In the context of growing polarization and political extremism in the U.S., faculty are frequently facing accusations of political bias and being accused in the classroom of exceeding boundaries of legal or permissible speech. Increasingly, right-wing groups like Campus Reform, Campus Watch, and Turning Point USA directly or indirectly encourage students to lodge such accusations against faculty members. This toolkit offers faculty members strategies and information to protect themselves from potential challenges to their academic freedom, as well as resources for support and protection in the event that they are accused of violating campus policy or state law related to speech.
If you encounter any threats or challenges to your academic freedom—in the classroom, on campus, or out in the world—you should:
- Contact union leadership and our Joint Committee on Academic Freedom by emailing aaup@rutgersaaup.org.
- Contact the administration on your campus:
- For Camden, email FacultySupport@camden.rutgers.edu
- For Newark, email NewarkProvost@rutgers.edu
- For New Brunswick, email NBFacultySupport@rutgers.edu
In the Classroom
- Explain on your syllabus and talk with your students about how principles of freedom of speech work in the classroom.
- Here’s a statement on Academic Freedom to include in your syllabus.
- For reference, note the definition of academic freedom used in the university’s statement on Academic Freedom and Free Expression at Rutgers University.
- Here’s a set of slides you may want to use to help your students understand academic freedom and why it matters.
- Normalize dissent in the classroom.
- Consider adding a statement to your syllabus outlining your approach to handling disagreement and debate in the classroom. Here are some examples.
- Talk with your students about how you will handle conflicting points of view and contentious debate, which are a fundamental part of learning in the university classroom. Here is a brief list of Do’s and Don’ts.
- Add a policy to your syllabus about undisclosed recording and familiarize yourself with the RU Code of Student Conduct’s section that forbids undisclosed recording.
- Based on the subjects you teach and your fields of research, consider possible responses to a student who aggressively questions the appropriateness or legality of some of the course materials or challenges the way you’ve presented a particular issue. (See some examples from various fields here.)
On Campus
- Educate yourself about the parameters of academic freedom in the classroom and the limits of First Amendment protections for faculty. (See some definitions and legal and policy analysis here.)
- Keep up with which right-wing groups (such as TurningPoint USA, Campus Watch, and Canary Mission) are operating on your campus or surveilling and targeting faculty online, and what risks this may pose for you.
- Talk about academic freedom at faculty meetings, including how fellow faculty members can protect both it and the AAUP-AFT contract provision guaranteeing academic freedom.
- Note: Adjunct faculty don’t yet have an academic freedom article in their contract, nor are adjuncts invited to department meetings in most departments. This means that full-time faculty should advocate for adjunct colleagues as part of their efforts to protect academic freedom for the entire faculty. See former President Jonathan Holloway’s statement on academic freedom that serves as the basis for the contract clause regarding full-time faculty’s academic freedom.
- Be aware of and push back against administrative tactics for silencing certain viewpoints. Some university administrations may rely on distorted definitions of academic freedom as a weak response to pressures from the Trump administration. (See an explanation here by Aaron Nisenson, senior counsel in the AAUP legal department, of some of the legal nuances of faculty members’ free speech in their scholarship and classroom teaching.)
- Faculty First Responders, which provides “peer-to-peer support for academic freedom,” offers examples of good and bad responses by administrators in responding to targeted attacks against faculty.
In the World
- Keep up with political and legal developments that are relevant to free speech in general and to your particular fields of teaching and research, at both regional and national levels. (See examples relevant to some Rutgers faculty members here.)
- Implement anti-doxxing and online security measures. (See the Online Harassment Field Manual by PEN America and the Anti-Doxing Guide for Activists by Equality Labs.)
- Research, teach, and advocate for your work and that of others.
- Pay it forward, sharing resources like those provided by the AAUP and Faculty First Responders, and helping others to preserve academic freedom.