This week, we're celebrating Max Van Dongen, Asst. Lecturer in BSU's Department of Media and recipient of CCIM's 2026 Outstanding Teacher Award. Cheers to another year of teaching, mentoring, creating, researching, & helping students discover what they're capable of. #facultyfriday

Constitution Day is about more than celebrating a document. It’s an opportunity to talk about the rights and freedoms it is meant to protect. On 9/17, our colleagues are hosting a Lunch & Learn focused on academic freedom + free speech. 📚 Chapter leaders: Check in w/ @bsuaaup.bsky.social!

Indiana students attending public colleges & universities will once again see undergraduate tuition & mandatory fees held @ 2024 levels this academic year. Making higher ed affordable is an important goal. But tuition is only one side of the equation. indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/08/26/i...

Indiana in-state tuition freeze continues for second year • Indiana Capital Chronicle

Indiana's two-year in-state college tuition freeze will continue through the 2026-27 academic year.

indianacapitalchronicle.com

As a new academic year gets underway, we’re thinking about the possibilities created every day inside our classrooms that depend on faculty having the freedom to ask difficult questions, follow evidence, introduce students to challenging ideas, and teach according to their professional expertise.

Our colleagues at @uarj.bsky.social have launched a new training hub with practical opportunities to help faculty and other higher education stakeholders become more informed and effective participants in that process. We encourage Indiana faculty to learn more & register: uarj.org/trainings

We have launched new training opportunities for faculty, staff, students, & community members to build knowledge & practical skills needed to engage in Indiana higher ed policy. 9/16 | Understanding How Policy Becomes Campus Reality 9/30 | How to Testify at the Indiana Statehouse uarj.org/trainings

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: UARJ Training, Part I: Advocating for Higher Education. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: UARJ Training, Part I: Advocating for Higher Education. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

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A recent AAUP report raises a question for higher ed: what happens when government funding & regulatory authority become leverage for changing university policies, teaching, or research? 'Extorted Compliance' examines growing threats to institutional autonomy: inaaup.wordpress.com/2026/08/17/w...

Who Gets to Decide What Universities Teach? The Growing Threat of “Extorted Compliance”

Colleges and universities have always existed in conversation (and sometimes tension) with the governments, communities, donors, and students they serve. Academia tends to live within the understan…

inaaup.wordpress.com

If you’ve been wondering what’s happening across Indiana’s campuses, we’ve put together a back-to-campus guide with steps every faculty member can take. This year is beginning amid continued changes to higher ed & faculty shouldn’t have to navigate them alone. inaaup.wordpress.com/2026/08/17/b...

Back to Campus, Ready to Organize: A Faculty Guide for the 2026–27 Academic Year

A new academic year always begins with a familiar rush: new students, new schedules, revised syllabi, committee meetings, overflowing inboxes, and the optimistic fiction that this will be the semes…

inaaup.wordpress.com

Throwback to 2014 with Steven Salaita in our sister state, Illinois. The case quickly became a dispute over Academic Freedom. An AAUP investigation later concluded that the university’s actions violated principles of academic freedom and appropriate academic procedure. www.aaup.org/reports-publ...

This newsletter focuses on the questions faculty across Indiana will be navigating in the months ahead: academic freedom, institutional autonomy, state higher education policy, faculty organization, and the role of AAUP chapters in responding collectively. inaaupnews.org/august-2026-...

Who holds university trustees accountable? Indiana University Trustee Sage Steele recently drew scrutiny after a social media post about former federal health official Anthony Fauci raised questions about IU’s newly adopted trustee code of conduct. www.ipm.org/news/2026-08...

Does Sage Steele’s post about ‘waterboarding’ Fauci violate code of conduct for IU trustees?

The post has received over 600,000 views and, predictably in these times, over 500 comments from people who are both in favor and against Steele’s statement.

ipm.org

Academic freedom depends on universities being places where scholarship, teaching, research & inquiry are guided by expertise and the pursuit of knowledge, rather than by political pressure. Free universities help sustain society. We all have a stake in protecting intellectual independence.

For this week's Faculty Friday, we’re celebrating Steven Alan Carr for helpoing students think critically about film, media, culture, history, and the forces that shape the stories we tell and consume. Thank you for the work you do for students, scholarship, and higher education in Indiana!

On this rainy day in Indiana, we're sharing a bright spot from Texas, where faculty organizations and civil rights advocates are refusing to allow classroom censorship to become the norm. lambdalegal.org/newsroom/aau...

