Check out recent contributions and news from CT AAUP chapters and members
December 5, 2025 | Yale hints at layoffs to help pay for endowment tax hike under Trump administration
Connecticut Public Radio reports on potential layoffs at Yale (on top of current retirement incentives and a hiring freeze) as the Trump administration’s endowment tax hike takes effect. Daniel Martinez HoSang (President of Yale AAUP) is quoted noting that more faculty, students and staff deserve a say in budget priorities: “I think there is a growing concern among faculty at Yale…[about] the very, very uneven ways that faculty, students, staff and others are allowed to participate in decisions about what the impact and consequences of these budget reductions will be.” He said there need to be better ways for people to weigh in: “many faculty feel kind of in the dark about these processes.”
December 3, 2025 | Costumed Protesters Demand Academic Freedom Protections At UConn
CT News Junkie reports on UConn faculty and students’ “freedom frolic” — a demonstration to challenge restrictive university policies on protests and insist on academic freedom as a contractual right. Sam Sommers, UConn-AAUP’s Vice President for Membership Development and Organizing, said there has been “a lot of chilling repression by the UConn administration in the past few years around free speech,” alongside what she described as the university’s refusal to protect academic freedom and the contracts for graduate workers and for faculty members. Chen Chen, a member of UConn AAUP, emphasized “the importance for the UConn administration to honor and protect and respect academic freedom for everybody on campus, faculty, staff and students.” “I think it’s even more important for UConn to be a place of free exchange of ideas, to live up to its ideal as a higher education institution,” Chen said.
November 19, 2025 | Higher Education Concerns Regarding Compact Proposal
The Spectrum reports on how the Trump administration’s higher-education compact could undermine autonomy and academic freedom. “Faculty are really concerned that the compact opens a door to vast meddling in academic freedom,” said Brian Stiltner (Secretary of Sacred Heart University AAUP). Christel Manning (President of SHU AAUP) is quoted: “what we need to work on is preserving and protecting the freedom to express all ideas — that’s what makes for a good university.” “We want to preserve the highest standards of excellence in both teaching and research that American universities have historically represented,” said Manning. “The way to do that is to maintain the kind of academic freedom that enables people to speak, write, and pursue the truth, rather than a particular ideology.”
November 18, 2025 | In Defense of an Independent and Representative Faculty Voice: The Case of Faculty Senates
Afshan Jafar, chair of AAUP’s Committee on College and University Governance and Conn AAUP, on the AAUP’s new report, “In Defense of an Independent and Representative Faculty Voice: The Case of Faculty Senates” in Academe blog: “We have recently seen accelerating legislative and political attacks on faculty governing bodies at state institutions, including legislation recently enacted in Indiana, Ohio, Utah, and especially Texas.” “Effective shared governance requires that an institution’s faculty have a strong, distinctive, and representative collective voice to safeguard academic freedom, curricular integrity, and institutional excellence.” “The curtailment of the faculty’s authority in governing higher education institutions today will not only inevitably undermine the faculty’s professional freedoms, but, more important, will also spoil the fruits of those freedoms—an independent, intellectually rigorous, and incorruptible education for future generations.” Read the AAUP’s new report here.
November 18, 2025 | Support UConn Faculty’s Reasonable Contract Demands
UConn-AAUP Executive Committee’s Letter to the Editor is printed inThe Daily Campus. Their message: “It is time for President Radenka Maric’s negotiators to agree to our important contract proposals on academic freedom, paid family and caregiver leave, and job security for clinical, in-residence and extension (CIRE) faculty.” Academic freedom protections, 16 weeks of guaranteed paid family leave, and “just cause” job protections for CIRE faculty are “commonsense proposals for a quality and humane working environment. Our contract ideas comport with our peer institutions and, more broadly, with decent working conditions and human rights standards. It is well past time for the Maric administration to stop stalling and start recognizing how to make UConn faculty, and this community as a whole, flourish.”
November 17, 2025 | UConn continues review of small programs
The Daily Campus reports on the continued review of programs for potential closure or consolidation. The University of Connecticut is currently planning to consolidate, or has already consolidated, five undergraduate programs, two graduate certificate programs, one master’s program and no Ph.D. programs. UConn is also reviewing 40 undergraduate programs, 21 graduate certificate programs, 11 master’s programs and no PhD programs for potential closure or consolidation. Sam Sommers, UConn-AAUP’s Vice President for Membership Development and Organizing, raised concerns about the impact cutting graduate programs would have for staffing and curriculum.
