katie Rainwater

Regulating Academic Freedom

A conversation with AAUP’s Katie Rainwater on proposed federal rules to restrict and redefine university research and teaching.

joshcowen.substack.com

Join us on Monday, 9/28 to learn why billionaires like Marc Rowan want to destroy academic freedom & how faculty, campus workers, & students can fight back to defend the freedom to teach, learn, research & speak out without government censorship. RSVP 👇 us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

TODAY: 6:30PM ET! Join NEA Higher Ed for an extended preview of 'First They Came for My College,' a documentary about the fight for academic freedom at the New College of Florida. Register Here! 👇👇👇 www.nea.org/professional... @neatoday.bsky.social

www.nbcwashington.com/investigatio... When academic freedom is under attack, we must stand up, fight back. Our democracy depends on it. @aaupmason.bsky.social @aaup.org @local6741.bsky.social @aft.org Join us: www.aaup.org/join

Turning Point USA's Professor Watchlist is down. Instructors describe its impact

“I received several death threats.” Two D.C.-area college instructors who appeared on the Professor Watchlist describe what it meant for their lives.

nbcwashington.com

TONIGHT @7PM ET! Fight Back Against Trump’s “Secret Weapon” to take complete control of higher education. REGISTER HERE: 👇👇👇

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Accreditation & You. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

Come learn about the far right's attempt to capture higher ed accreditation, what is changing and why it matters, and how you can join in the fight and take action.

us06web.zoom.us

Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Ed@sfndhe.bsky.social · 4w ago

Learn how right-wing groups are trying to change accreditation to promote their ideology.

The Trump admin is afraid of educated critical thinkers which is why they are doing everything they can to bend higher education to their will. We can’t let them. The AAUP & AFT have responded to McMahon’s ‘Compact 2.0’ letter w/ our own “National Call to Action to the Secretary of Education.” 1

AAUP and AFT Respond to Trump's "Compact 2.0"

AAUP President Todd Wolfson and AFT President Randi Weingarten demand that the Trump administration immediately cease weaponizing taxpayer funds and civil rights enforcement to politically coerce coll...

aaup.org

The AAUP Faculty in the South Survey Results are OUT!

Matthew Boedy@matthewboedy.bsky.social · last mo.

AAUP state conferences conducted the survey. It received responses from 2,700+ in Oklahoma, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, & Arkansas. View full results here: /end www.aaupgeorgia.org/policy-resou...

Our union is now wall-to-wall. If you work at George Mason, you can join (as long as your employment is NOT governed by the Administrative Faculty Handbook). Spread the word and join today (aaupmason.org). Also consider joining our staff committee, graduate student committee, or faculty committee.

“VSU used this false reorganization as a pretext to terminate respected members of the VSU academic community, marching them out without time to pack up their offices, say farewell to their colleagues, or transition their research.“ Reinstate the Fired Six Now!

Fired Virginia State University professors file civil rights complaint with AG’s office • Virginia Mercury

Ahead of a Friday board meeting, six former instructors allege discrimination by school, after faculty leaders call for their reinstatement

virginiamercury.com

For MSNOW, I wrote about the Trump administration threatening to strip colleges of their tax-exempt status as part of its larger segregationist agenda.

Opinion | Trump’s next high education target: schools that help Black students

Victor Ray: American universities must stand up to Trump's plan to re-segregate higher ed

ms.now

"The AAUP is not going to stand by & watch President Trump once again attempt to destroy the greatest system of higher education in the world that gives opportunity to a diverse set of students for a diverse country. Yes, emphatically, yes. We are going to fight this." – Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

IRS targets private schools that help racial minority students

The Trump administration has said it will end the tax-exempt status for universities with programs that help racial minority students.

npr.org

Nearly four months after the Faculty Senate finding that the Fired Six were baselessly & wrongfully terminated, Virginia State University has taken no action. The AAUP demands the reinstatement of the Fired Six with full back pay & benefits immediately. #academicsky

In an era of relentless authoritarian attacks on higher education and our democracy, neutrality is not an option. The AAUP is fighting back. Join us.

