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UNCW faculty start an American Association of University Professors chapter

WHQR | By Rachel Keith

Published August 22, 2025 at 10:48 AM EDT

Some University of North Carolina at Wilmington faculty are establishing a chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The tenured leaders of the group say they’re establishing it in part to protect their academic freedom.

Film studies professor Dr. Todd Berliner is the president of the new AAUP chapter.

“We started a chapter here because of the recent assault and attacks on university professors right now, which has reached a kind of fever pitch. Politicians are literally accusing us of indoctrinating students, and the threats to academic freedom and shared governments are like never before,” he said.

Berliner referenced the UNC Board of Governors’ institutional neutrality policy, passed last year, which bars the university from taking positions on current political and social issues — and the recently formed compliance committees tasked with ensuring the elimination of DEI initiatives. He said the UNC System is increasingly controlled by politicians and not necessarily by academics with expertise and knowledge.

There's also been pressure from the Trump administration on both public and private colleges and universities to avoid 'woke' topics, including DEI. Trump's highest profile battles have been with Harvard, but there's been a groundswell of conservative groups seeking to "out" faculty and staff who are allegedly attempting to circumvent anti-DEI policies. As The Assembly reported last month, that's been part of growing uneasiness and confusion for professors.

Just this week, The Daily Tarheel reported a subsidiary of The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, had filed an extensive public records request for syllabi and class materials containing the terms "DEI," "LGBTQ+" and "anti-racism" from almost 80 courses in nearly 30 departments at UNC Chapel Hill. The request's author told The Daily Tarheel their goal was to see if universities were complying with the Trump administration's executive orders on DEI.

Dr. Jill Waity is a professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology. She’s also the vice president of the new chapter. Dr. Amanda Boomershine is the secretary and treasurer.

Waity said she joined to preserve academic freedom and tenure — a title system that provides additional job security and protections.

“Challenging [academic freedom and tenure] really changes the way everything operates, and it's not good for the universities. It's not good for students,” she said.

Waity serves on the statewide Faculty Assembly, which advises the UNC Board of Governors — she said many of the board’s directives are unclear.

“Different universities are acting in different ways, so I think we're sort of living in this confusing time where people don't know exactly what is going on,” she said.

Berliner added that because of the vagueness of these directives, “university professors and universities are complying in advance without being forced to do so, changing course titles, changing curriculum, deleting readings on race, gender, class, canceling guest speakers that they think might draw the ire of the North Carolina government. This is exactly the situation that in a free democracy you want to avoid.”

Another issue of concern is the discussion around the UNC System’s decision to move to a new accrediting body, something that Berliner said he sees as a political move instead of maintaining their current independent review organization, which is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Peter Hans, the system’s president, said he views it in terms of the state having more control over its processes and evaluations.

Waity said that, through her training with AAUP over the summer, she saw where the national chapter can help. She said they supported getting some UNC professors' tenure approved.

“There were also 30 university professors whose tenure was being held up because the Board of Trustees at Chapel Hill was delaying their tenure. And there's debate about this, but there seemed to be a political motivation, and AAUP stepped in and helped to rectify that. So those 30 professors are now tenured, and by the way, it was just the [UNC] Board of Trustees that was holding that up, especially people who had been vocally anti-tenure,” she said.

Berliner said their AAUP chapter, which held its first meeting in August, and will be chartered at the national meeting in September, has representation from the six academic divisions on campus — and has 44 members going into the school year. His goal is to have hundreds of members after two semesters, and hopes that eventually a majority of UNCW’s over 1,100 faculty will join.

Their focus isn’t necessarily collective bargaining, which is illegal for state employees under NC law, but asserting their rights as academics and employees of the UNC System. And they’re looking forward to working with other AAUP chapters at Duke University, NC State, and UNC.

Berliner added he doesn’t expect administrative pushback, but said he’s not naive.

“I would be really horrified if that were to happen, although I do expect that there could be some vitriol coming at us individually from politicians or from people in the public. But AAUP isn't some underground organization, right? This is an organization that's been around since 1915,” he said.

Berliner said founding the chapter serves to educate faculty about where the boundaries are when it comes to UNC’s elimination of DEI. He said there is a lot of overcompliance with the new rules — and that faculty have a constitutional right to affiliation and assembly.

“I do know that there's self-censorship going on at the faculty level. There are faculty who are changing their syllabi because they are concerned. I've heard from one untenured faculty member who said he's afraid to join AAUP, the local chapter, because he's afraid that that affiliation might damage his tenure prospects,” Berliner said.

The AAUP chapter leaders made it clear that they were speaking for themselves and not on behalf of the university. They said that, while the working environment is difficult — they advise faculty to comply with UNC’s directives and policies to keep their jobs. But the trick, they say, is not to over-comply or unnecessarily self-censor — and to be willing to voice their concerns.

