Students at New College of Florida in Sarasota protested last year over plans now in place to change the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs.Credit: Rebecca Blackwell/AP/Alamy
A survey of professors working in the southern states of the United States shows that a significant majority frequently witness or experience political interference that affects morale and causes many to seek positions in other regions or leave academia altogether.
The survey, which took place in August 2024, was distributed primarily by the Southern Regional Chapters of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and collected responses from 2,924 self-selected participants. Of these, 51% identified as women, 17% as non-white, and more than 60% held permanent positions. THE The survey found that almost 60% of respondents could not recommend their state as a desirable place to work. Nearly 50% said policy and policy changes had reduced the number of job applicants at their institution.
“This is a problem that professors are concerned about, and is going to become a bigger problem for public institutions in large parts of the country,” says Amy Reid, who until August directed the gender studies program from New College of Florida in Sarasota. She now works with the New York-based nonprofit PEN America as manager of its Freedom to Learn program. (Reid’s move to PEN America came after board members appointed to New College by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis voted on it a year ago. to abolish the university’s 30-year-old gender studies program.)
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According to a report from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University ProfessorsFormer US President and current President-elect Donald Trump laid the groundwork for such political attacks on college campuses when he denounced “divisive concepts” such as diversity, equity and inclusion in an executive order that he published in 2020. A conservative wave of state-level politics, led primarily by Republicans, has taken hold in many Southern states. State legislatures have passed or proposed laws targeting tenure and the teaching of controversial topics such as critical race theory, in order to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on publicly funded college campuses. the state. There have even been proposals to display the Bible’s Ten Commandments in university classrooms.
The AAUP survey, distributed by email and social media to teachers in 12 southeastern states, found that about 30 percent of teachers in that region were looking for jobs outside the region. Reasons cited included diminished academic freedom and lack of shared governance, state restrictions or bans on abortion, erosion of support for diversity, equity and inclusion policies, threats of tenure and harassment or doxxing (publishing personal information, such as addresses and cell phones). numbers, on the Internet without consent.
“Several faculty members at my institution have been doxxed and harassed, including by elected officials,” wrote one respondent, an instructor from Texas. “It makes it difficult for me to do my job or feel safe on campus or at home and live my life honestly.”
Threats to morale
The questions raised by survey respondents affect faculty members, whether they look elsewhere or stay put. The state of Georgia, for example, removed tenure protection in 2021. The University System of Georgia (USG), which governs public higher education in the state, made changes to post- mandate which facilitate the dismissal of tenured professors, according to the AAUP.
The rationale for these changes was to “ensure accountability and continued strong performance on the part of the system’s tenured faculty.” according to a US government statement. The AAUP condemned the decision, accusing the U.S. government of suppressing academic freedom.
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“It definitely affected morale,” says Joseph Fu, a mathematician at the University of Georgia in Athens. Fu did not respond to the AAUP survey, but says faculty members feel disrespected and unprotected. He is close to retirement, so he doesn’t worry about his own career, but he does worry about his younger colleagues. “There is a general skepticism about the administration and the extent to which it supports us.”
This view is consistent with the finding that 55% of respondents believe their institution’s administration does not support tenure or academic freedom.
Hollie Swanson, a pharmacologist at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine in Lexington, says the university’s administrative staff changed the faculty senate. from a decision-making body to a service body only in an advisory capacity in June. One reason for the change was that advisory senates were found to be the “clear and predominant standard” at other institutions reviewed by the administration, according to University of Kentucky spokesman Jay Blanton. He also said staff and students did not feel fully represented by the previous faculty senate.
This change, however, has sparked distrust and mistrust among teachers. “If your voice is only advisory, it can be easily dismissed. If you don’t have decision-making power, your voice isn’t effective,” Swanson says.