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The president of the American Association of University Professors called the presidential election results “disappointing” in a news release Thursday titled “Higher Ed Must Organize to Ensure a Future for American Democracy.”
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to our principles and ensuring that future generations of Americans are afforded the opportunity that higher education provides,” wrote Todd Wolfson, whom AAUP convention delegates selected as their president this summer.
Back in August, Wolfson called JD Vance a “fascist” in a statement on the organization’s website. Vance, former president Donald Trump’s running mate, had previously called professors “the enemy” and praised how Viktor Orbán, the authoritarian Hungarian prime minister, dealt with universities in his country.
Trump and Vance are now set to occupy the White House come January. While Wolfson didn’t use the word “fascist” in Thursday’s statement, he did warn that higher education’s plight may worsen.
“We are deeply concerned that the ongoing crisis in higher education of declining public funding, ballooning student debt and attacks on academic freedom will only be intensified under the incoming administration,” Wolfson wrote. “Without a thriving, inclusive higher education system that serves the public good, the majority of Americans will be excluded from meaningful participation in our democracy and this country will move backwards.”
The AAUP is both an American Federation of Teachers–affiliated union and a 110-year-old group of scholars that wrote the rules—adopted by colleges and universities across the country—defining what academic freedom, tenure and shared governance mean. Wolfson has sought to organize all higher education workers into one labor coalition.
“The AAUP is committed to defending our campuses and the mission of higher education through organizing our communities to face the challenges that lie ahead,” Wolfson wrote. “Our collective power is needed now more than ever.”
Wolfson’s stances on politically controversial issues, plus statements from the AAUP as an organization, have drawn criticism from some free speech and academic freedom advocates that it’s no longer acting as a neutral arbiter of academic freedom. Alex Morey, vice president of campus advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told Inside Higher Ed Thursday that “today’s statement is the latest in the AAUP’s lockstep abandonment of its founding nonpartisan principles” that “has ramped up significantly under its new president and the highly partisan Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.”
“Faculty who’ve long relied on the AAUP for its principled academic freedom advice should look elsewhere,” Morey said.
But Wolfson told Inside Higher Ed last month that neutrality would be a mistake at this time. “There are massive political intrusions coming on, coming at us around academic freedom,” he said. “There’s no way to be a neutral arbiter. We must stand for things in this environment.”
