CFA and AAUP Members Collaborate to Fight Suppression of Free Speech

At last Thursday’s town hall meeting, CFA members, along with Students for Quality Education (SQE) and American Association of University Professors (AAUP) leaders, organized around the issue of free speech and political suppression happening on our campuses.

The suppression of free speech and academic freedom in public higher education is being felt at the nationwide level.

This issue intersects with the ongoing crisis of defunding and divestment that started in California in the 1960s, a time when people of color were beginning to gain access to free public higher education. During this time, movements and protests advocating for social change began to emerge on campuses across the country.

In their attempt to stifle more recent demonstrations (like the student encampments on CSU campuses and our strike actions), the CSU Chancellor’s Office implemented a severe interim Time, Place, and Manner (TPM) policy. This policy shows that the issue of free speech extends beyond economic concerns, revealing a political and racialized divestment from higher education.

At the town hall, some CFA chapter leaders reported out how faculty have been fighting against the egregious policy.

CFA Long Beach Co-President Shelly Collins explained how the addendum to their campus’ Time, Place, and Manner policy significantly harms part-time faculty, and how it has already led to unjust action against the Long Beach 5.

“The uncertainty about job security and fear of retaliation highlights the precarious nature for contingent faculty,” said Collins, a professor at CSU Long Beach. “In response, grievances were filed and the (Long Beach 5) sought legal support and received help from American Civil Liberties Union lawyers. Because of this, we saw modifications to the TPM policies, and it shows that our collective action can make change.”

Other CFA members shared that they have been pushing resolutions through their own campuses’ Academic Senates, with the knowledge that the Academic Senate of the California State University (ASCSU) has already put forth a resolution that strongly condemns the interim Time, Place, and Manner policy. The hope is to bring these concerns directly to the CSU Board of Trustees and reform the TPM policies that severely restrict free speech.

AAUP President Todd Wolfson urged the need for all public higher education workers to combine efforts to combat the drifting mission of public universities. He pointed to the mountains of student debt, skyrocketing student tuition, growing numbers of contingent faculty, and the expanding numbers of administrators that take us away from the university’s core values of research, teaching, and service.

Wolfson, a professor at Rutgers University, reiterated the value of higher education. He explained how it can create real social mobility, social progress, and lead towards racial and economic justice by serving as a cornerstone to democracy, a driver for the economy, and a means for developing critical thinkers.

Yet, much like the oppressive actions happening within the CSU, Rutgers University now requires stakeholders to obtain Free Expression Permits before being allowed to demonstrate. A bigger concern is that campus administrators can deny these permits and restrict where the activists are allowed to demonstrate by setting up free-speech zones, effectively inhibiting one’s ability to speak freely.

Rana Jaleel, Chair of AAUP’s Committee A, which focuses on academic freedom and tenure, reminds us that there is no university without academic freedom. “Academic freedom is not a privilege. It is necessary for the job,” said Jaleel, a professor at UC Davis. Jaleel is referring to the role that academic freedom plays in cultivating intellectual growth, while also promoting the free exchange of ideas in an environment where individuals should feel safe to do so.

The interim Time, Place, and Manner policy is political repression, and it shuts down ideas and prevents different pedagogies or ways of thinking from being implemented.

Jaleel noted that the interim policy restrictions would have constrained the 1968 protests at San Francisco State, which targeted racist admission practices that mostly excluded faculty and students of color, and the efforts of establishing the College of Ethnic Studies. It is these protests and demonstrations that bring social justice issues to the foreground.

We will continue our work in coalition with other unions to address these concerns and do away with any policy that hampers free speech and academic freedom.

If you are facing investigation, please be in touch with your chapter’s field representative and faculty rights team.