academic-freedom – Cornell Chapter of the AAUP

CAIR Designates Cornell University a ‘Hostile Campus’ for Systematic Repression of Pro-Palestinian Students

I really wish this wasn’t so, but it has been obvious for a while now that Cornell is systematically suppressing teaching, academic programming, and student events on Palestine. Even when events are allowed to occur, it comes only after a tortuous process of administrative harassment, the singling out of these events for heightened scrutiny and the strict application of bureaucratic rules or procedures not usually applied to other events.

Muslim students, faculty, and staff have repeatedly expressed their concerns to Cornell leadership. There is no evidence they have been heard.

From The Council on American-Islamic Relations:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today announced the designation of Cornell University as a “Hostile Campus” due to its escalating repression of Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and allied students and faculty who speak out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“Cornell’s actions are not just failures of leadership; they are acts of targeted censorship, stifling diverse perspectives,” said Dr. Maryam Hasan, Research and Advocacy Specialist at CAIR. “When universities discipline students for protesting genocide, they are silencing voices speaking for justice and the human rights of all.”

CAIR-New York’s Executive Director, Afaf Nasher, said in a statement:

“Cornell University’s designation as a hostile campus reflects a disheartening trend of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian aggression by university administrations. Universities must uphold their responsibility to create inclusive and safe spaces for Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students. We remain steadfast in our commitment to preserving free speech on college campuses and student activism amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We hope that prospective students and parents, as well as alumni, reflect upon these hostile campus designations in their determination on what institutions are deserving of their support.”

President by fiat

Cornell AAUP chapter member Eric Cheyfitz has a fantastic piece in the Daily Sun, putting recent university developments within the longer history of the evisceration of meaningful faculty and shared governance at Cornell.

https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2025/04/cheyfitz-president-by-fiat

“By fiat, the Board of Trustees has just appointed Interim President Michael Kotlikoff as the 15th president of Cornell University. For the first time in my 22 years here as a tenured member of the faculty, there has been no national search for the university presidency. Such searches typically include faculty. So this suspension of a search is one more sign of the decline in faculty governance, which has been declining rapidly at Cornell … The increasing decline of faculty governance nationally has gone hand-in-hand with the rise of the corporate university, which, over a hundred years ago, Thorstein Veblen recognized in his 1918 book The Higher Learning in America. Today, by and large, university presidents play the role of CEO, taking their agendas largely from boards of trustees and donors rather than faculties. President Kotlikoff fits squarely in this mold at a time when the corporate model has become particularly toxic with the Trump administration’s assault on liberal education with its foundation in free speech and academic freedom. “

Read and share!

The abduction of Mahmoud Khalil

12 March 2025

Below is a joint statement from AAUP chapters about the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil and the withholding of federal research funds from Columbia.

For Immediate Release

Contact: kweld@aaup-hfc.org

Statement from Harvard, MIT, UChicago, and Cornell AAUP Chapters Regarding Ongoing Crisis at Columbia University

We write to condemn in the strongest possible terms two recent and related federal attacks on Columbia University: the impoundment of some $400 million in research funds, and the targeting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of Columbia students and alumni involved in pro-Palestine protests—in particular, the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, who is a lawful permanent resident of the United States.

To search for adequate precedent for these brazenly illegal and partisan actions requires looking to the worst days of the Red Scare or the Alien and Sedition Acts. Nothing in the Constitution permits a president to target his political opponents by defying laws passed by Congress or by detaining and threatening to deport people for their viewpoints. Yet the illegality of these moves is almost beside the point; their architects quite candidly describe them as part of a wider crusade against higher education, an attempt to impose top-down control on what Americans teach, study, and learn.

Columbia has borne the brunt of this onslaught over the past week. Yet we know that our own universities are next in the crosshairs. We do not need the crisis to reach our doors before we will rise to defend the academic autonomy of our research and teaching activities, the free speech rights and safety of our community members, and the essential scientific and humanistic contributions of universities to our society. We, the undersigned chapters of the American Association of University Professors, stand in full solidarity with our colleagues at Columbia.

AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter

AAUP-MIT

University of Chicago AAUP

AAUP Cornell University Chapter

Resources from the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom – AAUP

The director for the AAUP Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, Isaac Kamola, is sharing resources for the fight:

The cruelty of the new administration’s attack on democracy and higher education has been staggering, from arbitrary cuts to research funding to the malicious misrepresentation of our work to Linda McMahon’s unwillingness to say that teaching African American history is still legal.

Fighting back requires understanding the threats we face as well as developing the tools necessary to convey the value of higher education to a wide audience. In this context, the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom has recently published a number of resources that we hope will be useful in the fight ahead:

Academic Freedom on the Line is a weekly Substack edited by CDAF fellow John Warner. This newsletter examines questions around academic freedom, its role in a democratic society, and what is lost when academic communities face politicized attacks on institutional autonomy and shared governance. Check out posts on CDAF’s mission, the risks of obeying in advance, advice for college and university boards, and reflections on the recent “Dear Colleague” letter.
Executive Power Watch is a series of short handouts that offer analyses of education-related executive actions, including executive orders that target diversity, equity, and inclusion; weaponize antisemitism; and target transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people. These resources offer concrete suggestions about what you can do to fight back.
Action Reports are short studies that offer concrete analysis and guidance on how to respond to particular threats to academic freedom, such as

Future Action Reports will examine the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and strategies for using collective bargaining agreements to resist post-tenure review laws.

AAUP litigation against unlawful executive orders

Yesterday evening, the AAUP, along with the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and other partners filed a lawsuit to block Trump’s unlawful and unconstitutional DEI executive orders, which threaten academic freedom and access to higher education.The lawsuit, which can be read in full here, argues that Trump’s orders exceed his legal authority, are overly vague, and fail to define such terms as “DEI,” “equity,” and “illegal DEIA.” Without any definitive criteria or information, the orders open academic institutions to the risk of lawsuits for policies that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.The AAUP has long advocated for diversity in higher education, including a diverse faculty and student body. The Association’s recent statement On Eliminating Discrimination and Achieving Equality in Higher Education focuses on diversity in faculty employment within an integrated understanding of how to move toward the broader goal of inclusion and equality in higher education.