The AAUP has joined up with the AFT to sue the Trump administration
over the unlawful funding cuts at Columbia:
This action challenges the Trump administration’s unlawful and
unprecedented effort to overpower a university’s academic autonomy and
control the thought, association, scholarship, and expression of its
faculty and
students.
The AAUP has also joined with the Middle East Studies Association,
AAUP-NYU, AAUP Rutgers, and AAUP Harvard in a separate suit that
alleges that the constitutional rights of US citizen faculty are being
violated by the Trump Administration’s immigration policies which
suppress the speech of non-citizen faculty and students:
Plaintiffs are associations whose members include thousands of
faculty and students at universities across the country. They
commence this action because the ideological-deportation policy, and
the repressive climate it has engendered, has far-reaching
implications for the expressive and associational rights of their
U.S. citizen members, and for Plaintiffs themselves. The policy
prevents or impedes Plaintiffs’ U.S. citizen members from hearing
from, and associating with, their noncitizen students and
colleagues.
Updates on both suits and other actions will be coming from the
national leadership.
The UNC Chapel Hill AAUP chapter is hosting a UNC Faculty Town Hall
on March 27th, from 5:30-7pm, at Toy Lounge in Dey
Hall and on Zoom:
https://unc.zoom.us/j/98329777299
UNC faculty are facing increasing political interference in our
teaching, research, and university governance. This open forum will
provide a space for faculty to share concerns, discuss challenges, and
strategize collective action. Open to all UNC faculty—bring your
questions and concerns!
Legal experts from UNC and the AAUP will be on hand to moderate
questions and offer perspective. Join fellow faculty members for an
open discussion on the issues affecting our work, our students, and
the future of higher education.
Please circulate the flyer for the
event widely. Thanks to
member Chris Petsko for designing the flyer!
The national AAUP has a statement for AAUP members regarding the ICE
detention of Mahmoud Kahlil and information about immigrants’ rights
on campus:
Dear AAUP Members,
We are alarmed by the ICE
detention of
former Columbia University graduate student and legal permanent
resident Mahmoud Khalil for what appears to be First
Amendment-protected speech. And we forcefully condemn Secretary of
State Marco Rubio’s statement on
X that the
federal government will be revoking the visas and green cards of
immigrants based on their constitutionally protected speech and
association.
This open threat combined with Mr. Khalil’s detention has stoked a
great deal of understandable fear among our noncitizen members. Green
card revocation is rare absent a criminal conviction, and we believe
these actions and threats to be unprecedented and illegal. Indeed,
late Monday, a federal judge temporarily
blocked
Mr. Khalil’s deportation.
Over the past six weeks, we have been working with you and your AAUP
chapter leaders to proactively prepare for these events. Here are the
resources you can find on our Political Attacks on Higher
Education
web page:
As these events continue to unfold, we recommend that noncitizen
faculty, students, and staff who believe that they may be similarly
targeted by the federal government take the following precautionary
measures:
Contact an immigration attorney who has experience with deportation
defense. For recommendations, you may consider contacting your local
chapter or affiliate of the National Lawyers
Guild, American Civil Liberties
Union, or Council on
American-Islamic
Relations.
Review your
rights. You
are under no legal obligation to open the door to immigration
authorities absent a JUDICIAL WARRANT (that is, a warrant signed by a
judge). Please familiarize yourself with the difference between a
judicial warrant and an administrative warrant.
Finally, we call on higher education stakeholders with US citizenship
to close ranks around, and demand that college and university
administrators and governing boards affirmatively protect, our
noncitizen colleagues and students.
We will be in touch with more information in the coming days and
weeks.
In solidarity,
Veena Dubal, General Counsel, AAUP