November 11, 2025 | AAUP Rallies Students, Faculty, and Community Members Against Trump Attacks on Academia
The Wesleyan Argus reports on the Wesleyan AAUP’s rally to celebrate freedom of speech, academic freedom, and the right to teach, learn, and work free from fear and repression. Jeffers Lennox (Co-President of Wesleyan AAUP) is quoted: “Although they have not hit Wesleyan yet, they will come for us. And we want to make sure that everyone on campus is prepared to resist.”
November 7, 2025 | Professors lament federal research funding cuts at faculty panel
Yale Daily News reports on the Yale AAUP panel, “What Everyone Needs to Know About Federal Funding Cuts at Yale,” highlighting the impact of research funding cuts on six Yale faculty members’ research and lives. “We also wanted to address a frustrating narrative we’ve been hearing more frequently—that Yale has somehow been exempted from the funding freezes and disruptions affecting other institutions,” Daniel HoSang (President of Yale AAUP) explained. “While it’s true that conditions at places like Harvard are more severe, the idea that Yale has been untouched is simply wrong.” Yale School of Public Health and the School of Medicine have been most impacted. Speakers included Jeff Wickersham, who researches ways to treat HIV in LGBTQ+ communities, and Johanna Elumn, who studies health implications of mass incarceration. “There is just something jarring about our institution declaring unqualified commitment to academic freedom, and then watching project after project fold simply for political reasons,” HoSang said during the event.
November 7, 2025 | CT professors call on higher ed leaders to reject Trump’s compact and defend higher education
CT Insider reports on the AAUP rally at Central Connecticut State University, calling on state and higher education leaders to protect higher education and reject the so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” “We are calling on our institutional leadership, our governor and our state officials, to stand up, speak up and have the courage to protect academic freedom and reject the federal administration so called compact for higher education,” said Neena Qasba, vice president of UCHC-AAUP. Brian Stiltner, secretary for Sacred Heart University AAUP, said signing the compact was the equivalent of “swallow[ing] poison pills that compromise our independence.” “The compact would require universities submit to a system of government surveillance and policing meant to abolish departments that the government disapproves of, promote certain viewpoints over others, restrict the ability of university employees to express themselves on any major issue of the day,” said James Bhandary-Alexander, member of the Yale AAUP executive committee. The letter against the compact was signed by AAUP/AFT chapters at Connecticut College, Connecticut State College, Connecticut State Universities, Fairfield University, Mitchell College, Quinnipiac University, Sacred Heart University, Trinity College, the University of Connecticut, UConn Health Center, Wesleyan University, and Yale University–representing 15,000 CT faculty and staff across CT.
November 4, 2025 | Faculty matter most. So where’s the support?
Katy Mulvaney, member of CSU-AAUP, in an opinion piece in CT Mirror urging the Connecticut State Universities to address the problems faced by part-time faculty: the stress of “low pay, non-guaranteed class schedules, and absolutely no safety net for personal life events,” and the unpaid labor of navigating “bureaucratic inefficiencies.” “Besides risking some of its best part-time faculty to burnout and the kind of bone-deep frustration that comes with being consistently undervalued, taking advantage of contingent adjuncts has a cost” in terms of student retention, Mulvaney argues.
October 31, 2025 | One year on, campus remains split on institutional voice policy
Daniel HoSang (President of Yale AAUP), quoted in the Yale Daily News urging the University to take a stronger public stance in defense of higher education. “Many of us feel like it makes the University more vulnerable when you don’t make principled arguments publicly for what we believe in and what we stand for,” HoSang said. “If you’re willing to say it privately, say it publicly.”
October 30, 2025 | UConn’s administration should consult its own experts
CT Mirror opinion from Jeffrey Dudas (President of UConn AAUP): “We believe that the university – its students, staff, and faculty – thrive when the people who do the teaching, the research, and the learning that distinguishes UConn have an equal say in how its funds are spent. Outsourcing our flagship state university’s future to drop-in budget consultants is not the way forward.”
October 23, 2025 | UConn professors union calls for stronger protections for academic freedom. Why they are worried.
The Hartford Courant reports on academic freedom protections in UConn-AAUP’s contract negotiations. “We consider these protections essential given the ongoing climate of threats to academic freedom,” said Jeffrey Dudas (President of UConn AAUP). Chris Vials, previous president of UConn-AAUP, said he is hearing that the climate for academic freedom is getting worse at the university; many faculty really don’t feel that the UConn administration will “have their back if something goes down with academic freedom.”
