BY ROBERT M. KAPLAN Peer-reviewed scholarship remains the central currency of academic life. It advances careers, drives innovation, informs policy, stimulates economies, and lays the groundwork for the next generation of inquiry. Yet the very system designed to vet and disseminate knowledge increasingly drains enthusiasm from scholars—especially early-career investigators—by subjecting them to burdensome, time-consuming, and…
BY PAULA LEZAMA I am a product of public education across borders. Its fragility is not theoretical to me. I come from a context marked by extreme precarity. I was the first in my family to attend college, earned an MA, and this coming May, I will be the first in my family to earn…
The following is a letter submitted by Nancy MacLean, a fellow at the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, to the Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE) concerning the CPHE’s proposed evidentiary guidance for accreditation standards. The CPHE is a new accrediting body aimed at first implementing their standards at certain public universities…
POSTED ON BEHALF OF THE COALITION FOR ACTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION On behalf of the Coalition for Action in Higher Education (CAHE), we share with you a template titled Know Your Governing Board. This document’s purpose is to encourage and enable us as faculty members to learn more about bodies that too often do not…
BY HANK REICHMAN Today, February 24, marks the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In a powerful extended essay, with striking visuals by Ukrainian photographer Mila Teshaieva, New York Times columnist M. Gessen reflects on the impact of the conflict, whose duration now matches that of the epic Soviet war with the Nazi…
BY NATE BENNETT When a Northeastern University professor was discovered secretly using generative AI tools to create course materials while prohibiting students from using them, the controversy exposed more than personal hypocrisy. It illustrated a broader legitimacy crisis confronting higher education. Versions of this story surface repeatedly in conversations with colleagues: AI is already woven…
BY KATIE RAINWATER AND MARTHA SCHOOLMAN University administrations in red states (including Texas and Florida) are increasingly using vague statutes and oral directives to pressure faculty to trade away their academic freedom. In Florida, departments in at least two universities—including Florida International University, where we both teach—recently adopted a censored Introduction to Sociology textbook and…
BY ALAN PARKES History is always political. Last month, the American Historical Association’s (AHA) leadership chose to override its own members for a second year, again vetoing a resolution on scholasticide in Gaza along with a resolution opposing attacks on academic freedom, especially those drawing attention to Israel’s US–sponsored genocide. As the AHA fails its…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday (February 5), while some 200 people protested outside the campus, two recruiters for the US Border Patrol staffed a booth at a Brigham Young University career fair in Provo, Utah. Inside the event, The Salt Lake Tribune reports, “students flocked to the ballroom for the chance to talk with recruiters from…
BY ALISSA KARL Following is the editor’s introduction to the winter 2026 issue of Academe, “What Is Academic Labor Now?”, out this week. The full issue and table of contents can be found here. Reports of the decline of academic labor are rife and, depending upon the report and one’s inclinations, not necessarily exaggerated. For too many…
BY NIMISHA BARTON Following the infamous “Dear Colleague” letter sent out by the Department of Education in February 2025, colleges and universities rushed to shutter diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices in the hopes of avoiding the fate of so many other institutions—namely, incurring the wrath of the Trump administration that views such programs as…
BY AAUP STAFF Following the extreme and widespread censorship of curriculum and courses at Texas A&M University, both the university’s local chapter (AAUP–Texas A&M) and the national AAUP have started the new year with a rigorous defense of academic freedom in the Lone Star State. Initial outcries centered on the censoring of over 200 undergraduate…
BY MICHEL DEGRAFF Editor’s note: This post was originally published on the afternoon of Friday, January 30, 2026, then unpublished to provide time for AAUP staff to consult about its accordance with an editorial policy that states, “Posts should not focus primarily on specific ongoing disputes involving individuals and their colleges or universities or AAUP…
BY MICHAEL SCHWALBE In a society free from superstition and bigotry, a society in which anti-intellectual reactionaries held no sway, Samantha Fulknecky’s complaint would have gotten no traction. Fulnecky, as most followers of higher education news are aware, is the University of Oklahoma undergraduate who submitted a religious screed to fulfill a reaction paper assignment…
BY HANK REICHMAN The appointment of Scott C. Beardsley, an inside candidate, as president of the University of Virginia has garnered more than its share of controversy, as Inside Higher Ed has reported here and here. The vacancy resulted from the departure of President James Ryan, who resigned under pressure as Virginia Board of Visitors…
