Rutgers faculty unions host teach-in to discuss academic freedom at U., national level

On Friday, the Rutgers American Association of University Professors and American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union (PTLFC) hosted a virtual teach-in to discuss the state of academic freedom.

The "Academic Freedom Under Attack: How We Can Fight Back Together" event featured four speakers: Ellen Schrecker, Sahar Aziz, Donna Murch and Elyla Huertas. Their presentations were followed by a private session, during which attendees asked questions and shared their experiences. 

Schrecker, a member of the national AAUP-AFT's Committee A on Academic Freedom, said while political repression continues to impact higher education, the stakes are worse today compared to the McCarthy era.

"The professors pruned their syllabi and stopped teaching about controversial subjects," she said. "Today, that chill is back."

Especially in predominantly Republican states, said Schrecker, politicians are trying to censor what can be talked about. The McCarthy era disciplined individual educators for any connection to the communist movement, but current politicians are condemning institutions as a whole.

"This new wave of political repression targets classrooms, tenure, academic programs, accreditation, libraries and even … entire institutions," Schrecker said.

She said "educational gag orders" were first introduced at the kindergarten through high school level, though these orders are impacting higher education institutions, too. The measures have limited the discussion of potentially contentious topics such as racism and sexism and stunted the growth of departments like gender studies.

Schrecker said the severity of such issues is amplified because educators are not equipped to resist these measures.

Previously, civil unrest among students and a difficult economy shifted public support from higher education. Additionally, higher education's focus on monetary success came at the expense of silencing its educators, she said.

"Today, 75 percent of the nation's instructional workforce is in the hands of non-tenured track faculty members," said Schrecker. "They are as skilled and credentialed as their more secure colleagues, but they're treated like second-class citizens."

Aziz, a distinguished professor of law at Rutgers Law School and founding director of the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers—Newark, said Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric threatens academic freedom.

"These concerns are not merely abstract or academic. They are very real," she said. "I am personally being smeared, harassed and subjected to death threats."

She said the center's work in advocating for the rights of South Asians and its acceptance of Palestinian guest speakers have driven harassment toward the center. Politicians at the local and national levels escalated harmful narratives toward Palestinian, Arab and Muslim people, said Aziz.

As a result, she said there should be a proportionate amount of security and visibility given between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students and faculty.

"We do not want to strip other communities of their rights," she said. "We want the same rights as those communities."

Murch, an associate professor in the Department of History, said recent expressive policies at the University such as free speech zones and the need to apply for permits will hinder demonstrations such as the pro-Palestinian faculty strike, she said.

"What we see at Rutgers is happening all over the country," said Murch. "The expressive policies have profound implication … for the future of all forms of campus activism … I find this utterly chilling."

She said the defunding of graduate programs, particularly in the humanities, remains an issue at the University. For instance, the University also announced cuts to its writing program in the Spring 2024 semester.

Huertas, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and two-time Rutgers alum, said academic freedom generally serves as a protection for University faculty.

"Academic freedom grants teachers the ability to present relevant topics in the classroom, even if controversial, without fear of reprisal or censorship," she said.

Hank Kalet, a part-time lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies and vice president of PTLFC for the New Brunswick campus, said educators receive complaints about course content, though the gravity of these complaints has harsher effects for part-time educators.

He said the exclusion of an "academic freedom clause" in their contracts fails to protect these educators and places them in a position where they may have to carefully select the content and the style they teach with.

"Sometimes ... the part-time lecturers … the adjuncts … find themselves self-censoring because they're afraid of responses from students on surveys or complaints by students or parents to administrators," he said. "We worry about those kinds of things because we are appointed on a semester (to) semester basis."

Kalet said faculty members have been the recipients of doxxing, stalking and death threats, all of which have far-reaching implications.

In addition to educators sharing their stories through the national AAUP-AFT blog, said Kalet, students must be open-minded and willing to engage in a dialogue with their professors.

He said solidarity among students and faculty with the unions is important, so union efforts can reach their highest potential.

"We are here to protect faculty … we're also here to protect students," Kalet said. "Our goal as a union is to make Rutgers a better place for education."