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DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS

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We are following developments across the nation that may affect us soon.

Dear Colleagues,

As the fall 2025 semester gains momentum, AAUP/AFT-CCU is not only focused on internal issues at CCU but also working with AAUP/AFT-SC to track political and legislative developments across the state.

We are equally attentive to national trends that threaten academic freedom and shared governance. Some states are serving as early warning sites for the rest of us—Georgia among them. In October 2021, its Republican-led legislature effectively abolished tenure. Now, faculty in the state university system are required to post syllabi online.

Transparency and public engagement are integral to academic work, but in today’s political climate, compulsory syllabus posting looks less like openness and more like an invitation for targeted political attacks. As Dr. Matthew Boedy, President of the Georgia Conference of the AAUP, has warned, this mandate hands those who systematically target professors yet another avenue to do so.

We will continue monitoring these developments, engaging with CCU’s leadership, and advocating to protect and strengthen academic freedom and shared governance on our campus.

Please remember to reach out should you have questions or concerns that fall under the broad banners of shared governance and academic freedom. Additionally, reach out to your new colleagues and urge them to get in touch with AAUP/AFT-CCU by going to our website.

In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU

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Georgia professors now have to post syllabuses publicly online. Some University System of Georgia professors will now have to post their syllabuses online, starting this semester. Syllabuses for core classes and classes offered by the College of Education had to be posted before the start of the current fall semester. Other courses have until the registration period for the 2026 fall semester to comply with the rule. The policy was passed in May. A letter from University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue says all syllabuses must include required readings and key learning objectives.

● The article includes a statement from Professor Matthew Boedy, an English Professor at the University of North Georgia and the President of the Georgia Conference of the AAUP. Dr. Boedy says he welcomes more transparency for students but has concerns about how this newly public information may be used. “I know that many of my colleagues have been targeted for what they teach in their classroom, and this allows that targeting even more pathways,” he says.

The US used to be a haven for research. Now, scientists are packing their bags. A growing number of academics and researchers leaving the United States. As government funding for scientific research dries up, and as President Donald Trump wages pointed attacks against some of the nation’s top universities, more academics are looking to Europe and Asia as safe havens.

● A recent survey of U.S. college faculty by the journal Nature found that 75% were looking for work outside the country. Some are doing so to protect their research, while others are trying to safeguard their individual freedoms.

● As part of its 2026 budget proposal, the Trump administration has called for the elimination of the NEH, the largest humanities funder in the United States. It has also dismantled the National Science Foundation, the only federal agency that funds research across all fields of science and engineering. It has already canceled at least 1,653 active research grants.

● On Aug. 21, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote allowed the White House to proceed with almost $800 million in cuts to research from the National Institutes of Health.

● The Trump administration’s list of banned words is now at over 350 and growing, with words such as “woman,” “climate,” “race,” and “housing” on the list. It has also taken down from government websites decades-worth of data related to climate change, health, and other scientific research.

The coming collapse of faculty diversity. Trump’s war on university diversity programs is often seen as a distinct initiative, but it is part and parcel of his effort to delegitimize academic institutions by suggesting that they are not hiring the best and brightest. And by targeting university budgets, he is assuring that faculties will become less diverse. Studies also suggest that students of color will suffer.

● In academe, demographic shifts in new faculty can happen with no one being the wiser, because hiring decisions are scattered across departments. Undergraduate admissions are different because they are centralized, and so admissions staff see the composition of admits before they send acceptance letters — or they did until the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision forbidding the use of race in admissions. Because faculty hires happen one by one, academic leaders do not see the aggregate effects of hiring decisions until after the hiring season, if then.

DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS

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Attacks against higher education are real, but so is the momentum to resist

Dear Colleagues,

Earlier today I was one of two AAUP/AFT-CCU Executive Committee members who attended the AAUP-SC chapter’s Kick-Off meeting. The meeting brought together around 25 chapter leaders and activists from across the state. In comparing notes, it is clear that higher education all across South Carolina is facing mounting challenges, ranging from the erosion of shared governance to direct threats against faculty, staff, and student rights that have been established for over 100 years in the United States.

At the same time, however, the AAUP is fighting back with force. The organization has added over 7,000 members nationwide since January of this year. Our local conference here in South Carolina grew by 100% between January and July. The AAUP-SC conference is building programming and preparing materials to provide help to faculty, staff, and students, oriented around key AAUP concepts such as shared governance, academic freedom, and improving working conditions for all.

