University Alliance for Racial Justice
@uarj.bsky.social
To advocate for and, when necessary, defend against threats to diversity, fairness, equity, social justice and inclusion for all people, especially those who have been targeted and marginalized throughout our history.
Faculty-Focused Reminder! There’s still time to join the University Alliance for Racial Justice tomorrow, September 16, from 4:00–5:00 p.m. for a hybrid training examining how political ideas become legislation—and how legislation becomes university policy. 🔗 www.uarj.org/trainings
Join us tomorrow, September 16, from 4:00–5:00 p.m. for a free hybrid training on how ideas move from think tanks and political movements to legislation, and ultimately into the policies governing Indiana colleges and universities. www.uarj.org/trainings
We've seen attempts around the country to restrict teaching about race & gender, so let's talk about it: What role should faculty & students have when university leaders respond to political demands about teaching, curriculum, & institutional policy? www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
Faculty Should Lead in Responding to Compact 2.0 (opinion)
No university should respond to Secretary McMahon’s letter without significant faculty involvement.
insidehighered.com
Higher ed doesn't exist apart from democracy. It helps shape who has access to opportunity, whose knowledge is valued, whose voices are heard, & who is prepared to participate fully in public life. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.
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.
bit.ly
Recruitment is not retention. In a new AAUP Blog, Sydney Freeman Jr. asks: Who will protect faculty of color? Are institutions just interested in hiring faculty of color, or are they willing to create the conditions for them to thrive? academeblog.org/2026/08/21/w...
Who Will Protect Faculty of Color?
BY SYDNEY FREEMAN JR. Too many scholars of color are leaving the academy, and too few higher education organizations, faculty senates, and faculty advocates are doing tangible work to combat this. …
academeblog.org
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 2015, when Mizzou students forced a national conversation about race on campus. Following racist incidents and longstanding concerns about the university's response to racism, Black students organized protests demanding institutional accountability. www.pbs.org/newshour/cla...
Student protests result in university president’s resignation
University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe announced his resignation Monday amid protests over the university’s handling of racial discrimination and slurs on campus.
pbs.org
4 profs & AAUP have sued Texas A&M over policies restricting instruction related to race, gender, sexual orientation & gender identity. The restrictions violate faculty 1st Amendment & are so vague that profs can't reliably determine what they may teach w/o risk. www.chronicle.com/article/what...
‘What Are We Even Doing Here?': New Lawsuit Challenges Ban on Race and Gender Topics at Texas A&M
Plaintiffs included four faculty members whose courses were canceled or not offered.
chronicle.com
When efforts to teach about race, inequality, gender, & human rights are dismissed as divisive, we must remember: we cannot overcome prejudices we are unwilling to examine. Education isn't just for preparing us for careers; it prepares us to understand & build something better together.
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court sharply restricted the consideration of race in college admissions. Policy change happens through: 🔴 Court decisions 🔴 Agency guidance 🔴 Investigations 🔴 Funding conditions 🔴 Accreditation standards 🔴 University compliance decisions www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
US scrutinizes more schools over admissions practices, diversity and pro-Palestinian protests
President Donald Trump's administration targeted more universities over issues like race and diversity in admissions and pro-Palestinian protests, marking the federal government's latest crackdown ag...
reuters.com
Last week, the American Bar Association remained divided over whether to eliminate a diversity requirement for accredited law schools amid pressure from the federal government. Accreditation is one of the quiet pieces of infrastructure holding higher ed together. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
American Bar Association splits on plan to scrap DEI rule for law schools
A plan to eliminate the American Bar Association’s longstanding diversity, inclusion and equity requirement for law schools hit a snag Tuesday when the organization’s policy-making body rejected the c...
reuters.com
As campuses prepare for the academic year, we’re witnessing a growing national struggle over who has the authority to determine what belongs in a classroom. This week, we’ll be sharing several stories that make that question impossible to ignore. #MotivationMonday #highereducationmatters
Facing injustice requires more than acknowledging that inequity exists. It requires naming the history, policies, & distributions of power that continue to produce it. This week, let's have the courage to face what needs to be changed and the discipline to keep working when change isn't easy.
Flashback to when Cloaking Inequity reflected on student voice, campus leadership, free expression, & the role of student journalism in university life. Healthy universities do not treat student voice as a risk to be managed. cloakinginequity.com/2025/10/22/a...
A Presidency of Fear and Control: How a University Lost Its Moral Compass
When I was in high school, I served as editor and associate editor of our newspaper, The Acadia. We were a small but mighty team, but we believed deeply in the power of student journalism. We worke…
cloakinginequity.com
Last week’s 11th Circuit ruling to strike down the higher education provisions of FL’s Stop WOKE Act is a step forward. This law sought to restrict how faculty at public institutions could teach about race, gender, racism, and systemic inequity. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
How the Stop WOKE Act Ruling Strengthened Academic Freedom
A conversation with Tim Cain, an academic freedom expert and professor of higher education at the University of Georgia.
insidehighered.com
New data shows major research universities accepted 15% fewer Ph.D. applicants for 2026 compared to 2025. International apps to Ph.D. programs declined by 21%. This is a warning sign that the pathway into advanced research is becoming less stable & accessible. www.sfexaminer.com/decline-of-p...
