On September 10, in a rather embarrassing episode of supposed “experts” injecting themselves into a conversation to which they were not invited, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and American Association of University Professors (AAUP) responded to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s “National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards.”
Rejecting as “galling” Secretary McMahon’s laudable requests for universities to be more transparent and responsive to the best interests of students and the public, the AFT’s Randi Weingarten and AAUP’s Todd Wolfson play the role of arsonists interrogating the fire brigade as they demand that the secretary commit to just leaving poor higher education alone while simultaneously showering it in federal tax dollars. Despite the flippant tone, their letter is useful in illustrating the AFT’s penetration into higher education after its 2022 “affiliation” with the AAUP and how the latter provides legitimacy to the former as they both agitate for an extremist agenda in higher education and beyond.
The AAUP’s role as political puppet of the AFT is startling in light of its history. Founded in 1915, the AAUP developed a reputation as “policeman” of academic freedom in higher education. It amassed 90,000 members during its first fifty years by rejecting politics in favor of articulating the principles of free inquiry and tenure. The AAUP aimed to ensure that colleges and universities kept their important role in society as “intellectual experiment stations” that retained public trust without bending to public will.
Sadly, the AAUP abdicated its role as a moderating influence in higher education in 1973, when it voted to pour significant resources into collective bargaining. This effectively ended its time as protector of academic freedom and began its foray into organizing workers into union affiliates.
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