October 22, 2025 | HOSANG: How a talented Yale alum helped a right wing grift site mischaracterize our AAUP meeting
Daniel HoSang (president of Yale AAUP) writes in The Yale Daily News about a fabricated Campus Reform “exposé” of a Yale AAUP meeting, authored by a recent grad. “Campus Reform’s business model appears simple: scrape stories from student newspapers and university press releases, attach modified images with menacing faces and darkened rooms and repackage them as evidence of “liberal bias.” Writers are not expected to report or investigate. Campus Reform will pay them and give them a byline simply for feeding the machine.” “I laughed at the AI version of myself standing in a darkened room before a fake slide with a fake headline. But the laughter stops quickly,” he writes. “What looks like a silly little campus sideshow of students churning out manufactured stories for clicks and donor dollars is actually a microcosm of a broader right-wing project. It is a politics that has abandoned ideas altogether and replaced them with simulation.”
October 21, 2025 | UConn-AAUP holds rally outside Student Union Ballroom
The Daily Campus reports on UConn-AAUP’s contract negotiations. “This is how unions win; we show up, we demand change and we stand together,” said Sam Sommers, UConn-AAUP’s Vice President for Membership Development and Organizing. At issue are stronger academic freedom protections; multi-year contracts for clinical, in-residence, and extension faculty; and guaranteed paid family leave. “It’s time to work together to make this university better, and it’s time to listen to faculty” said Sommers.
October 20, 2025 | Faculty group urges Yale to reject potential Trump compact offer
Yale AAUP urges University administration to reject a potential federal compact as “a severe threat to academic freedom and to the students and faculty at Yale.” “In the last ten months we’ve seen dozens of attempts from the White House to impose an ideological agenda on U.S. colleges and universities,” Daniel HoSang (president of Yale AAUP) wrote. “Our AAUP Chapter, together with national AAUP and many dozens of chapters across the country, recognize the danger it poses to academic freedom.”
October 15, 2025 | UConn paying $700K for ‘budget transformation initiative’. It’s raising fears about layoffs
The Hartford Courant reports on the outside consultant Kennedy & Company that UConn retained to create a new budget model. Jeffrey Dudas (President of UConn AAUP) is quoted: “We are concerned that Kennedy & Company is a part of a higher education consulting sector that is notorious for developing and implementing cost-cutting measures that have had devastating impacts on many institutions, including at West Virginia University, the University of Wisconsin, American University and the New School.” At those institutions, outside consultants developed “budget transformation plans that have led to fewer classes, fewer majors and fewer academic support services for students; job losses for staff and faculty; and worse job conditions for remaining employees.” “We have reports of departments being denied the funds to provide cookies for students at departmental events; but the administration doesn’t seem to think twice about spending millions of dollars on its own priorities,” said Dudas.
October 5, 2025 | A free speech organization looked at 5 CT colleges and universities. They all got a failing grade
The Hartford Courant reports on FIRE’s “2026 College Free Speech Rankings,” quoting Jeffrey Dudas (President of UConn AAUP): “I think for faculty and staff and students across the campus the far bigger threat for free speech and free expression are these coordinated right wing attacks – those are the things that have people scared. They are scared to post on social media, scared to use particular words in their course syllabi, scared that they might accidentally say something in class that is regarded as woke or consistent with DEI, which has become a dirty word. These are the things that our members are concerned about.”
September 30, 2025 | Faculty group hosts panel on preparing for possible Trump intervention
On Sept. 29, Yale AAUP hosted leaders of Brown, Columbia, and Harvard’s AAUP chapters to discuss the importance of faculty organizing in the face of the federal government’s attempts to influence universities. Daniel HoSang (President of Yale AAUP) noted that, while Yale hasn’t had a formal settlement with the federal government, there is a “benefit of thinking ahead about what could be on the horizon.” Panelists underlined the necessity of faculty organizing.
September 28, 2025 | Free speech and academic freedom in Connecticut: ‘Everyone is scared’
The Hartford Courant reports on how CT faculty view national threats to free speech and academic freedom, interviewing Louise Williams (President of CSU-AAUP): “Faculty are very nervous.” “It’s been suggested that they change the titles of their courses and maybe not teach certain courses.” This includes classes about Palestine, politics during the Trump era, and “anything that had to do with controversial subjects.” “That’s very disconcerting because that’s not freedom of speech and academic freedom.” “We definitely believe in evidence-based learning…People forget the students involved in all of this. Their educations are in jeopardy, and they want to learn the truth. They don’t want to not be sure that what they’re learning is true or not because we’re afraid to say something.” Williams has taught history for 28 years at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. “I have never seen anything like this,” she said. “This is unheard of — to have a government tell a historian what they can and cannot teach about the past is something that has never happened in my lifetime or I think in the country, ever.” “We’re scared. Everyone is scared.”