They also added that through this chapter convening, they would be able to advocate for the continuation of federal and state grant funding in support of their research on campus — and to keep their research preserved on public databases.

Berliner added he wants faculty to know that no one is coming to "save them" from potential threats to academic freedom.

“Because we are facing overwhelming power, and the only way we can fight that is through collective action, to join in groups and find a way to assert our rights as faculty, not just on our own behalf, but on the behalf of the university system and on behalf of the education of our students,” he said.

In a statement, Sydney Bouchelle, UNCW’s media and communications specialist, said it welcomed feedback from faculty and remained committed to academic freedom. UNCW denied that anything in the new statewide policies presented an “unreasonable restriction on protected free expression,” but acknowledged the process could cause "confusion and concern."

Despite UNCW's insistence that the new policies shouldn't inhibit academic freedom or professors' ability to conduct and discuss academic research, directives from the UNC Board of Governors, perhaps taken with a growing political climate of hostility towards institutions, has at times appeared to have a chilling effect.

Earlier this year, UNCW General Counsel John Scherer told WHQR that faculty can speak on topics that are controversial if it’s based on their research. The UNC System neutrality policy, though, would prevent deans and those in upper administration from speaking on those topics in their official capacity, because their position implies they are speaking for a specific college or the university.

For example, following an interview last fall, Watson College of Education Dean Tracy Linderholm told WHQR she could not discuss how private school vouchers are affecting public education. Bouchelle, who accompanied Linderholm, cited the UNC neutrality policy, but didn't elaborate on the extent to which it barred administrators from commenting. Could Linderholm have pointed to contemporary academic research being done at UNCW or elsewhere? It remained unclear.

However, it's not clear if anyone at UNCW is looking into the contentious issue of public school funding. When WHQR contacted Watson College with questions about the topic, the university said they had no one who could address it.

While AAUP leaders acknowledged that faculty, even without the UNC System directives, should speak professionally with their colleagues, the public, and their students, Waity confirmed that since she is chair of her department, she would avoid controversial policy debates unless, again, it was based on her research.

“UNCW is teaching students to think critically, so that's really what we're focusing on. And, our discipline, for example, in sociology, everything is based on research, so we're presenting facts. Here is clear evidence of this inequality; we're not making stuff up. Like, here's what we see in the numbers,” Waity said.

Berliner added, “We're professionals. We don't opine; we don't speak on issues that are not within our expertise. And the danger here is that if we have to avoid what the legislature and the Board of Governors is calling divisive issues, then you're restricting that speech.”

In March, WHQR spoke with Jenna Dick, UNCW’s health equity program manager, who also confirmed she has to be careful how she discusses her work.

“As we were developing the research for our [UNCW health equity summit], and just different ways of having to phrase things, it's challenging, because I feel like there were a number of years where we were making a lot of progress in being more inclusive and trying to make sure that everyone was represented, and that's still always our goal, but we kind of have to be a little bit strategic about it,” Dick said.

Berliner is also nervous. As university professors, they can’t compel any student or colleague to believe in anything, but he’s confused about where the line is.

“If I were to draw comparisons between what was going on then [through film in terms of the Red Scare], and what's going on now, in the classroom that might be touchy. I don't know how far I can go in that direction. There certainly are comparisons, but am I allowed to draw them? This is the problem with these new directives,” he said.

This conversation isn’t new to the New Hanover County School system. For example, high school teachers, even college-level AP educators, cannot read or discuss the book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. This message of not connecting the past with the present has been reiterated by, for example, the former head of the GOP, Nevin Carr, and even Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger. They've argued racism is a relic of the past and should be taught as such, saying it’s inappropriate to draw parallels to the present day.

The AAUP professors believe education shouldn’t be what Berliner calls “a political environment,” but the tide appears to have shifted.

“Our job is to present our understanding based on factual information, and global warming, for example, is factual. It doesn't matter that there is political opposition to it. It is a factual event that is occurring in our world, right? There isn't any scientific disagreement about it,” Berliner said.

Current political leaders, including some of those serving on the UNC System Board of Governors, UNCW Board of Trustees, and even the local NHC school board, argue that their recent directives and/or decisions are taking highly charged politics out of the educational system. But there remains confusion over what counts as 'political,' and the interpretation is largely up to those who are currently in power.

UNCW faculty start an American Association of University Professors chapter

Some University of North Carolina at Wilmington faculty are establishing a chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The tenured leaders of the group say they’re establishing it in part to protect their academic freedom.

Prior reporting on the UNC System and speech, tenure, and academic freedom