The AAUP Has Always Defended Academic Freedom. We Still Do.

August 21, 2024 1 min read

Rana Jaleel and Todd Wolfson
Chronicle of Higher Education

Excerpt: Since its founding, in 1915, the American Association of University Professors has been the most prominent guardian of academic freedom for faculty members and students, defending that freedom against threats that range from political interference in higher education to the exploitation of contingent academic labor. Yet the former AAUP president Cary Nelson alleges that the AAUP has somehow destroyed its “hundred-year defense of academic freedom” with a single act: the adoption of its recent “Statement on Academic Boycotts.” Others, like Jeffrey Sachs, lament that they are “not quite certain what the policy means” and that, “even worse, the AAUP doesn’t seem to know either.” The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has reiterated its opposition to academic boycotts as “a threat to academic freedom.”

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