The Further Decline of the AAUP

My new essay for The Hill describes the further decline of the AAUP, once a champion of academic freedom and now approving political restrictions of its own. Here is the gist:

The fall of academic freedom with a DEI twist

In August, the AAUP rescinded its longstanding opposition to academic boycotts, adopted in 2006. The new policy — clearly aimed at Israeli universities in response to the brutally destructive Gaza war — now holds that such boycotts “can legitimately seek to protect and advance … academic freedom and fundamental rights.”  

In October, the AAUP’s Committee on Academic Freedom issued a statement [endorsing] the use of statements that “require faculty members to address their skills, competencies and achievements regarding DEI [diversity, equity, inclusion]” as factors for “appointment, reappointment, tenure and promotion.” 

A faculty vote, of course, can reflect a collective political orthodoxy, which job seekers challenge at their own risk.

Earlier this month, Cornell University’s AAUP chapter berated Interim President Michael Kotlikoff, for an “egregious threat to bedrock principles of academic freedom” that could “degrade the quality of education” at Cornell.

In fact, Kotlikoff had simply responded to an email from adjunct law professor, who had complained about the approval of a course titled “Gaza, Indigeneity and Resistance.” 

It certainly appears that none of the AAUP professors read through Kotlikoff’s entire email before chastising him, because they somehow missed the key passage. 

Kotlikoff actually wrote that “Cornell’s Bylaws specify that faculty of the colleges, not central administration, are responsible for the curriculum” and approval of the course in question was “rooted” in academic freedom, which allows the professor “to choose the subject matter and method of presentation.” 

These three episodes typify what one critic has called “the fall of the AAUP,” sadly progressing from the abandonment of an admirable principle, to the endorsement of intellectual discrimination, and arriving at a near parody of snowflake academics who rail at imaginary dangers.  

You can read the entire essay at The Hill.