By Luke Lara, FA Ombudsperson Academic Freedom has been long regarded as essential to ensuring quality education in US colleges and universities. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), founded in 1915, developed standards and principles that shaped higher education, including defining Academic Freedom. About three-quarters of colleges and universities with a tenure system have incorporated the language of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom

By Mary Gross, FA President So much has happened these last couple months, closing the loop on some final issues and reaching set goals as my role as FA President comes to an end. Most notably, we successfully concluded negotiations on completely new contractual language for both Academic Freedom and Intellectual Property. We now have solid language in the contract that affords us clear rights in both these areas, and because they are now embedded in the contract, the languag