AAUP President: “Higher Ed Alone Cannot Save Democracy”

AAUP members elected Todd Wolfson, of Rutgers University, as their president in June 2024.

Mike Ferguson/AAUP

Over the past seven months, members of the American Association of University Professors, a 110-year-old organization that is fundamental in defining and protecting academic freedom, have found themselves, their disciplines and their universities on the receiving end of the Trump administration’s unrelenting attack on higher ed.

As Republicans in some states diminish the influence of faculty senates , AAUP state- and campus-level chapters, which often also represent faculty as official unions, have led the criticism of the federal government’s actions. But how is the AAUP planning to fight now—more than half a year into Trump’s return to power, as Washington continues to press