September 23, 2025 | How Charlie Kirk’s Professor Watchlist reshaped free speech on campus
NBC News reports on the role Turning Point USA’s “Professor Watchlist” has played in chilling free speech. “If you make statements that right-wing politicians don’t like, then you can lose your job. Period. That is chilling,” said Isaac Kamola, director of the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, who runs a project called Faculty First Responders that helps professors who have been targeted by Turning Point or other groups. “The Professor Watchlist planted that seed.”
September 19, 2025 | Lawmakers must defend academic freedom, healthcare access, and research in CT
The University of Connecticut Health Center AAUP (UCHC-AAUP), AFT Local 6747, which represents nearly 700 faculty at UConn Health, published an opinion in CT Mirror outlining threats to Connecticut’s only public medical academic center. Executive orders replacing expert peer review with political agendas threatens health research, while slashes to NIH funding and Medicaid/Medicare will jeopardize the health of CT’s communities. UCHC-AAUP notes a potential “brain drain” and threats to “as many as 2,650 jobs in our state that depend on federal research funding tied to UConn and UCHC.” “We strongly and passionately urge our lawmakers to act now and convene a special session of the General Assembly to: 1) Allocate funds to UConn and UCHC to offset state and federal cuts, especially for essential but stigmatized research and patient care to the most vulnerable; and 2) Support the University of Connecticut Health Center, the state’s only public hospital, as we step up to meet the growing demands of patients as more and more become uninsured.”
September 18, 2025 | Union Warns Professors About Posting In the ‘Current Climate’
404 Media reports on the AAUP’s “practical and actionable” guidance to academic workers, “Strategies to Protect Yourself Online in the Current Climate,” produced with the AAUP and Faculty First Responders. Isaac Kamola (President of the Trinity College AAUP and Director of the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom), who cowrote the statement, noted that the recommendations emerged from years of experience working with faculty on the receiving end of targeted online harassment campaigns. Academic freedom was already under threat before Kirk’s death, Kamola said. “It’s a multi-decade strategy of making sure that certain people, certain bodies, certain dies, are not in higher education, so that certain other ones can be, so that you can reproduce the ideas that a political apparatus would prefer existed in a university,” he said.
September 11, 2025 | The chilling effect of Title VI investigations: the professors accused of antisemitism
The Guardian reports on threats to academic freedom for faculty accused under Title VI of antisemitism. Isaac Kamola (President of the Trinity College AAUP and Director of the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) is quoted noting that administrations claim that Title IV means they are required to pursue lengthy investigations over seemingly spurious accusations: “you have this big political infrastructure and coordinated rightwing efforts to say, we don’t like that individual … and the administrations are basically not able to defend them.”
September 11, 2025 | Charlie Kirk Killing Feeds Fears for Higher Ed’s Future
Inside Higher Ed reports on the aftermath of the killing of Charlie Kirk. Isaac Kamola (President of the Trinity College AAUP and Director of the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) is quoted noting that Kirk “literally wrote the book titled Campus Battlefield.” “He built a career out of treating higher education as a war zone…and treating professors and students that he disagreed with as enemies that posed an existential threat to America” (in, for example, Turning Point USA’s “Professor Watchlist”). Now, a lot of faculty are wondering, “Is there going to be retaliation for this assassination?” “Is it going to be me, and maybe instead of a video, it’s a rifle?”
September 8, 2025 | UConn hires firm for up to $400K to review structure amid major budget concerns
CT Insider reports on UCONN’s ($400,000) contract with external consulting firm The Segal Group. Sam Sommers (vice president for membership development and organizing for UConn-AAUP) is quoted: “UConn has been implementing really draconian cuts,” and so to “read that in the midst of this, the university is spending money with a consulting firm was quite disconcerting.” The contract’s emphasis on efficiency also escalated fears among faculty and staff of putting even more on the chopping block, Sommers said. “I’m quite concerned about job consolidation, layoffs, budget cuts.” “We keep hearing from the governor and from the university leadership that we need to be doing more with less,” Sommers said. But “the morale and the drumbeat on campus is, ‘oh my gosh, we’re drowning.’ The university is not taking seriously the impact that they’re having on pushing people to their limit.”
August 26, 2025 | Panel Urges Action On School Funding In CT
CT News Junkie reports on cuts to education spending in Connecticut. Isaac Kamola (President of the Trinity College AAUP and Director of the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) is quoted connecting cuts to the K-12 budget with attacks on higher education: we are facing an “existential threat by an authoritarian regime” that is weaponizing civil rights law, redefining diversity and equity, abducting international faculty and students, and attacking institutions and individual faculty.
