Author's Note:  I wrote this piece before reading this opinion published in August by Inside Higher Education, It’s Been More Than 50 Years Since the AAUPRevised Its Statement on Academic Freedom. Although the author and I are on almost the same page regarding what needs to be done, I believe that the entire academy needs to come together to reclaim acadmic freedom and preserve self-governance just as they did 50 plus years ago.  The 1940 statement wasn't developed by or endorsed by the AAUP alone. And, a 2025 statement shouldn't be either.

It’s Time for Higher Education to Reclaim Academic Freedom

The institutions that defined academic freedom in 1940 must come together again to protect it in 2025.

In 1940, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Association of American Colleges (AAC, now the AAC&U) met in Washington, D.C., to finalize what became the Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The Statement was the product of 25 years of organized, principled debate among higher education leaders who understood that universities cannot serve democracy unless they are free to pursue truth without interference.

The Statement became the foundation for faculty contracts and institutional policy nationwide. It defined the balance between individual inquiry and institutional authority. It articulated why tenure exists, not as a lifetime benefit, but as a structural guarantee that knowledge could be pursued and taught without fear of reprisal.

A legacy of self-governance

The lineage of the 1940 Statement begins in 1915, when John Dewey, the first president of the AAUP, appointed the Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure. They wrote the 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. The message was radical for its time: professors were not employees in service to trustees or donors but members of a learned profession, accountable to scholarly standards rather than political or financial pressure.

A decade later, in 1925, the American Council on Education (ACE) convened a Washington conference to translate that vision into a more concise, practical statement. The 1925 Conference Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure bridged the gap between ideals and governance.

Between 1934 and 1940, the AAUP and the AAC held joint conferences to reconcile the 1915 and 1925 texts. The final 1940 version defined academic freedom in teaching, research, and extramural speech and made tenure its essential safeguard. It was an act of professional self-governance: a declaration that academic freedom was too vital to be left to courts, politicians, or donors.

That independence gave the 1940 Statement its authority. It was not imposed by government or negotiated through litigation. It reflected the conviction that the academy could govern itself according to principles of reason, evidence, and professional duty. It provided the foundation on which the U.S. Supreme Court rested its landmark McCarthy-era decisions protecting academic freedom and prohibiting government-mandated loyalty oaths for professors.

The challenge of 2025

Eighty-five years later, higher education faces a new test of that independence. The Trump Administration’s proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education seeks to bind universities to federal conditions in the name of free speech. Beneath the language of “protection,” the Compact redefines academic freedom as compliance—requiring institutions to certify adherence to political criteria for funding eligibility

The danger is the shift in power the Compact implies. If Washington becomes the arbiter of academic freedom, the academy ceases to be self-governing. The lesson of 1940 is that freedom in scholarship depends not on political favor but on professional integrity and shared standards.

That integrity is now under siege from multiple directions. Legislatures attempt to dictate curricula. Donors fund research that reflects ideology more than inquiry. Online harassment campaigns intimidate faculty. University administrators often act instead as risk managers, weighing reputational or financial exposure over principle.

Academic freedom no longer erodes in sudden purges. It dissolves through compliance, silence, and convenience.

The case for a new statement

While the AAC&U and Phi Beta Kappa have issued Higher Education’s Compact with America and ACE and others have opposed the Trump Compact, what is needed is a comprehensive commitment and concerted action by the broadest constituency possible to restore trust in the academy and with the public. The ACE, the AAC&U, and the AAUP should convene a joint conference to draft a 2025 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Public Responsibility inviting participation from the full range of the academy’s institutions and constituencies.

A modern statement must:
1. Reaffirm academic freedom as a professional right grounded in scholarly expertise, not political allegiance.
2. Recommit institutions to the protection of free expression in laboratories, classrooms and on campus within the bounds of evidence and discipline, and without regard to political favor or cause

3. Define tenure as a commitment to integrity and public trust, not job security.

4. Address new threats—digital surveillance, contingent labor, and algorithmic control of speech—that the 1940 authors could not have foreseen.

 

Such a statement would not merely restate old principles. It would reassert that the academy remains capable of governing itself. The legitimacy of higher education depends on that capacity—and on the courage to exercise it.

The architects of the 1940 Statement faced political pressure, financial vulnerability, and deep internal division. Yet they reached agreement because they understood what was at stake: the moral authority of truth. That same responsibility now rests with today’s academic leaders. If ACE, the AAC&U, and the AAUP do not take it up, politicians, donors, and bureaucrats will gladly take it from them.

**Author Bio:**  Claire Guthrie Gastañaga is a former Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia responsible for legal services to Virginia colleges, a Fellow in Higher Education Law recognized by the National Association of College and University Attorneys and former interim president of Chatham College (now University).