In the midst of all this action, our university has a new president, Dr. James Winebrake. Dr. Winebrake comes to us from University of North Carolina Wilmington, which does not have an active AAUP chapter. However, the university includes the AAUP Standards of Shared Governance in its Faculty Resources page. The CCU chapter of AAUP/AFT intends to be proactive about reaching out to Dr. Winebrake and establishing a working relationship with him and his office. We will report our progress to you with frequency.

Please remember to reach out should you have questions or concerns about working at CCU that fall under shared governance and academic freedom. Additionally, reach out to your new colleagues and urge them to get in touch with AAUP/AFT-CCU by going to our website.

In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU

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AAUP-SC adopts DEI statement. Right before the end of the spring 2025 semester, the South Carolina Conference of the AAUP adopted a collaboratively-written statement in support of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The statement was the result of a collaboration of members of Committee T on Governance, the AAUP Executive Council, and members in attendance at the AAUP-SC Spring meeting. Also at the Spring meeting, AAUP-SC adopted a set of “aspirational” best practices regarding how institutions employ adjunct faculty. This set of practices grew out of the work of Committee Z on Equity in the Profession and were informed by reports by the College of Charleston Faculty Welfare Committee in 2017, the committee’s survey of adjunct faculty in 2023, and subsequent conversations with respondents, AFT and AAUP resources, other print sources, and consultations with AAUP-SC membership.

● In part the statement reads: “We affirm that diversity, equity, and inclusion are legitimate and compelling aims of higher education institutions and strongly urge that the administrations and boards of South Carolina’s public and private colleges and universities avoid engaging in anticipatory obedience to proposed state and national legislation and to the flurry of vague and expansive orders from the federal government’s executive branch“.

Participate in AAUP ‘Faculty in the South’ survey. The Georgia conference of the AAUP and its partners in states across the South have been at the forefront of fighting attacks on higher education. To assist in that fight, the would like to know your opinion as a faculty member if you work in one of the following 12 states: South Carolina, among other southern states. Please participate in and spread through your faculty networks the 2025 AAUP Faculty in the South Survey. You can see results from previous years here. AAUP/AFT-CCU will share the results of the survey later this semester.

● Key findings from the 2024 survey indicate that about 60 percent [58.7] of respondents would not recommend their state as a desirable place to work for colleagues, while 28 percent were planning to apply in another state in the coming year. That same amount [27.7 percent] had applied for academic jobs in other states since 2022. The top five states for those applications were: California, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Illinois. Every state in the nation was listed at least four times. More than a quarter [27.7 percent] said they did not plan to stay in academia long term.

AAUP releases report on artificial intelligence and the academic professions. Educational technology, or ed-tech, including artificial intelligence (AI), continues to become more integrated into teaching and research in higher education, with minimal oversight. The AAUP’s ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Academic Professions—composed of higher education faculty members, staff, and scholars interested in technology and its impact on academic labor— conducted a survey with a sample of five hundred members from nearly two hundred campuses across the country, collected during a two-week time period. You can download the report here.

● Survey respondents emphasized the importance of improving education on AI, promoting shared governance through policies and oversight, and focusing on equity, transparency, and worker protections.
● Among the committee’s five recommendations was “Implementing Shared Governance Policies to Promote Oversight”, which notes that AI integration initiatives are spearheaded by administrations with little input from faculty members and other campus community members, including staff and students. There are thus high levels of concern around AI and technology procurement, deployment, and use; dehumanized relations; and poor working and learning conditions.

The 2024 AAUP Community College Shared Governance survey results are now out. For more than a century, the AAUP has conducted or sponsored national shared governance surveys at four-year colleges and universities. In 2024, the AAUP, in partnership with the Center for the Study of Community Colleges, conducted an inaugural shared governance survey focused on com­munity colleges, the institutions educating nearly 40 percent of all undergraduates in the United States. Findings from this survey provide insights into areas of faculty authority and administrative collaboration in the nation’s public community colleges and allow for a more robust understanding of shared governance across American higher education. You can access the survey results here.

● Overall, the results of the survey present a mixed picture of community college shared governance. At most responding institutions, and especially at responding institutions with tenure systems, faculty authority is consistent with AAUP-recommended governance standards in decision-making about pro­grammatic, departmental, and institutional curricula; teaching assignments; salary policies; and faculty searches, evaluations, and tenure and promotion standards.
● However, in several decision-making areas, including budgets, buildings, provost selection, and strategic planning, community college faculty have few meaningful opportunities to participate. In these areas, community colleges deviate from the principles out­lined in the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities, which emphasizes faculty involvement in personnel decisions and budget preparation.
● Although questions continue to be raised about the relationship between collective bargaining and shared governance, few statistically significant differences between unionized and nonunionized colleges were apparent in this survey or in the AAUP’s 2021 survey of four-year institutions. Indeed, the areas where col­lective bargaining did appear to make a (statistically significant) difference were those typically specified in bargaining agreements, including salary policies and teaching loads.

DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS

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We are coordinating with CCU administrators to defend academic freedom

Colleagues,

Earlier this month, members of the AAUP/AFT-CCU Executive Committee met with Provost Gibbs Knotts, our university’s provost and chief academic officer, to engage in a candid conversation about the growing national, regional/state and local threats to academic freedom—particularly those stemming from efforts to restrict the teaching of topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

We are pleased to report that the meeting was productive, grounded in mutual respect, and focused on shared values. Importantly, we affirmed the Provost’s strong support for the core academic principles that the AAUP has long championed: academic freedom, shared governance, and the faculty’s central role in the intellectual life of the university. We found this affirmation encouraging, especially in a climate where these principles are increasingly under political scrutiny.

Together, we exchanged perspectives on the growing number of legislative and administrative efforts—at the national, state, and local levels—that seek to curtail academic freedom, limit what faculty may teach, or limit critical inquiry in classrooms. These challenges are real, and we agreed on the importance of remaining vigilant and informed as they continue to unfold.

We also committed to maintaining open lines of communication between AAUP/AFT-CCU and the Office of the Provost moving forward. As both faculty representatives and academic leaders, we share the responsibility of monitoring potential threats to academic integrity and ensuring that responses are thoughtful, principled, and collective.

Finally, the meeting reaffirmed a broader truth: that the preservation of academic freedom is not the task of any one office or organization alone. It requires shared effort, shared vision, and a shared belief in the university’s role as a place of free inquiry and rigorous debate. Although we aim to remain vigilant and pro-active, we left the conversation confident that, even in these difficult times, Provost Knotts shares our dedication to these ideals.

In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU

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Harvard sues the Trump administration over ban on enrolling foreign students. Harvard University is challenging the Trump administration’s decision to bar the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students, calling it unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House’s political demands.

● “With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,” Harvard said in its suit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”.
● Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.

Hope as US universities find ‘backbone’ against Trump’s assault on education. Amid concerns over authoritarian overreach, a growing number of universities are finally resisting the Trump administration’s aggressive actions against higher education, including funding threats and policy demands. Over 400 university presidents signed a statement condemning political interference, and Harvard became the first institution to sue the administration over coercive demands tied to federal funding, with support from numerous academic organizations and faculty advocacy groups.

● Advocates argue that universities must do more than issue statements—they must protect their communities and academic integrity. While some hope Harvard’s lawsuit marks a turning point, many credit students, faculty, and unions with pressuring administrations to act. Faculty groups emphasize the need for unity between institutions and their communities to resist unprecedented federal interference..

A major college accreditor pauses DEI requirements amid pressure from Trump. The WASC Senior College and University Commission, which accredits colleges mainly in California and Hawaii, has paused its DEI standards to review compliance with federal law following a Trump executive order. Although the order does not change existing laws, it threatens federal recognition of accreditors that promote DEI, prompting some to reconsider or suspend such requirements.

● The move reflects growing state and federal pressures to eliminate DEI programs, particularly in Republican-led states with anti-DEI legislation. Tensions arise where accreditor policies clash with state requirements for inclusion, such as protections for transgender students.
● Other accrediting bodies, like the American Bar Association and Higher Learning Commission, have similarly revised or removed DEI language under political pressure.

The Faculty Salary Squeeze: Professors brace for another year of losing ground. Faculty pay in U.S. higher education has stagnated or declined in real terms, while living costs —such as housing and insurance— have soared. Some professors have seen their inflation-adjusted salaries drop by 15% since 2012, despite increasing workloads and taking on multiple teaching roles to make ends meet. Nationally, full-time faculty salaries fell 1.5% from 2013–2023 after adjusting for inflation, and tenure-track faculty have seen a 10.2% drop since 2019–2020.

● Experts attribute the stagnation to shrinking state funding, ballooning administrative costs, and institutional spending on amenities over academics. Meanwhile, top administrators have seen much higher salary growth. Faculty morale is low, and more professors are considering leaving academia. The situation is especially dire for contingent faculty, who make up nearly 70% of the teaching workforce.
● Unionization has surged among faculty, often yielding pay increases through strikes and collective bargaining. However, some institutions are proactively addressing the problem by benchmarking salaries and implementing cost-of-living adjustments.
● Scholars warn that without consistent, transparent salary strategies, colleges risk losing qualified faculty and eroding educational quality. A “reckoning” may be approaching, as fewer applicants are now vying for academic jobs that were once in high demand.

DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS

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Attacks on DEI pose barriers to our ability to teach effectively

Colleagues,

This past week I spoke to The Post & Courier about the upcoming Day of Action for Higher Education, organized by AAUP. I told the reporter that, aside from limiting academic freedom, attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by our state’s Republican legislators are preventing us from being able to teach effectively. I brought up my field of work, Intelligence and Security Studies, where the lack of women in positions of leadership is dire. Women often approach problems differently and tend to notice details that others miss. They are also more security conscious, which is arguably why their contributions to the field are so effective. However, the DEI bill that the state is about to pass would prevent me from even talking about this subject, let alone seeking the next generation of national security leaders in my classes. Legislators who legislate without first consulting with the workers whose lives and careers will be affected by legislation is the opposite of democracy.

As a reminder, the South Carolina House of Representatives has passed Bill H.3927, which prohibits state agencies, including higher education institutions like CCU, from promoting DEI. The bill will head to the SC Senate before heading to the governor’s desk for signing. On the surface, the bill focuses on organizational policies and practices. However, it includes deliberately vague language by targeting “any programs promoting DEI.” This can be interpreted to mean academic programs, or even individual courses. Because of that, if this bill is enacted, it will be the most aggressive state-level anti-DEI law in the entire nation.

By restricting DEI-related content, the bill will almost certainly lead to increased state-level censorship in curricula, impeding academic freedom and the ability to address diverse perspectives in teaching and research.

If you are concerned about these developments, please join us on April 17 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. for an important Analysis and Strategy session. Details about the meeting will be shared with members via email. Please bring with you colleagues who care about these unprecedented attacks on higher education. As always, we are stronger together.

In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU

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Student visa dragnet reaches small colleges. In the past week, hundreds of international students discovered that their visas had been revoked. Inside Higher Ed has uncovered dozens of visa terminations that have not been reported elsewhere, many of them at regional public universities and small private colleges. That number is almost certainly a fraction of the total.

● Many colleges are reluctant to publicly confirm any student visa revocations, anxious to avoid attracting federal scrutiny and uncertain how to navigate an increasingly fraught legal gray zone.
● Yet more than a dozen officials at small colleges said a number of students had their visa status terminated in recent days but requested their institutions be kept anonymous to avoid retaliation and ensure students’ privacy.
● One college official said 25 students’ visas were revoked. Many of the small colleges struggling to respond to student visa revocations have come to rely on international tuition dollars to support flagging revenue from shrinking domestic enrollment or declines in state funding. If they lose more to student visa revocations—or experience a decline in international applicants due to the Trump administration’s policies—it could be catastrophic.

Conservatives seize the moment to remake higher ed. In a Heritage Foundation forum last week called “Reclaiming the Culture of American Higher Education,” the architects of Project 2025 offered insights into how conservative thinkers operating the levers of power at the Education Department view the current state of American higher education.

● The speakers posited attacks on DEI as being at the center of their efforts to “restructure” university governance to align with “conservative values.” These measures are part of a broader strategy to shape the ideological direction of academic institutions.

Arkansas governor says professors should be fired if they are ‘indoctrinating’ students. “Arkansas students go to our colleges and universities to be educated, not to be bombarded with anti-American, historically illiterate woke nonsense,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. “We will make it so that any professor, tenured or not, that wastes time indoctrinating our students instead of educating them can be terminated from their job.”

● Sanders has tried this before. A federal judge last year ruled Arkansas couldn’t ban two teachers from discussing critical race theory in the classroom. An appeal of that preliminary decision is pending before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Embattled University of West Florida trustee resigns. Scott Yenor, chair of the Board of Trustees at the University of West Florida, who has a history of misogynistic comments, resigned last week..

● Yenor, a political science professor at Boise State University, made national headlines in 2021 when he made misogynistic remarks at the National Conservatism Conference, taking aim at feminism and arguing that women should not pursue certain career fields, such as engineering. He also described “independent women” as “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome.”
● In a series of social media posts in February, Yenor seemed to imply that only straight white men should be in political leadership posts.
● Yenor and other conservative trustees appointed at UWF in January faced protests from the community. But it was ultimately pressure from state lawmakers over other remarks that seemed to push Yenor out.

DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS

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South Carolina’s “Liberty Caucus” just declared war on universities.

Colleagues,

On Wednesday the South Carolina House of Representatives passed Bill H.3927, which prohibits state agencies, including higher education institutions like CCU, from establishing or maintaining offices that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and forbids mandatory DEI-related training. The bill also bans contracts with vendors that uphold DEI policies. Next, the bill will head to the SC Senate before heading to the governor’s desk for signing. It will almost certainly become a law.

On the surface, the bill focuses on organizational policies and practices. However, it includes deliberately vague language by targeting “any programs promoting DEI.” This can be interpreted to mean academic programs, or even individual courses. Because of that, if this bill is enacted, it will be the most aggressive state-level anti-DEi law in the entire nation.

In the past, the AAUP and individual colleges and universities in the state had been able to convince the so-called “Liberty Caucus” (the MAGA wing of the SC legislature) that interfering with in-class instruction would be detrimental to academic freedom and academic instruction more broadly. That is no longer the case.

Institutions like the Medical University of South Carolina, University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and The Citadel, expressed concerns about potential increased costs and operational impacts of the legislation. Sadly it doesn’t appear that CCU joined the list of advocates against the bill.

For us here at CCU, this legislation raises significant concerns. The prohibition of DEI initiatives will sabotage our efforts to foster inclusive and supportive educational environments, and will negatively affect faculty development programs and student engagement strategies alike. Additionally, by restricting DEI-related content, the bill will almost certainly lead to increased state-level censorship in curricula, impeding academic freedom and the ability to address diverse perspectives in teaching and research.

We have been fighting against legislation like this at the state level for nearly three years now. This development constitutes a significant victory for the enemies of academic freedom and constitutes a direct assault on our profession. It is a declaration of war against everything the AAUP/AFT stands for. And we will fight it!

In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU

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Trump and Musk set their sights on humanities cuts. Exactly how many staff members and grants will be slashed from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) remains unclear, but prior cuts at the Education Department and National Institutes of Health offer a grim forecast.

● Meanwhile, the AAUP has decried the attack on the NEH as an “attack on ordinary people and our ability to know and understand the world around us”.

AAUP warns university lawyers not to give out student/faculty names, nationalities. The AAUP is warning college and university lawyers not to provide the US Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights the names and nationalities of students or faculty involved in alleged Title VI violations.

● The AAUP’s warning comes after The Washington Post reported last week that Education Department higher-ups directed OCR attorneys investigating universities’ responses to reports of antisemitism to “collect the names and nationalities of students who might have harassed Jewish students or faculty.” The department didn’t respond to Inside Higher Ed’s requests for comment Thursday..

As Universities yield to Trump, higher ed unions are fighting. From lawsuits to protests, labor organizations representing faculty, grad students and other workers are resisting. Discussions about what to do next continue.

● In response to federal pressures, some universities are yielding to the Trump administration’s demands to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and restrict campus protests to maintain crucial federal funding. This compliance has sparked significant opposition from higher education unions and faculty members.
● Academic labor organizations, including the AAUP and its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers, are actively mobilizing to resist these federal mandates. They argue that such directives threaten academic freedom and undermine institutional autonomy, leading to organized protests and legal challenges against the administration’s actions.

The confusion in higher ed right now ‘knows No bounds’. Higher education attorney Jim Newberry says his firm is struggling to find answers amid the federal policy uncertainty.

● Higher education institutions are experiencing significant confusion due to recent federal policy changes, including cuts to the Department of Education and the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. These abrupt shifts have left administrators and legal experts struggling to interpret and comply with new directives.
● Jim Newberry, a higher education attorney, describes the current situation as a “sketchy mosaic,” highlighting the challenges in navigating the evolving landscape. Institutions are concerned about the long-term implications of these policies on academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and the overall stability of the higher education sector.

DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS

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We don’t just talk the talk. We walk the walk!

Colleagues,

Last week alone, the AAUP, along with allies, filed three lawsuits against the Trump administration.

● It sued the Trump administration on behalf of all AAUP members for illegally revoking $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University in an unprecedented assault on the First Amendment and academic freedom. Along with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AAUP believes that the funding cuts and other demands, which undermine critical scientific and medical and suppress speech, are an unlawful attack on higher education and must be stopped.

● Meanwhile, the Middle East Studies Association and three AAUP chapters, as well as AAUP National, filed suit to protect free speech rights across colleges and universities from the chilling effect of the Trump administration’s immigration deportation policies.