August 25, 2025 | The US used to be a haven for research. Now, scientists are packing their bags
The Christian Science Monitor reports on scholars leaving the US. Isaac Kamola (President of the Trinity College AAUP and Director of the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) is quoted: “A lot of us scholars value our independence. We value the ability to research, write and teach what we want, and do what we think is in the best interest of … our disciplines.” “Faculty are going to be in a position where they have to make more and more concessions.”
August 21, 2025 | The AAUP/AFT Summer Institute Can Change a Life
Isaac Kamola (President of the Trinity College AAUP and Director of the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) reflects on the message of the 2025 Summer Institute at Morehouse College: organize, organize, organize!
August 20, 2025 | A ‘Great Defection’ threatens to empty universities and colleges of top teaching talent
“You’re basically knee-capping that younger generation, which undermines the intergenerational dynamism that takes place in higher education. And that trickles down into the classroom.” Isaac Kamola (President of the Trinity College AAUP and Director of the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) interviewed in The Hechinger Report on why faculty and graduate students are leaving academia.
July 27, 2025 | After spending scandal, CT chancellor gets $442,187 new role. Here’s what he’ll do
“The students will be the ones to pay. They will lose financial aid, academic support, faculty mentorship and more.” Madeline St. Amour, director of communications for CSU-AAUP, on the former Chancellor’s new position, amid budget cuts facing CSCU (the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system).
June 27, 2025 | CT colleges and universities face deep cuts: ‘We have depleted faculty and staff’; ‘What a tragedy’
The Hartford Courant reports on the deep cuts facing CSCU, the state colleges and universities system. Louise Williams (president of CSU-AAUP) is quoted: “Once again, the students and faculty within the CSCU system are set to suffer from system mismanagement and state indifference. Students, members, and the people of Connecticut deserve better.” “It is time that the governor and all our politicians wake up. Our state leaders’ refusal to adequately invest in public higher education means the financial burden has been shifted to students and their families.” “There is very little left to cut without permanently damaging our system and its ability to provide access and opportunity for the residents of Connecticut.”
June 24 2025 | UConn has to close a $134M deficit. Staff could be cut, find out what else is on chopping block
The Hartford Courant reports on the $134 million budget deficit facing The University of Connecticut for fiscal year 2026–which might lead to reducing staff, restricting travel, events and activities, and using one-time reserves. Chris Vials (president of UConn AAUP) said his biggest concern is layoffs, higher tuition and larger class sizes over time. Vials said he is concerned that this will result in a reduced quality of education for everyone.
June 23, 2025 | AAUP removes Albertus Magnus College from censure
National AAUP’s governing Council voted to remove from censure the administration of Albertus Magnus College. Albertus Magnus was added to the AAUP’s censure list in 2000 because of violations of its dismissal and due-process practices. Albertus Magnus revised its dismissal policy to make it consistent with AAUP-recommended standards; the revised policy was incorporated in the new version of the faculty handbook. The AAUP representative who visited campus to access current conditions for academic freedom reported, “I received a consistent message…Both the faculty and the administration are anxious to have AMC removed from the censure list, and both report the atmosphere to be excellent with regard to academic freedom.”
June 22, 2025 | Yalies express pride in University’s move to legally back Harvard
Yale News reports on Yale joining 23 peer institutions filing an amicus brief backing Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s revocation of Havard’s federal funding. Tisa Wenger (Yale AAUP executive committee member) is quoted: “Bullies will keep bullying.” “Trying to avoid being the next target might work for a while, but in the long term, that is going to destroy the sector. We just have to stand up and say no.”
June 17, 2025 | AAUP releases Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2024–25
AAUP released its Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2024–25, which presents findings from the AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey and other key economic trends related to US higher education. The report includes eighteen summary tables and three appendixes that list survey results by institution. Here is a link to fulltime faculty salaries in CT’s institutions.
June 5, 2025 | UConn and CSCU colleges brace for cuts in new Connecticut budget: ‘A real disaster’
CT Insider reports on state budget cuts to UConn and CSCU. UConn and UConn Health will see a combined cut of around $113 million. Christopher Vials (President of UConn AAUP) is quoted: “I don’t see how the university is going to be able to sustain these cuts without raising tuition yet again.” “I am very worried about this budget going forward and the funding levels for the university in the short term, mainly because the federal government is attacking universities as it never has done before,” Vials said. “And so when you have federal funding cuts coming down… that combined with insufficient state funding, is a real disaster for public higher ed in the state.”
