Interview: The AAUP’s Cary Nelson Goes to War

by E Wayne Ross on December 17, 2009

The Chronicle: The AAUP’s Cary Nelson Goes to War

It is an understatement to say Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, sees the nation’s faculty members as on the defensive. In No University Is an Island: Saving Academic Freedom, scheduled for publication by New York University Press in January, he argues that academic freedom verges on being a lost cause, shared governance is in retreat, and the professoriate is in danger of losing any semblance of job security in a work force dominated by underpaid adjunct faculty members. His response is to call for an all-out effort to win not just battles but the hearts and minds of other college employees—even students.