We hope you enjoy this issue of The AAUPdate! If you are a member of our chapter, you’ll get these updates regularly in your inbox. If you’re not a member, you are invited to subscribe to receive these updates by email. Please also feel free to forward this along to colleagues! Past issues of the newsletter are online.
Election announcement + request for (self) nominations
The current Executive Committee’s term will end this May, and we are looking for nominations and self-nominations for all elected positions: president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and two at-large members. Roles and responsibilities for individual members of the Executive Committee and for the Committee as a whole are described in our bylaws. The Executive Committee serves for two years.
If you wish to nominate yourself or someone else, or have questions about any of the positions, please email [email protected]. All messages will be kept in strict confidence.
AAUP@CU Chapter Committee Activities:
★ Over the past several weeks, the Organizing Committee has been strengthening the chapter’s capacity, sharpening organizing skills, and expanding outreach in support of our Board of Trustees (BOT) Reform campaign and broader faculty power-building. Please sign up here to help out and learn more about the BOT Reform Campaign.
Several upcoming and ongoing activities to be aware of:
BOT Reform Flyering on Campus: In collaboration with students, our members have posted flyers across campus to highlight the need for open nominations and direct elections of BOT members. If you would like to help with flyering, meet us at the Sundial on the following dates!
Thursday, February 12 at 1:00 PM
Thursday, February 26 at 7:00 PM
Core Skills Trainings: Members participated in Core Skills sessions focused on leadership identification, power mapping, and effective outreach. These trainings emphasize how curiosity and care for each other can serve as the foundation for our work together. Core Skills training will continue throughout the semester. In January, the OC participated in national and regional AAUP policy planning discussions.
Alumni Outreach: The OC is participating in an alumni engagement strategy, including identifying point people, drafting outreach materials, and encouraging members to reconnect with former students. If you are an alum and would like to get involved, please write to [email protected].
Don’t Sleep on Syllabus Statements! It is not too late to add the academic freedom statement in your syllabus for the Spring semester. Faculty who choose to participate are invited to complete a brief form so we can aggregate how many instructors across the University have included the statement in their materials. You do not need to be a member of AAUP to participate.
Follow CU AAUP on Instagram @cuaaup: Keep the momentum going! Get updates on actions, victories, and ways to plug in. Don’t miss a thing - follow us today!
★ The Communications Committee continues to work on opinion pieces in support of our chapter’s campaign to Reform Columbia’s Board of Trustees. It also is collaborating with the Organizing Committee on preparing Instagram posts and videos related to the campaign.
★ A report-back from the Senate Committee: at the Feb. 6, 2026, Senate meeting, the Senate Executive Chair used the Chair’s Report to underscore concerns that shared governance is being weakened. Chair D’Armiento cited an erosion of “robust and meaningful shared governance,” increasing concentration of authority within the executive administration, and reduced engagement of statutory faculty governance bodies. The Chair also flagged related transparency/process concerns (including the delayed circulation of a president-initiated Senate review report) and raised broader institutional accountability issues, including concerns prompted by recently released Epstein-related documents naming several CU-related faculty and leaders. President Shipman's response was negative on procedural grounds; she stated that this was not an appropriate forum for such comments without giving the administration advance notice and an opportunity to prepare a rebuttal.
Here we reproduce the full remarks by Senate Executive Committee Chair Jeanine D’Armiento:
First, I would like to congratulate President-designate Jennifer Mnookin and to welcome her to Columbia. We look forward to her joining us on July 1. We recognize the hard work of the search committee, and we are excited to work with the president-designate’s team and to contribute to her being informed and supported as she joins Columbia. The Executive Committee leadership will be meeting with President-designate Mnookin over the coming months. Please feel free to email us any suggestions or concerns that you would like conveyed to her. We are grateful to Acting President Claire Shipman for guiding us through this interim period and for her engagement with the University Senate and wider community.
As I express our optimism over this appointment, I feel that it is also incumbent upon me to share with the community my concern over the state of our shared governance. Despite assurances to the contrary, we continue to note the erosion of shared governance in our institution and the increasing scope and pace of executive decision making.
First, with regard to the review of the University Senate, launched in April 2025 by President Shipman, I would like to provide an update. In late November, the review committee shared its draft report with the Executive Committee, requesting that we identify any inaccuracies, and we provided our comments within the week. We have been informed that the review committee submitted its final report in late December. Over a month later, we have not received the report or had the opportunity to discuss findings.
When we do receive the report, we look forward to considering this with you in committee and in the plenary.
We await also the release of the external investigator’s report into the Hadden matter. Called for by the University Senate in October 2023 and commissioned by then President Shafik and Dean Armstrong in November 2023, this critical report is long overdue.
This week, we have been reminded of the critical nature of this report. Documents released in the Epstein case are deeply disturbing and demand our collective attention. This moment calls for us to reflect on the failings of our institutions, on the capture and corruption of our institutions, and on our shared responsibility to protect individuals and institutions. Too often, public discourse focuses narrowly on the absence of proven illegality in ways that risk obscuring our broader moral responsibility.
These documents raise profoundly troubling concerns over the involvement of Columbia affiliates with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender. While much is unknown at the present moment, we have a clear moral obligation as a University to understand, reflect, and enact meaningful change when wrongdoing has occurred. We must hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards. We are acutely aware of the consequences when institutions fail in this responsibility. We are committed to addressing these concerns with seriousness, integrity and transparency. We will ask difficult questions, seek clear answers, and consider concrete reforms.
Returning to our institution’s governance, we see ever greater concentrations of authority into the hands of the executive administration, with fewer constraints on this authority and diminishing efforts to engage in the shared governance structures set out in the University Statutes.
We recognize the challenges facing our institution. Considering how best to respond will require the collective efforts of the University’s most informed and committed members, drawn from across our schools and constituencies. Narrow executive decision making is ill-suited to and inadequate for the task at hand.
The matters that must be considered widely and carefully include:
- The structure of our student body and the implications of changes to this structure, including expansion of the undergraduate population, the requirement that we reduce our financial reliance on international students, and the importance of graduate students in teaching and research.
- The structure of our faculty, with the halving of the tenure track share of the total faculty (full-time) over the past two decades, concerns that the role and contributions of our off-track faculty be appropriately recognized, and reconsideration of academic freedom in our institution and others.
- The research mission of the university as models and amounts of federal funding change and become less predictable and as international researchers look elsewhere.
- The rebuilding of trust and communication.
It is incumbent upon me to inform the community that there continues to be an erosion of shared governance at Columbia: unelected parallel bodies whose memberships is determined unilaterally revise policies without consultation.
This pattern of creating parallel committees, issuing reports, and implementing decisions, all without consultation or consensus, threatens our academic structures and the strength of our scholarly mission. We urge the administration to return to a collaborative model of governance. We urge all members of our community to remain engaged and attentive, understanding how much is at stake.
The next Senate Plenary will be held in person: Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM, at Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway, New York, NY). Register Here.
Relevant News & Links:
AAUP v. Rubio attorney Alexandra Conlon breaks down non-citizen free speech (The Scarlet and Black)
“Viewpoint diversity” isn't about viewpoint diversity (Stanford Daily)