May 29, 2025 | Union: 750 courses and faculty at risk at CT state universities. Board ‘channeling Scrooge McDuck’
CSU-AAUP urged the CSCU Board of Regents to leverage its reserve funds to protect faculty and students, according to The Hartford Courant. Members of CSU-AAUP and CSCU faculty speak out against cuts that would result in fewer courses, a reduction in faculty, larger class sizes, a heavier course load, and fewer opportunities to work individually with students.
May 28, 2025 | Faculty, programs could be cut from CT public colleges. Staff members are pushing back
CT Insider reports on potential CSCU budget cuts, as AAUP leaders urge the Board of Regents to tap in to $635 million in reserve funds instead of further cuts, faculty layoffs, course eliminations, and program discontinuation. Cindy Stretch, Vice President of CSU-AAUP, is quoted: “spend those so-called reserves on the classroom [and] send that money back into the places where teaching and learning is happening.” “We want that money to go where the students will feel it immediately, and where it will really enhance their education.”
May 12, 2025 | Understanding the Evolving Culture-War Vernacular
Isaac Kamola (Trinity College and the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) historicizes the culture war attack on higher education in Academe, writing that this moment requires us to forge lines of solidarity between K–12 and higher education to organize for public education as a common good.
May 2, 2025 | Trump 100 days: How CT colleges and universities are affected
WFSB reports on the fallout from Trump’s first 100 days in office at UCONN and Yale, quoting Chris Vials, President of UConn AAUP: “Everyone has kind of been wondering what the future of the university is going to be and if there is a future for public higher education in this country. It’s that bad.”
May 2, 2025 | Part-time faculty at CSCU need sick leave
An Opinion column in the CT Mirror by Kevin Kean, CSU-AAUP executive committee member, on why part-time instructors in the Connecticut State Colleges and University system — 57.16% of all instructors — should get paid sick leave.
April 29, 2025 | Academic Freedom and Tenure: Muhlenberg College (Pennsylvania)
The AAUP released a new report, Academic Freedom and Tenure: Muhlenberg College, on the 2024 dismissal of Dr. Maura Finkelstein, a tenured associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. The report, researched and authored by an AAUP committee of inquiry chaired by Afshan Jafar (President of the CT State Conference), was conducted in a national context of proliferating faculty suspensions, disciplinary actions, and dismissals relating to campus protests. The report concludes that the administration, in dismissing Finkelstein from the faculty solely because of one anti-Zionist repost on Instagram, acted in violation of AAUP-supported principles and standards of academic freedom and due process.
April 22, 2025 | QU AAUP hosts Arts for Education in response to recent executive orders
The Quinnipiac Chronicle reports on “Art for Academic Education,” hosted by Quinnipiac University’s AAUP Chapter, an informational space to learn about how higher education may be affected as a result of recent executive orders. Julia Giblin, co-vice president of QU AAUP, discusses the need for shared governance and solidarity in the face of threats to academic freedom.
April 22, 2025 | How Harvard became resistance HQ in Trump’s war on woke campuses
MSN reports on Harvard’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, quoting Isaac Kamola (Trinity College and the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom): “This cannot be about Harvard saving Harvard or Columbia saving Columbia… Harvard will not save us but a strong alliance of faculty, students and academic institutions can,” he says.
April 22, 2025 | Yale faculty talk funding cuts, urge solidarity
Yale Daily News reports on faculty panels on “Academic Repression and How We Can Resist It” organized by Yale AAUP, protesting cuts to education and research funding.
April 20, 2025 | ‘Bodies vanishing’: How Trump’s abrupt visa revocations have stoked fear at CT universities
CT Insider reports on the at least 53 Connecticut international students whose visas have been revoked by the Trump administration. “It’s spread fear into everyone” said Christopher Vials, president of UConn’s AAUP. “It’s just bodies vanishing.”
April 18, 2025 | UConn AAUP holds rally as part of National Day of Action for higher education
The Daily Campus reports on UCONN’s National Day of Action rally on April 17 to protest the Trump administration’s targeting of higher education. Chris Vials, president of UConn-AAUP, is spoke to the hundred gathered, saying “from cuts to federal grants to the physical deportation of our students, the federal government is attacking higher education with a bluntness and ferocity we have not seen in our lifetimes.” “We organized to show strength and solidarity in the face of this onslaught, and to bring public awareness to what is happening at UConn and at colleges and universities across the country. Silence is dangerous and invites escalation. Hands off UConn!”