● Lastly, along with the AFT, the AAUP and a coalition of educators, school districts, and unions, filed a legal action against the Trump administration to stop the dismantling of the Department of Education and mass firings that will decimate the crucial services that benefit every person residing in the US. This lawsuit was the first filed since President Trump’s executive order attempting to shutter the department.

Funds from members enable AAUP to file these lawsuits, which are meant to protect academic freedom and defend higher education. You can help by joining AAUP National and our local chapter here at CCU. To do that, please consult our chapter’s “Join AAUP” webpage. Email me if you have questions. The fight is just starting. Be part of it!

In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU

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The AAUP Podcast is back. The AAUP’s podcast, AAUP Presents, is back with a special episode focused on AAUP’s recent statement “Against Anticipatory Obedience.” The statement offers guidelines to AAUP chapters about how to respond to attacks on higher education like those being launched by the Trump administration and its rightwing allies.

● Henry Reichman, a professor emeritus of history at California State University–East Bay and one of the statement’s writers, walks listeners through the history of attacks on American higher education and the recommended actions in the face of such attacks.
● Part two of the podcast episode discusses the specific steps faculty can take to strengthen their university handbooks in order to safeguard academic rights and governance. The guests in part two are Mark Criley, a senior program officer in the Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance at the AAUP, and Monica Owens, a senior program officer and field services representative in the AAUP’s Department of Organizing.

Also listen to Academic Freedom on the Line. While you’re at it, lake a listen to this new limited podcast series hosted by the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom (CDAF). CDAF serves as a resource and knowledge hub for those seeking to build a flourishing higher education system, rooted in institutional autonomy, workplace democracy, and freedom from coercion and external interference.

● The guests of the podcast are are center Director Isaac Kamola and CDAF fellows Tim Cain, Don Moynihan, and Vineeta Singh. Isaac Kamola is an associate professor of political science at Trinity College. He is also the founder of Faculty First Responders, a program that monitors rightwing attacks on academics and provides resources to help faculty members and administrators respond to manufactured outrage. Tim Cain is a professor in the University of Georgia’s Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education and associate editor for the Review of Higher Education. Don Moynihan is the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and co-director of the Better Government Lab.

University of Michigan shutters DEI office. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, whose efforts to promote diversity have long been considered among the nation’s most ambitious, is closing its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as well as its Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, university leaders announced on Thursday of this week.

● Since 2016, the University of Michigan university has invested nearly $250 million into DEI initiatives, leading to a 46% increase in first-generation students and a 30% rise in Pell Grant recipients. But, in response to Donald Trump’s executive orders and potential federal funding cuts, the university has announced the closure of its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as well as the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion. Following the closure of the two offices, the university says it plans to reallocate resources to enhance financial aid, expand scholarships, and bolster mental health services, aiming to continue supporting diversity and inclusion through direct student assistance.

Why Dr. Jason Stanley, a scholar of fascism, is leaving Yale for Canada. Two months into Trump’s second term, Dr. Stanley has announced he has decided to leave Yale for the University of Toronto. He will follow two prominent colleagues, Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore, both history professors, to Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

● Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor at Yale University, was one of the most forceful voices in higher education opposing the first Trump administration. His book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, published in 2018, identified and analyzed 10 pillars of fascism. His most recent book is Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. “History suggests that when the central government targets universities in ways we are now witnessing in the United States, it is a signal of encroaching authoritarianism,” he wrote in The Chronicle. “We would do well to take such signals both literally and seriously, if we are to preserve what history teaches is a bulwark against authoritarianism—a vibrant, robust, and independent university system.”

Rightwing attack on libraries continues. If you are interested in monitoring national and local efforts by rightwing zealots to censor and defund public libraries, please consult this PowerPoint presentation put together by AAUP/AFT-CCU executive committee member ‘A.’

● The presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which we highlighted in our last issue. It also summarizes bill S.104, which is making the rounds in the South Carolina Senate. This bill threatens to defund every public library unless it certifies four times a year that it does “not offer any books or materials that appeal to the prurient interest of children under the age of seventeen in children, youth, or teen sections of libraries and are only made available with explicit parental consent”. It also touches on bill H.4059, which requires every school district to set up a Material Review Committee to review book challenges.

DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS

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This is not just another attack on universities. It is an attack on free thought.

Colleagues,

If you want to know what is coming our way, look no further than the University of Virginia. On March 7, the UVa Board of Visitors voted unanimously to dissolve UVa’s Division for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Center for Community Partnerships in response to a White House executive order directing schools that receive federal funding to end DEI programs. One of the Board’s leading members, Bert Ellis said: “This board unanimously voted to rip out the entire DEI infrastructure and everybody who works in the DEI infrastructure. Every aspect of DEI is to be ripped out, shredded and terminated.” Read more below.

