AAUP National Statements

"In response to growing concern over unilateral actions taken by governing boards and administrations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee on College and University Governance affirms that the fundamental principles and standards of academic governance remain applicable even in the current crisis. These principles are set forth in the AAUP’s Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities, formulated in cooperation with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and the American Council on Education." MORE...

"The Department of Homeland Security’s July 6 ruling regarding international students and the upcoming 2020–21 academic year is but the latest example of the Trump administration’s callous cruelty, especially toward immigrants and those it deems “other.” The American Association of University Professors thus joins many other higher education organizations and colleagues in the labor movement in calling on the administration to allow all international students to obtain or retain visas to continue their education at US institutions, regardless of whether they participate remotely, in person, or through a hybrid model and regardless of whether they are studying inside or outside the United States, during this unprecedented global health crisis." MORE...

"As the ongoing demonstrations of the past few weeks have shown, our nation is once again being called on to reckon with systemic racism and its impact on Black, Latinx, indigenous, and other people of color. Black lives matter, and the AAUP stands in solidarity with all those who are protesting racism and police brutality. We stand ready to support faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education whose affiliated institutions take or threaten to take negative action against them as a result of their exercising their right to protest. We recognize that our BIPOC members and colleagues are considerably more vulnerable when they exercise this right, and, as such, are most in need of support and protection. We call on our chapters, our members, and campus administrations to stand firm in their support of members of the campus community who speak out in the name of anti-racism and racial justice, and we offer the following guidance and recommendations." MORE...

"The AAUP has issued a response to revised Title IX regulations that the US Department of Education released on May 6. The AAUP had submitted comments in January of this year on the proposed revisions to the regulations in response to the secretary of education’s 2018 request. Those comments build on recommendations made in the AAUP's 2016 report The History, Uses, and Abuses of Title IX. On March 27, 2020, following news reports that the Department of Education would soon be issuing its new proposed Title IX regulations, the AAUP joined the attorneys general of eighteen states in calling for the Department of Education to suspend the rulemaking process for the proposed regulations during the COVID-19 crisis, but the process continued.

The AAUP response, prepared by a subcommittee of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the Committee on Gender and Sexuality in the Academic Profession, comments on some aspects of the revised regulations that represent small steps forward and others that represent large steps backward." MORE...