April 18, 2025 | “Hands off higher education”: Yale faculty rally for academic freedom
Yale Daily News reports on Yale’s National Day of Action rally on April 17 to protest against Trump’s funding cuts and deportations. The rally was organized by Yale’s AAUP chapter. More than a dozen faculty members and union leaders spoke to the crowd of over 400. “These threats are not limited to one part of the university or one field,” said Daniel HoSang, president of the Yale AAUP chapter. “They’re widespread, and we recognize that there’s an intention to try to play different fields against one another, to isolate people.”
April 17, 2025 | At CT universities, professors and students rally against Trump actions
CT Mirror reports on protests across Connecticut universities on the National Day of Action, April 17. Chris Vials, president of UConn-AAUP, said, “We are facing a federal government that wants to do us harm, a federal government that is deporting students from this campus, a federal government that is cutting life saving research, a federal government that hates diversity … and a federal government that’s not even obeying the law.”
April 17, 2025 | At Yale and UConn, demonstrators speak out to protect higher education
Connecticut Public Radio reports on National Day of Action rallies across Connecticut, including Yale and UCONN, to protect academic freedom and protest cuts to research funding, elimination of visas for some international students and other recent moves by the federal government. Chris Vials, president of UConn-AAUP, said he feels frightened for the future of higher education. “Federal meddling is basically destroying the very fabric of the university.”
April 15, 2025 | Yale faculty urge administrators to defend academic freedom
Yale Daily News reports that nearly 900 faculty signed a letter to Yale University President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel calling for “courageous leadership” in the face of attacks on higher education. Members of the faculty senate and Yale’s AAUP chapter delivered the letter to McInnis and Strobel on April 11. “American universities are facing extraordinary attacks that threaten the bedrock principles of a democratic society, including rights of free expression, association, and academic freedom,” the letter reads. “We write as one faculty, to ask you to stand with us now.” Professor Daniel HoSang, president of Yale’s AAUP chapter, highlighted how faculty from all 14 graduate and professional schools signed the letter. HoSang told the News that the University must take both public stances and substantive action to resist political pressures such as threatened cuts to research funding.
March 21, 2025 | Trump’s Latest Target: Foreign Scholars
Inside Higher Ed reports on the targeting of international students, faculty, and researchers. Isaac Kamola (Trinity and the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) said the administration’s “completely arbitrary” crackdown threatens academic freedom and undermines the role of U.S. institutions in global research exchange and scholarship networks. “I think the message is: Everybody who wants to speak about Palestine, everybody who wants to argue that higher education should be more inclusive or diverse, anybody who wants to defend free speech in ways that the current regime finds unacceptable could potentially face retaliation,” Kamola said. The end result may be the destruction of America’s reputation as a bastion of academic freedom.
March 15, 2025 | Committee OKs Expansion Of Debt-Free Community College Program To Include State Universities
CT News Junkie reports that The Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee approved House Bill 6885 to expand the debt-free community college program to include CT state universities. Rotua Lumbantobing (Western Connecticut State University and vice president of the AAUP), wrote “The Mary Ann Handley Award will allow CSU students to focus on their studies, graduate debt-free, and immediately start contributing to Connecticut’s vibrant civic and economic activities, rather than being weighed down by student loans.” Every state resident should have the opportunity to get a four-year degree without going into debt.
March 14, 2025 | Amid Right-Wing Attacks on Education, the American Association of University Professors Organizes for Academic Freedom
Ms. Magazine interviews Mia McIver, executive director of the AAUP, and Rotua Lumbantobing, AAUP vice president about building union power in repressive periods and building support for public education as a common good.
February 25, 2025 | How UConn faculty, staff, students are being affected by budget cuts
Last year, the University of Connecticut directed all academic and administrative units to reduce their operating budgets by 15% over the upcoming five years, according to University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz. The Daily Campus quotes Chris Vials, president of the UConn AAUP, on how this might impact non-tenure-track faculty and result in fewer classes, larger classes, and higher student to faculty ratios.
February 15, 2025 | UConn Faculty, Staff Seeking Expanded Paid Family Leave
CT News Junkie covers UConn-AAUP’s news conference announcing campaign for guaranteed 16 weeks of paid parental leave for all employees. “We’re gathering today to stand up for paid family leave, and that’s not a new topic,” said UConn-AAUP President Chris Vials. “This is about equity, dignity, and ensuring UConn remains a place where faculty can thrive both personally and professionally.”