Is Todd Wolfson Destroying the AAUP — or Saving it?

His partisan, combative style has remade the century-old organization. Not everyone is pleased.

chronicle.com

The AAUP & AFT condemn the recent directive from the War Dept that publicly places 30 universities under suspicion & gives them 2 weeks to investigate years of academic activity. The directive represents another threat of funding-based coercion that undermines scientific research & innovation.

Department of War Directive Undermines Scientific Innovation. It Should Be Rescinded.

aaup.org

Faculty of the South! Please take a few moments to fill out the 2026 AAUP Faculty In The South Survey:

Matthew Boedy@matthewboedy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The 2026 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are faculty in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas please take a second to fill it out: forms.gle/iLheVskd4wcA...

“A robust democracy demands a robust free public higher education system.” NEW: check out this interview w/ AAUP President Todd Wolfson on why professors have entered the political realm & backed Abdul El-Sayed for US Senate. @newrepublic.com @perrybaconjr.bsky.social #academicsky

Why Professors Got Behind Abdul El-Sayed

AAUP President Todd Wolfson says that endorsing El-Sayed and other candidates is part of defending both higher education and democracy.

newrepublic.com

“Academic workers did not create this crisis. But we intend to fix it by building a system of higher education worthy of this country—affordable & accessible to every qualified student, governed once again by those who teach & learn within it.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP president #academicsky

Who Really Politicized Higher Education? (opinion)

It wasn’t the AAUP.

insidehighered.com

Here is a running list of case summaries & updates on each of the lawsuits the AAUP has filed since January, 2025:

AAUP Litigation

aaup.org

You don’t say.

Dan Silverman@dmsilverman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New study shows that — contra widely accepted narratives — there is NO EVIDENCE that professors change their students’ politics and make them more liberal through their teaching

“Universities have an obligation to engage with policymakers, including administrations they disagree with. The challenge is ensuring that engagement protects higher education rather than normalizes political interference in it.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

McMahon’s Call To Action Raises Questions About University Independence

Linda McMahon's "National Call to Action" asks colleges to state their commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research, adn national service.

forbes.com

Trump’s Compact 2.0 announced by Linda McMahon this week should be placed in the context of their failed 2025 “loyalty oath” compact that was defeated by students & faculty at every institution they offered it to. Organizing & collective pressure works. 1 🧵 www.aaup.org/issue/winter...

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

“Genuine intellectual diversity requires time for reflection, institutional independence, historical depth, ethical questioning, & the freedom to pursue research unconstrained by immediate market demands. These conditions cannot flourish where knowledge itself has become increasingly commodified.”

Higher Ed Can’t Be Neutral in an Age of Brutality. It Must Choose Democracy.

Contemporary proponents of “institutional neutrality” fail to grasp that universities have never been outside politics.

truthout.org

"Resistance has been, and will be, most effective—indeed, it may only be effective—when faculty members mobilize and take independent action." - Comprehensive report on threats to public higher education in the US by @aaup.org / @cuasa.ca @cautdefencefund.bsky.social @ocufa.bsky.social

AAUP@aaup.org · 3mo ago

OUT TODAY, the AAUP just released the first comprehensive account of how the Trump administration has taken the same playbook it's used on law firms & foreign governments & turned it on American universities. US higher ed has, in effect, become a target of a massive extortion racket. 🧵

Bethany Letiecq—President of Virginia AAUP and George Mason AAUP member—on fighting and winning as pre-contract union members. Give them a follow to support Virginia AAUP-AFT's fight for collective bargaining rights: @aaupvirginia.bsky.social @aaupmason.bsky.social @aft.org @aaup.org

The White House didn’t weigh scientific merit or alleged noncompliance of grant terms when they cut billions in life-saving research, they just looked for words they didn’t like. Blue states were specifically targeted for defunding.

Sarah T Roberts, PhD@ubiquity75.xyz · 3mo ago

A reminder that UC _faculty_ and Faculty Associations — not the universities themselves nor their administrators — are waging this battle in court, demonstrating great bravery and moral clarity.