Scott Walker Alarms AAUP

The boyish Republican governor of Wisconsin still has academics in the Badger state, and their allies well beyond, up in arms.

In the academe blog maintained by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Hank Reichman lays out the AAUP’s bill of particulars against Governor Walker. Wait until you see what has the AAUP the most incensed: “For the past few years Wisconsin has been ground zero in the fight over the future of public higher education. The AAUP, along with the Wisconsin AFT, has condemned a series of actions taken by Governor Scott Walker, the Wisconsin state legislature, and the University of Wisconsin system board of regents in what has become a concerted attack on the university as a public good. In 2011, legislation curtailed the rights of faculty in the system to negotiate collectively. In 2015, the legislature severely weakened tenure, shared governance, and due process—and, by extension, academic freedom. Last year’s attacks include the approval by the board of regents of an anti-free-speech proposal, changes to procedures governing searches for chancellors and presidents, a bill before the state legislature that would abolish a partnership with Planned Parenthood, and most notoriously a plan hatched in secret to merge the system’s two- and four-year institutions.”

That’s right: the merger is driving them absolutely bananas. Maybe they need a puppy.

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