BY JAMES THOMPSON Think of the term “huddle” and you probably think of professional athletes gathered shoulder to shoulder in a circle, intensely discussing their next play strategy, often at critical junctures of the game. If we explore some of the core elements present, themes of communication, problem solving, strategizing, teamwork, and uniting members in…
BY MICHAEL LaGIER Lights, camera, action. In more and more workplaces, leaders unintentionally reward visible busyness over meaningful results, a dynamic often called productivity theater, a term popularized by organizational psychologist Adam Grant. In colleges and universities, this phenomenon can be especially damaging. When faculty and staff are evaluated primarily on how much they appear…
BY MICHAEL FERGUSON Following is the editor’s introduction to the spring 2026 issue of Academe, “AI in the Corporate University,” out this week. The full issue and table of contents can be found here. The AAUP’S 2025 report Artificial Intelligence and Academic Professions concludes with a call for faculty members to assert authority over their working conditions and their…
BY MARJORIE HEINS Harry Keyishian, the last surviving plaintiff in the most important Supreme Court academic freedom case of the twentieth century, died on April 4 at the age of 93. He was one of only five University of Buffalo professors who in 1964 refused to sign an anti-communist loyalty oath and was the first…
BY B. M. RYAN Imagine a junior scholar, anxious about tenure, grants, and professional recognition, carefully preparing a manuscript that sits at the intersection of two fields, seeking to connect them in a way that could advance knowledge. The scholar submits the work to a journal affiliated with a public university. That journal is staffed…
BY DANIEL A. SEGAL At this dire moment of relentless attacks on academic freedom, educational excellence, and rights of campus speech and assembly, we still have big-time college athletics—gridiron football, in particular. This is especially visible at Indiana University. Even more than at most colleges and universities, the administration of IU’s President Pamela Whitten has…
BY MINOLI PERERA This piece was first published in The Daily Northwestern. At the beginning of 2025, my lab and my science were flying high. We had recently been awarded a R01 grant by the National Institutes of Health to study genetic predictors of cardiovascular drug response in Puerto Ricans. I knew as a scientist…
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…