Legal Advocates Seek Preliminary Injunction to Block Texas Tech's Unconstitutional Classroom Censorship Policies

The motion asks the court to immediately halt enforcement of university policies that restrict faculty teaching on certain topics related to race, gender identity, and sexual orientation.  Today, plai...

lambdalegal.org

AAUP & AFT called on Yale to reject any closed-door agreement that would compromise academic freedom, shared governance, due process or institutional independence. Read the letter: www.aaup.org/news/aaup-af...

AAUP has long recognized the rights of teachers & students as essential parts of academic freedom. Protecting the freedom to teach also means protecting the freedom to learn. This week, we’re reminded that defending academic freedom means defending curiosity itself. #academicfreedom

“Extorted Compliance: A Threat to Institutional Autonomy, Academic Freedom, & Shared Governance,” lays out a disturbing pattern: the Trump admin has used federal research funding as leverage to pressure universities to threaten the core functions of higher ed. www.aaup.org/reports-publ...

Extorted Compliance: A Threat to Institutional Autonomy, Academic Freedom, and Shared Governance

Published July 2026.This report was prepared by a joint subcommittee of the Association’s Committee A on Academic Freedom andTenure and the Committee on College and University Governance and was appro...

aaup.org

Shared governance means faculty hold primary responsibility for areas in which their professional expertise is essential, including: • Curriculum and course content • Teaching methods • Research • Faculty status and evaluation • Academic aspects of student life www.aaup.org/issues-highe...

Academic freedom is not a private privilege reserved for professors. It is part of the infrastructure that allows knowledge to grow, errors to be challenged and the public to benefit from honest inquiry. www.aaup.org/reports-publ...

Flashback to earlier this year when the impact of Indiana’s “intellectual diversity” law and the uncertainty it has created for faculty navigating teaching, research, tenure, and classroom discussion was being thoroughly examined by journalists. www.highereddive.com/news/inside-...

Inside the ‘minefield’ of Indiana’s intellectual diversity law

The measure aims to promote diverse viewpoints in classrooms. But some experts say it's part of a troubling trend to restrict certain speech in classrooms.

highereddive.com

A new CAP report warns that drafted federal rules could reshape college accreditation in ways that reduce student protections, weaken oversight, & give the federal government more leverage over what faculty teach, research, & publish. www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...

The Trump Administration Moves To Tighten Grip on Colleges

New rules would gut key student protections on program quality and give the federal government leverage to exert ideological control over American higher education.

americanprogress.org

New data shows major research universities accepted 15% fewer doctoral applicants for fall 2026 compared to fall 2025. This is the second consecutive year of substantial reductions. Read more: www.sfexaminer.com/decline-of-p...

Universities serve the public best when they are free to pursue knowledge wherever the evidence leads. Academic freedom protects the ability of faculty to teach, research, question, and challenge ideas without political interference. #motivationmonday

For Faculty Friday, we are recognizing Leonard Williams, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Manchester University! Professor Williams provides thoughtful teaching, compassionate mentorship, open inquiry, and the belief that students deserve to be taken seriously as thinkers. Thank you!

Throwback to 1915, when the AAUP was founded to define and defend academic freedom in American higher education. More than a century later, that mission is still urgent. 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom & Academic Tenure: www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres...

Shared governance is the principle that universities work best when faculty have a meaningful role in institutional decision-making, including decisions about curriculum, academic standards, teaching, research, budgeting, technology, hiring, program review, & long-term university strategy.

AAUP is investigating academic freedom + shared governance violations across TX public universities, including restrictions on what faculty can teach, political control over curriculum, & more. We're watching in Indiana, as we have seen similar issues here. www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

AAUP Investigating Academic Freedom, Shared Governance in Texas

An American Association of University Professors committee is investigating academic freedom and shared governance violations across Texas, where public university leaders have restricted what faculty...

insidehighered.com

Academic freedom is often discussed as a principle, a policy, or a professional protection, but at its heart, it is about people. It protects professors asking difficult questions, students learning how to think critically, researchers following evidence where it leads, and more. #motivationmonday

Higher education is under pressure from legislative interference. Tell OMB how politicizing research funding would affect your students, your work, your campus, and the public good. Academic freedom survives when we defend it in public by midnight on July 13. www.regulations.gov/docket/OMB-2...

A recent NPR story on First Amendment settlements following firings over social media posts about Charlie Kirk’s death raises urgent questions for Indiana higher education. Our thoughts: inaaup.wordpress.com/2026/07/02/a...

Academic Freedom Is Tested When Speech Becomes Controversial

A Blog regarding First Amendment settlements and how they should be a warning to Indiana colleges and universities. A recent NPR story examining First Amendment settlements following firings over s…

inaaup.wordpress.com