Decline of Ph.D. admissions could imperil a 'generation of new talent'
Data from prestigious U.S. research universities reveals a 15% drop in Ph.D. program admissions, impacting future scientific workforce and innovation.
sfexaminer.com
Convos about educational inequity focus on what students, families, or communities are presumed to lack. But lasting change begins by asking: What barriers have institutions created, maintained, or overlooked? We believe higher education is strongest when it confronts systemic barriers. #motivation
Racist costume parties are in poor taste & symptoms of campus cultures where racial harm is too often minimized, misunderstood, or treated as a public relations problem. Higher ed must do more than condemn racist incidents after the fact. theconversation.com/ive-been-stu...
I’ve been studying racist costume parties for a decade, and colleges are failing at educating the students about why they’re wrong
A series of racist costume parties at Bowdoin shows the contradiction colleges have to navigate – encouraging open, reasoned debate, while creating a safe campus for all students.
theconversation.com
What gets studied now can become law later. Indiana lawmakers are beginning to outline summer study topics that could have real consequences for higher education, racial justice, civil rights, academic freedom, and campus communities. Be ready to engage. fox59.com/indianapolit...
Indiana state lawmakers outline topics that could be focused on during 2027 legislative session
INDIANAPOLIS — Following the 2026 session of the Indiana General Assembly, Indiana state lawmakers are already looking ahead to the 2027 session after leadership assigned topics for the lawma…
fox59.com
A federal appeals court ruled that key parts of Florida’s Stop WOKE Act violate the First Amendment. This is a meaningful win for academic freedom, race-conscious teaching, and honest classroom inquiry. Read more: www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t... #AcademicFreedom #RacialJustice #HigherEd
Civil rights protections are only as strong as our collective willingness to defend & expand them. ACLU is hosting a town hall on recent Supreme Court rulings in landmark civil rights cases, including its birthright citizenship case, and what these decisions mean. www.youtube.com/live/Bd6bqyD...
Supreme Court End-of-Term Debrief: Voting Rights, Citizenship, and Presidential Power | ACLU
YouTube video by ACLU
youtube.com
Race-conscious higher education is not about abstraction. It is about honesty, language, priorities, and material change. As Professor Eric R. Felix, Ph.D. reminds us, race-consciousness requires institutions to acknowledge equity cannot be race-neutral in systems that have never been race-neutral.
This NPR story on First Amendment settlements after firings over social media posts about Charlie Kirk’s death is about more than one public figure or one set of posts. It is about power: who gets protected, who gets punished, and whose speech is treated as a threat. www.npr.org/2026/06/23/n...
Some who lost jobs over Charlie Kirk posts get big payouts for First Amendment retaliation
While workers, who were employees in government or public institutions, feel vindicated by how their lawsuits concluded, they are still grappling with the aftermath.
npr.org
The advocacy community mourns the passing of our friend, Mark Russel. Respected writer, public servant, and community leader whose work connected education, racial justice, family stability, housing, public policy, and community power.
Indiana AAUP condemns Indiana University’s termination of Lecturer Jessica Adams from the IU School of Social Work. This case raises urgent concerns about academic freedom, due process, political interference, and more. Read our full statement: inaaup.wordpress.com/2026/06/15/i...
Indiana AAUP Denounces IU’s Termination of Lecturer Jessica Adams, Calls for Immediate Review
The Indiana Conference of the American Association of University Professors condemns Indiana University’s decision to terminate Jessica Adams from her position as a Lecturer in the Indiana Universi…
inaaup.wordpress.com
Universities should be places where people can bring the fullness of their histories, identities, questions, and experiences into shared spaces of learning. Not because diversity is a slogan, but because our differences help us see more clearly, ask better questions, and imagine more just futures.
Thank you to the Indiana Capital Chronicle for covering Jessica Adams’ fight to keep teaching at IU-Bloomington. We continue to call on Indiana University to restore her position and protect faculty from retaliation for legitimate teaching and scholarship. indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/06/11/i...
IU lecturer disciplined for 'white supremacy' lesson fights for job • Indiana Capital Chronicle
An Indiana University social work lecturer sanctioned for allegedly violating Indiana's "intellectual diversity" law says filing an appeal
indianacapitalchronicle.com
This @aaup.org piece on Yoel Fink’s Sakharov Prize address is a powerful reminder: academic freedom is a human rights commitment. When scholars are targeted, institutional silence is not neutrality. It is abandonment. academeblog.org/2026/05/28/s... #AcademicFreedom #HumanRights #HigherEd #UARJ
UARJ condemns Indiana University’s termination of Lecturer Jessica Adams. Teaching about white supremacy, social justice, and structural inequity is not misconduct. In social work, it is essential education. Full statement: open.substack.com/pub/uarj/p/u...
