The Princeton chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) met Monday afternoon for a discussion surrounding academic freedom and the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education.
Fewer than 30 faculty members attended the meeting, compared to the over 50 members present at the chapter’s inaugural meeting.
Faculty members reformed the Princeton chapter of the AAUP last March amid attacks on higher education from the Trump administration. Since then, they have convened monthly to discuss updates and to identify threats to higher education.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a professor of African-American studies, co-led the discussion with professor emerita for the Institute for Advanced Study Joan W. Scott.
In her opening statement, Taylor focused on efforts to divide academic fields, discussing “pitting the humanists against scholars of science and technology, or even splintering some humanists versus other humanists by designating some scholarship as activism.”
At the meeting, only two faculty members were from STEM fields, per a show of hands upon request.
Taylor said that restrictions on free speech at universities should not be viewed as unprecedented. Instead, she said that the present situation is a result of decades of government and university policies across America, starting from how student protests were handled during the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
“What are the cumulative consequences that have been brought to bear in this political moment that have created conditions of fear, intimidation, and repression on college campuses?” Taylor asked.
After Taylor and Scott discussed attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); the proliferation of right-wing policy agendas; and restrictions on academic freedom, the floor was opened to attendees to voice their concerns and pose questions to the room.
Professor of Neuroscience Sam Wang, who is currently seeking the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, discussed recent attacks on higher education during the meeting. Wang emphasized that these attacks should be understood as a product of continuous political effort over the past several decades, particularly on behalf of groups like the Heritage Foundation, and not a phenomenon that emerged only recently.
When asked about how instructors should best approach teaching an ideologically diverse classroom, Scott noted growing fear among university professors today over what they teach.
“It’s not only being able to speak to a wide range of students, but not trusting that there isn’t a student in the class who’s going to turn you in for it,” Scott said. She pointed to a case in Oklahoma where an instructor was placed on leave after failing a student’s essay. The student complained that she received a failing grade on a psychology paper in which she cited the Bible, alleging religious discrimination.
Several attendees commented on the low turnout at the meeting. They proposed reasons why Princeton, and academia more broadly, is currently struggling to organize against the federal government. Speakers compared progressive movements with their right-wing counterparts.
“How come they’re so much better at this than we are?” Scott said. “We tend to be more reactive than forward-thinking.”
Another barrier to movements like the AAUP gaining traction, according to Scott, is in the complicated relationship between faculty and academic institutions themselves.
“One of the difficulties of figuring out how to resist is that many of us have spent years criticizing the university as it exists — as a corporate neoliberal institution producing human capital instead of critical people for a democracy,” Scott said. “How do you defend something that you’ve been harshly criticizing for the last 15 years?”
Faculty also criticized the Biden administration’s handling of campus protests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, with Taylor arguing that “the naked attacks on free speech and assembly initiated by the Biden administration opened the doors to a much more brutal authoritarian-led attack by Trump.” According to Taylor, “for the right, it was a Trojan horse, allowing them not only to crush that particular [Palestinian solidarity movement], but to destroy campus life as we know it.”
Taylor also claimed that the universities have leveraged the pressure of the Trump administration as a cover to suppress free speech, terminate DEI programs, and invalidate collective bargaining agreements.
“We have seen the Trump administration quietly drop legal actions over the last several months because there is no need to further pursue legal recourse when college administrations have willfully carried out orders without being forced to do so,” she said.
The discussion then shifted to discuss how faculty can play a more direct role in resistance against the Trump agenda, a centerpiece of which is faculty autonomy within Princeton.
Molly Greene, a professor in the Department of History, noted some policies that seem to hinder the faculty’s ability to organize.
“I don’t have an email list to send to, and I think that’s deliberate,” Greene said. “I realized that the University doesn’t want us speaking to each other without them present.”
Scott echoed this sentiment, alleging that there is no mechanism in which faculty can convene outside of University supervision.
“Eisgruber boasts that you have faculty governance, but you don’t if you don’t have an independent body that can meet and pass actions of various kinds without the president calling you into existence,” she said.
However, Scott noted improvements in faculty governance over the past few University administrations. Over time, Scott explained that some progress had been made toward collective faculty governance — a key milestone in Princeton’s AAUP chapter. Its reformation, she suggested, reflects the continual effort to create spaces where students and faculty can organize independently from the University.
Toby Chang is a staff News writer from Prescott, Ariz. He can be reached at toby.chang[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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