AAUP has historically defended academic freedom across colleges and universities. The 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure grew from a 1915 Declaration and was restated in 1940. The AAUP later added Interpretive Comments rather than undertaking a wholesale revision. Contemporary concerns include federal and some state governments seeking to curtail academic freedom and legal attacks on universities during the Trump administration. Lawsuits filed by AAUP and campus chapters reflect those pressures. The AAUP's current framework for academic freedom requires updating to address dangers that could not have been anticipated in 1940.
It is an organization that has done remarkable work in defending academic freedom for people who teach in this nation's colleges and universities. But as I contemplate returning to teaching this fall, I worry that the AAUP's understanding of academic freedom is dangerously behind the times. The AAUP's understanding of academic freedom urgently needs updating to take account of dangers that could not have been contemplated in 1940 when its statement on academic freedom was issued.
It is time for the organization to think anew about what academic freedom means and what must be done to protect it in an era when the federal government and some state governments are seeking to curtail it. We can understand why its failure to do has been problematic by taking a look at lawsuits filed by the AAUP and its campus-based chapters at universities that have been attacked by the Trump administration.
"In 1915 the Committee on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure of the American Association of University Professors formulated a statement of principles on academic freedom and academic tenure known as the 1915 Declaration of Principles ... In 1940 ... representatives of the American Association of University Professors and of the Association of American Colleges agreed on a restatement of the principles. This restatement is known to the profession as the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure."
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