Updated: April 19, 2025, at 3:53 p.m.

A group of faculty announced the creation of a chapter of a national organization focused on advancing academic freedom and shared governance for university researchers and educators on Thursday.

The chapter is a member of the national branch of the American Association of University Professors, a nonprofit membership association with the mission of maintaining academic freedom in higher education. Members of the chapter said they hope the group brings “tangible” change to the University as a voice for academic freedom amid President Donald Trump’s “encroachment” onto campuses and federal funding threats to universities nationwide.

Dara Orenstein, an associate professor of American studies and the president of the GW AAUP chapter, said having a space for faculty to discuss issues and understand the inner workings of GW is necessary to be more “equipped” to improve the University.

“This is an umbrella of faculty from all parts of the University and all ranks and ideally, working to address faculty needs, I think, in the most concrete ways possible,” Orenstein said.

Orenstein said the chapter might hold trainings for faculty over the summer and that she is currently working with students to create a website for the chapter.

“I’m excited about the prospects of a kind of active, frequently updated and kind of even somewhat dialogical website,” Orenstein said. “Maybe it will include, eventually, a whole password-protected section where you need an account and where we would be able to communicate with each other and see a directory.”

Orenstein said the chapter has drafted bylaws and elected executive committee officers within the past few weeks and that the AAUP will officially recognize the GW chapter at a national meeting in June. She said the chapter currently has 60 members on its listserv and that the group plans to host a “large” meeting before the end of the academic year.

Orenstein said some faculty at the University have been a part of the AAUP “for years” as individual members. She said the AAUP has been “vibrant” within the past year and that a lot of faculty nationally have created AAUP chapters at their respective universities in response to the Trump administration’s executive actions on higher education within the past few months.

“People I’m re-encountering, among academics, we’re all kind of suddenly, ‘Okay, doing the AAUP thing,’” Orenstein said. “So it’s a moment nationally, for sure, and so it’s exciting.”

In a press release shared with The Hatchet, the chapter states that it advocates for academic freedom at the University and across the nation. The press release states that GW must maintain and extend its commitments to academic freedom, free speech, community members’ “social engagement” and service to the D.C. area instead of “acquiescing” to “astounding” federal overreach.

“GW and its sister institutions across the nation must resist any such attempts to forestall dissent, eliminate broad swaths of faculty research, or curtail pedagogy and curricula,” the press release states.

Orenstein said she and a few chapter members were a part of the GWU Faculty Association, a forum for full-time faculty members formed in 2014 to share their concerns about University-wide policies as an alternative to the Faculty Senate. She said they thought about reviving the group last fall after it “fizzled” and went “dormant.”

The group was last active on X in Sept. 2021 and unpublished its website sometime after July 2023, according to web archives.

She said after the pro-Palestinian encampment in University Yard last spring, she had conversations with faculty association members about the future of the organization and possibly reviving the organization. She said during her discussions, some members had the idea to start an AAUP chapter at the University.

“I think that was happening this fall, because, well, after the encampment, the campus feels more, it feels altered. It feels like there are more possibilities and we can envision it now thanks to the students at the encampment,” Orenstein said.

Orenstein said it is necessary for faculty to create a chapter at GW because of the University’s proximity to the White House due to Trump’s threats. She said the chapter is currently paying attention to the University’s response to federal agencies’ revocation of student visas.

Orenstein said she wants the chapter to be a voice for issues like academic freedom at the University, as well as a problem-solving tool for faculty. She said the “time is right” for a new mechanism of faculty dialogue with University administration and the Faculty Senate because any “healthy” institution needs a “continuous renewal” of connections.

“We want to weigh in, and we’ll be doing so, but also we want to be useful to faculty, right?” Orenstein said. “So there’s also this kind of effort, just to be identifying problems on the ground and in the University, or whatever, to just kind of be part of problem solving in the very situations that come up, especially now.”

The chapter endorsed a March 20 letter titled, “We Must Leverage the Strength of Our Institutions and Stand Together,” written by faculty across the United States, asking the leadership of 60 universities — who received a letter on March 10 from the Department of Education stating that they were under investigation for antisemitic discrimination and harassment — to protect higher education against President Donald Trump’s administration’s encroachment on academic freedom and institutional autonomy as well as its intimidation of international students and interference in curriculum.

The chapter also endorsed “GW Jewish Faculty’s Letter to President Granberg” from March 30, where Jewish and Israeli faculty called on University President Ellen Granberg to defend the University’s academic community against the Trump administration, specifically citing concerns for minority communities with the planned visit from the U.S. Department of Justice antisemitism task force.

“In the name of protecting Jews it will demand actions that run counter to our deeply held values, and that will make us feel less rather than more safe, as they exacerbate tensions and endanger the very freedoms that protect all minority communities, including our own,” the letter to Granberg states.

GW was one of 10 universities accused by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in October 2024 of failing to sufficiently discipline pro-Palestinian protesters who violated University policies following an investigation into antisemitism on college campuses.

Erin Chapman, an associate professor of history and the chapter’s vice president, said the Trump administration’s “unprecedented attacks” on universities, like threats to freeze federal funding at Columbia University last month and Harvard University earlier this week, prompted the chapter’s formation.

The press release shared with The Hatchet states the University should not “bend” to the Trump administration’s attempts to control public discourse and “eliminate credible dissent,” through its efforts to “dictate” research topics, defund liberal arts curricula and terminate departments. The press release further calls on the University to follow Harvard University’s refusal to accept proposed policy changes from the administration.

“As recent events have made abundantly clear, acquiescence only invites additional encroachment, further defunding, increased oversight, and deeper bad faith in the pursuit of a university’s scholarly and pedagogical mission,” the press release reads.

Chapman said the chapter is currently working to recruit faculty and that all faculty have a “vested” interest in maintaining academic freedom.

“We hope the GW faculty across the university will join us to make clear our shared commitment to this principle,” Chapman wrote in an email.

This post was updated to clarify the following:

This post was updated to clarify that the former Faculty Association thought about restarting the group last fall and that the AAUP chapter drafted bylaws and elected executive committee officers in the past weeks. This post was also updated to include a link to the letter sent by Jewish faculty to Granberg.