November 9, 2020 Dear President Hamilton, Thank you for the response to our letter of concern about Zoom censorship, and to those sent from various Departments, Schools, and the Contract Senators’ Council. It is important for AAUP members – at NYU and nationally — and for the faculty at large,…...
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American Association of University Professors
NYU Chapter
NYU-AAUP is an association of faculty across NYU schools and campuses.
We’re focused on defending academic freedom, encouraging participation in university governance, and advancing the interests of NYU faculty, students, and staff.
NYU-AAUP is proud to work in solidarity with NYU campus unions and organizations, including:
Public Statements
Statement on Zoom Censorship
Today, Zoom unilaterally shut down a webinar hosted by the NYU chapter of the AAUP, and co-sponsored by several NYU departments and institutes. The webinar was scheduled to discuss the censorship, by Zoom and other big tech platforms, of an open classroom session last month at SFSU, featuring the Palestinian…...
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Regarding Faculty Conduct with Regard to Studying Abroad in Israel: Second Follow-Up NYU-AAUP Letter to NYU President Andrew Hamilton
[view as PDF] To: President Hamilton We find it perplexing, if not disturbing, to see that the opinion of a single, non NYU individual, and a highly controversial one at that, is being used to cast aspersions on the conduct of NYU faculty in this manner. To label our correspondence…...
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The Agony of the Senator from MNBA
The AAUP recently made student loan abolition a central part of its New Deal for Higher Education, adding to the mounting pressure on Joe Biden to deliver an education debt jubilee. Delivering a significant measure of relief has become the first great test of his new presidency. Wiping the slate…...
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Zoom Censors New York University AAUP Webinar
A Zoom executive recently was identified as the person who fed information to the Chinese government, which in turn exerted pressure on Zoom to shut down several webinars in Summer 2020. The webinars were organized to discuss the 1989 Tian’anmen social movement and subsequent state- sponsored massacre. Every year, around…...
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The Coming Jubilee and Past Harms
by Andrew Ross[cross-posted on Academe Blog] In one of the great ironies of our times, Joe Biden, who did more than any other politician to make it harder for individuals to escape their credit card debts and student loans, is likely to discharge a significant chunk of education debt once he takes…...
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Solidarity Statements on Zoom Censorship
Below are several statements from allied organizations and departments regarding the recent censorship of the NYU AAUP event Against the Censorship and Criminalization of Academic Political Speech: AAUP Urges NYU President to Address Zoom Censorship (October 29, 2020) Letter from Palestine Legal, Center for Constitutional Rights, Climate Defense Project, Partnership…...
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Upcoming + Recent Events
Event: Against the Censorship and Criminalization of Academic Political Speech (Oct 23, 2020)
Against the Censorship and Criminalization of Academic Political Speech October 23, 20204pm, Zoom Last month, Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube all shut down an open academic webinar, organized by a San Francisco State University department, and featuring Palestinian liberation advocate Leila Khaled. Why are big tech platforms making decisions that violate…
Videos
Against the Censorship and Criminalization of Academic Political Speech
October 23, 2020
Speakers:
- Nerdeen Kiswani (CUNY/Within our Lifetime)
- Fred Moten (NYU)
- Radhika Sainath (Palestine Legal)
moderated by Andrew Ross (NYU/USACBI)
with a message from Leila Khaled
Resources
Solidarity Resources
- Coming Soon
About NYU-AAUP
The NYU-AAUP is an advocacy chapter linked to the national Association of American University Professors, the only cross-disciplinary national organization for university faculty that advances and defends values for the profession. NYU’s chapter is based at the University’s New York City campus, although it advocates for all NYU-employed faculty and graduate students across the global network.
As an advocacy chapter (not a collective bargaining chapter), our primary goals are:
- to encourage faculty participation in governance at New York University, particularly in face of the assault against shared governance in recent years;
- to defend academic freedom at NYU and throughout academia, including in our most recent new era of third-party corporate mediated instruction, research, and meeting;
- and to protect and advance the professional interests of all faculty and researchers in colleges, universities, and professional schools, especially as austerity and restructuring increasingly threatens the livelihoods of NYU’s faculty and researchers.
We are committed to anti-racism efforts within the university and prioritizing the reduction of institutional inequalities for students, staff and faculty of color, along with LGBTQ, disabled community members.
To contact NYU-AAUP, please email us at nyu.aaup.website@gmail.com.
NYU-AAUP History
NYU’s AAUP chapter dates to the 1950s, a time when it was considered routine for academics to join the Association when they took their first job. On the back of a wave of faculty unionization in the 1970s, the AAUP and, separately, the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) both launched organizing drives at NYU. The vote to form a union was split, and the campaign at NYU failed. Shortly afterwards, the Yeshiva ruling (1980) by the Supreme Court designated private university faculty part of management, thus putting an end to faculty organizing at private universities. The NYU chapter went dormant.
The NYU-AAUP chapter was revived in 2001 after John Sexton was appointed by the Board of Trustees as NYU’s president without any faculty input. Since then, it has become one of the strongest AAUP advocacy chapters at a private university in the United States. It has supported the unionization efforts of graduate employees (GSOC-UAW), adjunct faculty (ACT-UAW), and contract faculty (CFU-AUW), in addition to the bargaining efforts of clerical, administrative and technical staff (UCATS). The NYU chapter played a central role in the faculty Votes of No Confidence in the administration of John Sexton, and has been a diligent defender of academic freedom and faculty/graduate student rights across NYU’s New York campuses and the Global Network University.
Land Acknowledgement
The NYU Chapter of the AAUP acknowledges that New York University is located on Lenapehoking, ancestral homelands of the Lenape people. We recognise the continued significance of these lands for Lenape nations past and present, we pay our respects to the ancestors as well as to past, present and emerging Lenape leaders. We also recognize that New York City has the largest urban Indigenous population in the United States. Addressing structural Indigenous exclusion and erasure is critically important and the NYU-AAUP chapter is committed to actively working to overcome the ongoing effects and realities of settler-colonialism within NYU.
Executive Committee
JOIN
AAUP is the only national organization dedicated to safeguarding the rights of higher education professionals. If you teach and do research at NYU you are part of an essential workforce. Yet opportunities for wide-ranging workplace interaction with your peers across the NYU community are slim. As a workforce we are divided by schools, by deans, and by rank. Communications are centralized. There is no platform for free conversation about the conditions under which we do our jobs. Yet threats to the tenure system and academic freedom are real and ongoing. NYU’s AAUP chapter provides a space for free, unmonitored speech about these and other issues. We challenge top-down policies formulated by the administration, promote genuine shared faculty governance, and when necessary, serve as a resource for coordinated action.
Join AAUP and be part of something bigger: a democratic and grassroots movement among instructors at all levels and in all schools to reform higher education and strengthen faculty governance while holding NYU’s administration to account.
Eligibility & Dues
NYU chapter membership is open to all current and retired faculty—regardless of rank or type of appointment—and to current graduate students, across the University and its global academic network. Chapter membership is free of charge. However, if you can afford it, please join the AAUP’s national organization by paying annual dues, to help support the indispensable work of AAUP’s dedicated leaders and staff.