January 31, 2025 | Faculty revive Yale’s AAUP chapter
The Yale Daily News reports on Yale’s newly revived AAUP chapter, which had its first meeting this week. Chapter executive committee members Alessandro Gomez and Daniel HoSang discuss the chapter’s goals, which include combatting the “erosion of shared governance” at Yale, protecting academic freedom and free speech, defending immigrant students, and calling for increased administrative transparency.
January 5, 2025 | What CT education groups are seeking in 2025
The Hartford Courant reports on CT education spending for 2025, in advance of the General Assembly legislative session. Louise Williams, president of CSU-AAUP, says the top goal “is to ensure we have sufficient funding to continue giving our students an excellent education”—from student support like tutoring and mental health counseling to enough money to prevent program cuts, service reductions, or increasing class sizes.
December 6, 2024 | CSCU faculty union stages walkout at Regents meeting over report recommending cuts
Connecticut Public Radio reports members of the Connecticut State Universities AAUP (CSU-AAUP), representing faculty at the four regional universities of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system, walked out of a special meeting of the Board of Regents in protest of a report recommending cuts to the system. “We don’t think it’s going to help the people of Connecticut, the progress of the state, if our system of public higher education is cut or shrunk,” said Louise Williams, president of CSU-AAUP. John O’Connor, a CSU-AAUP member and associate professor of sociology at CCSU, called the report an “attack on students, attack on faculty members, and an attack on our institutions.” In a written response to the report, CSU-AAUP said the system needs more funding, not less.
December 5, 2024 | Report calls for major reforms to CT state college system, causing discord
CT Mirror reports on NCHEMS Report. “Faculty members of the state university system see this as an attack, an attack on students, attack on faculty members and an attack on our institutions,” said John O’Connor, a sociology professor at Central Connecticut State University. “There’s absolutely no discussion in this report about what takes place in a classroom and what really happens in these institutions.”“We object to the NCHEMS report that is being presented because it is recommending cutting the size of our universities — our whole system, which also includes the community colleges.” said Louise Williams, the president of the CSU-AAUP. “For us, that means a shrinking of opportunities for higher education, for the people of the state of Connecticut.”
December 6, 2024 | Connecticut State Colleges and Universities report calls for cuts, ‘bold decision-making’
The Hartford Courant reports on calls for cuts. Louise Williams, president of CSU-AAUP, argued that the state has ample resources to fund its public colleges and universities. “Our state has $4.1 billion in its rainy day fund with positive predictions for surpluses in the next three years.” “We are well aware of the fiscal guardrails, but they can be altered and free up more than enough money to invest in higher education.” CSCU students and faculty advocate for state investments and an expansion of the state’s tuition-free community college program to the rest of the university system.
November 14, 2024 | Cuts, tuition hikes at CT colleges ‘risk the future of the state,’ staff and students say
The Hartford Courant reports faculty and students from the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system decried austerity measures that reduce student services and demanded more funding for the state schools. CSU-AAUP and the 4Cs also called for an expansion of the state’s free tuition Pledge to Advance Connecticut initiative. Louise Williams, the president of CSU-AAUP, stressed that now is the “time to invest in the working people of Connecticut by making education more affordable.”
November 14, 2024 | CSCU union leaders and faculty call for more state funding next fiscal year
“What we want is the governor to commit to fully funding public higher education in Connecticut. Making sure that we have enough money so we can educate as many students as possible,” CSU-AAUP President Louise Williams said.” NBC Connecticut reports on the CT budget.
November 14, 2024 | CSCU unions call for more funding for higher ed as session nears
“It’s time to restore the promise for our students, fund our schools, protect our services, and above all, invest in our faculty who make this education possible.” CT Mirror coverage of the CSU-AAUP and 4Cs news conference on the budget for Connecticut State Universities and Colleges.
October 24, 2024 | UConn’s low-enrollment majors could soon see cuts
Fox61 News reports that UCONN is evaluating at least 245 programs at risk of being cut because of continuing budget problems. Christopher Vials (President of UCONN AAUP) is interviewed by Bridgette Bjorlo: “We’re very concerned about the future of these programs and the future of UConn as a whole. This move toward program cuts is really the first step in a broader plan. What we are seeing is a plan to hire less tenure-line research instructors and more lecturers who are doing a higher teaching load. That really compromises our status as a flagship R1 university.”
October 22, 2024 | Protect Higher Ed in Connecticut
After years of cuts to academic budgets at CT’s flagship the University of Connecticut, dozens of majors and scores of graduate programs are now on the chopping block. According to news reports, majors including philosophy; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; and animal science could be discontinued. The National AAUP released a statement urging the state of Connecticut to fully fund its entire education system.
Connecticut State Conference of the American Association of University Professors, Inc. 