In a recent editorial in The New York Times, Meghan O’Rourke, editor of The Yale Review and a professor in the English department at Yale University, dismisses the view that what we are witnessing is just another attack on higher education by conservatives. She argues that “what we are witnessing is an attack on the conditions that allow free thought to exist” in the United States. O’Rourke’s article is below.

There is no question we are witnessing history being made, in the worst way possible. It is a dark, dystopic, and dangerous turn for America and the world. Please don’t sit on the sidelines while all this is happening around us. Join us. If we are going to go down, at least let’s go down fighting.

In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU

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Accreditation Is Trump’s ‘Secret Weapon’. This article by Greg D. Pillar (an associate provost) and Laurie Shanderson (an accreditation specialist) outlines three possible scenarios for how the Trump administration’s push to reshape accreditation could impact higher education.

● In the State-Controlled Model, the Department of Education could be eliminated, allowing states to create their own accrediting bodies with ideological priorities. This would result in a fragmented system where degrees from politically influenced accreditors may not be recognized by employers or other institutions, leading to declining academic quality and public trust.
● In the Politicized Accreditation scenario, the federal government could introduce conservative-aligned accrediting agencies, pressuring traditional accreditors to conform or risk losing federal recognition. Institutions that refuse to switch may face funding penalties, creating a divided system where accreditation decisions are driven by ideology rather than academic quality.
● The Higher-Ed Divide scenario envisions elite institutions retaining accreditation through traditional agencies while regional and smaller colleges are forced into alternative accreditors with less credibility. This would deepen socioeconomic disparities, limiting students’ ability to transfer, pursue graduate education, or secure competitive jobs, effectively stratifying higher education.

Congress Eyes More Control Over Colleges. Over the course of its first 75 days, the 119th Congress introduced more than 30 pieces of legislation concerning higher education—more than half of which came from members of the GOP. Taken together, the proposals offer a sketch of the Republican agenda to crack down on colleges.

● Given the emphasis on higher education in this session of Congress and the stakes for colleges, Inside Higher Ed is tracking higher-ed related bills. The searchable database currently includes 31 bills introduced since January.
● Combined, the proposed legislation and potential for sweeping changes could lead to an unprecedented amount of federal focus on higher ed that college and university advocates say could heavily discourage international enrollment, indirectly increase the cost of attendance and cause a chilling effect on campus free speech.

This is the End of the University as We Know It. Writing in The New York Times, Meghan O’Rourke, editor of The Yale Review and a professor in the English department at Yale University, argues that “what we are witnessing is not just an attack on academia or a set of fiscal reforms or a painful political rebalancing. It is an attack on the conditions that allow free thought to exist” in the United States.

● According to O’Rourke, historical conservative distrust of academia has escalated into a direct assault. the Trump administration’s actions against universities represent an unprecedented attack on academic freedom. The goal appears to be to instill fear in universities, forcing them to comply with ideological shifts. The administration’s actions echo authoritarian strategies, compelling universities to self-censor. While academia has faced previous political pressures, this moment is unique in its ambition to dismantle the university system itself. The consequences could be long-lasting, eroding both America’s intellectual foundations and its global standing.

White House launches assault on federal agency for America’s libraries. An executive order issued by the Trump administration on March 14 calls for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the nation’s only federal agency for America’s libraries. The American Library Association (ALA) has issued a statement against this vile action.

● “As seedbeds of literacy and innovation, our nation’s 125,000 public, school, academic and special libraries deserve more, not less support. ALA implores President Trump to reconsider this short-sighted decision. And we call on all Americans who value reading, learning, and enrichment to reach out to their elected leaders and Show Up For Our Libraries at library and school meetings, town halls, and everywhere decisions are made about libraries.“

‘Every aspect of DEI is to be ripped out,’ UVa official says. The University of Virginia has begun to completely dismantle all DEI initiatives across its 12 schools and multiple departments. This appears to be led by Bert Ellis, who sits on UVa’s governing Board of Visitors and has been a vocal critic of DEI in higher education.

● The UVa Board of Visitors voted unanimously March 7 to dissolve UVa’s Division for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Center for Community Partnerships in response to a White House executive order directing schools that receive federal funding to end DEI programs. “This board unanimously voted to rip out the entire DEI infrastructure and everybody who works in the DEI infrastructure,” said Ellis. “Every aspect of DEI is to be ripped out, shredded and terminated.”

DEFENDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ● PROTECTING FACULTY RIGHTS

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Defending Higher Education from Existential Threats

Colleagues,

These are not normal times. As organized faculty at CCU, we stand at the forefront of an escalating battle over the very future of higher education. The latest waves of layoffs, funding cuts, and political attacks against our profession threaten not only our institution but the very principles of academic freedom and equity that we uphold.

This week, we assess the devastating impact of mass firings at the Department of Education and the broader consequences of federal defunding, including targeted research funding suspensions at Columbia University. Diversity officers are fighting back against relentless legislative and political pressure, while the NIH budget cuts signal a deeper war on higher education.

We must remain vigilant, united, and proactive in resisting these assaults. Our collective voice is more important than ever.

In Solidarity – Joseph Fitsanakis, PhD, President AAUP/AFT-CCU

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Assessing the Impact of Layoffs at the Department of Education. Last Tuesday, the Trump administration fired nearly half of the Education Department’s roughly 4,100 employees, leaving the agency with a skeletal staff of about 2,183. Here is what to expect, as the scope and impact of those layoffs are beginning to take shape.

● The layoffs have hit some offices harder than others, with devastating consequences for the department’s core functions. The Institute of Education Sciences, responsible for data collection and research, was virtually gutted, leaving only a handful of staff members to manage critical national education statistics.
● The Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), which oversees student loans and federal financial aid, lost over 300 employees, raising concerns about the agency’s ability to maintain essential services like FAFSA processing and borrower support.
● The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), charged with investigating discrimination complaints, now operates with only five regional offices, a severe blow to student protections.
● Here is what AAUP/AFT is primarily worried about: with fewer staff to monitor compliance, investigate fraud, and guide institutions through evolving regulations, the fallout from these cuts will lead to delays, mismanagement, and a diminished federal role in safeguarding educational equity and access.

The Trump Administration Is Out for Blood. And it Won’t Stop at Columbia. It would be nice to think that the administration was suspending research funding to Columbia out of a genuine concern for the safety of Jewish students there. But it is not, argues David A. Bell.

● The Trump administration’s actions against Columbia University, including the abrupt cancellation of $400 million in research funding, are not rooted in genuine concern for combating antisemitism but rather in a broader effort to dismantle higher education. Despite Columbia’s extensive measures to address antisemitism, the administration’s move disregards legal procedures and appears driven by political vengeance, not policy reform. Bell compares this to McCarthy-era persecution, urging Columbia to fight back in court rather than appease the administration. He warns that this attack won’t stop with Columbia, as other universities are already in the administration’s crosshairs.
● AAUP Condemns Trump Administration’s Punitive Weaponization of Federal Grant Funding at Columbia. The Trump administration has taken the unprecedented move of cancelling $400 million in federal contracts and grants to Columbia University in alleged response to “inaction by Columbia’s administration on antisemitism.” This heavy-handed partisan intrusion into Columbia’s academic, research, and health care operations will damage students’ education, stop progress toward lifesaving biomedical therapies, and harm patients being treated in Columbia’s hospitals.

The Diversity Officers, Under Siege, Dig Their Heels In: “They’re Trying to Make You Afraid of Fighting.” At the 2025 NADOHE conference, diversity officers gathered to strategize against escalating attacks on DEI efforts, fueled by anti-DEI legislation and federal actions.

● Speakers stressed the importance of coalition-building, urging allies to actively support diversity initiatives rather than retreat under pressure. Many DEI professionals, predominantly women and people of color, face job cuts and program eliminations, while universities grapple with balancing legal compliance and inclusive goals. Despite these challenges, attendees emphasized data-driven advocacy, strategic rebranding of DEI work, and national storytelling campaigns to highlight the value of diversity efforts, vowing to persist even as political headwinds grow stronger.

The NIH Cuts Are Part Of An All-Out War On Higher Education. In a presidential administration with an unlimited capacity for chaos, colleges and universities have become targets of this early phase of right-wing assault, argues academic and organizer Dennis Hogan, who teaches in the History and Literature Program at Harvard University.

● “For now, the task of higher education leaders and scientific researchers will be to make the case to lawmakers and the public alike that there is no ivory tower separate from the economy as a whole: Slashing federal support for colleges and universities will make us poorer, sicker, stupider, and more vulnerable. Whatever version of higher ed emerges from the Trump administration will still have to work urgently to expand its base, to open itself up politically, to welcome more students and citizens at more affordable prices“.