This article was written entirely on PSU-YDSA's initiative, and not in collaboration with PSUFA. All statements of opinion in this article are purely of PSU-YDSA and not of PSUFA.
Since the wave of student encampments in 2024, largely referred to as the “student intifada” by Palestine solidarity activists, college campuses have taken steps to attempt to silence any anti-genocide and anti-imperialist speech. College administrations across the country have been lock-in-step with the new far-right, pro-genocide administration in the white house, who have taken steps to attempt to deport students.
Earlier this year this was seen with Mahmoud Khalil, an immigrant with Palestinian heritage who was active in the Columbia encampment, was detained by ICE for several months, despite no criminal record and having legally entered the United States. Originally, the immigration court had sided with ICE[1], claiming that his actions were “antisemitic”, and that it undermined the foreign policy of the United States (that is, the policy of ethnic cleansing).
While the ruling was later overturned, it nonetheless showed that nobody can any longer rely on the courts of the capitalist state to uphold basic democratic rights. In an environment as hostile to democratic rights as our current one, it's completely understandable that PSUFA would take steps to strengthen their contract language on academic freedom. Their original contract language from back in 2021 had very weak language, so naturally for this year, having seen the harsh crackdowns on academic freedom and freedom of speech both under the Biden and Trump administrations, they believed that bargaining for stronger protections would be necessary.
Changes to the contract were aimed primarily to achieve four things: the security of freedom of discussion when broadly relevant to the subject, no requirements to use artificial intelligence in the creation of class materials or to evaluate a student’s work, allow the display and publication of the work of a student done under adjunct faculty with the consent of and appropriate attribution to the student, and the ability to engage in forms of political expression without censorship or discipline, with it being clear that the opinions are of the adjuncts and not of the University.
When the changes to academic freedom were proposed at a bargaining session on May 2nd of 2025, the administration outright refused to bargain over academic freedom, saying that they would merely consider it at a later time. Two observers from PSU-YDSA were present that day, and we believed that in the midst of an administration launching attacks on working people and their democratic rights, it was unacceptable to not even bargain over the issue of academic freedom. We circled around a petition to guarantee academic freedom, although had little chance to get signatures as the year was coming to an end.
Since the initial meeting, there has only been one other time where the article on academic freedom was discussed, on the June 18th bargaining session[2]. During that meeting, the administration, to quote PSUFA’s report back, “fully rejected PSUFA’s Article 6 Academic Freedom … Instead of engaging meaningfully with PSUFA’s proposal, management simply copied AAUP’s academic freedom article and maintained the provision in our current contract that academic freedom cannot be grieved. Any language on academic freedom that is not grievable has no contractual force and is only symbolic.”
It has been made clear from ongoing bargaining that the fight for academic freedom will be a long and hard fight, one that the PSU administration does not care for the urgency of. To win this, students and workers across the University will need to unite, and fight for their basic, democratic rights.
On October 17th, PSUFA will be having a bargaining session from 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. in the Richard and Maurine Neuberger Center. PSU-YDSA will be present, and we encourage all students who want their rights respected to attend either virtually or in-person, and RSVP for it.
[1] - Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil Can Be Deported, by Adrian Florido, NPR
[2] - Bargaining Recap 6/18/25, by PSUFA
[3] - The RSVP link for the next bargaining session can be found on PSUFA's blog post titled Fighting For Benefits and "Common Good" Articles, by PSUFA
Since the wave of student encampments in 2024, largely referred to as the “student intifada” by Palestine solidarity activists, college campuses have taken steps to attempt to silence any anti-genocide and anti-imperialist speech. College administrations across the country have been lock-in-step with the new far-right, pro-genocide administration in the white house, who have taken steps to attempt to deport students.
Earlier this year this was seen with Mahmoud Khalil, an immigrant with Palestinian heritage who was active in the Columbia encampment, was detained by ICE for several months, despite no criminal record and having legally entered the United States. Originally, the immigration court had sided with ICE[1], claiming that his actions were “antisemitic”, and that it undermined the foreign policy of the United States (that is, the policy of ethnic cleansing).
While the ruling was later overturned, it nonetheless showed that nobody can any longer rely on the courts of the capitalist state to uphold basic democratic rights. In an environment as hostile to democratic rights as our current one, it's completely understandable that PSUFA would take steps to strengthen their contract language on academic freedom. Their original contract language from back in 2021 had very weak language, so naturally for this year, having seen the harsh crackdowns on academic freedom and freedom of speech both under the Biden and Trump administrations, they believed that bargaining for stronger protections would be necessary.
Changes to the contract were aimed primarily to achieve four things: the security of freedom of discussion when broadly relevant to the subject, no requirements to use artificial intelligence in the creation of class materials or to evaluate a student’s work, allow the display and publication of the work of a student done under adjunct faculty with the consent of and appropriate attribution to the student, and the ability to engage in forms of political expression without censorship or discipline, with it being clear that the opinions are of the adjuncts and not of the University.
When the changes to academic freedom were proposed at a bargaining session on May 2nd of 2025, the administration outright refused to bargain over academic freedom, saying that they would merely consider it at a later time. Two observers from PSU-YDSA were present that day, and we believed that in the midst of an administration launching attacks on working people and their democratic rights, it was unacceptable to not even bargain over the issue of academic freedom. We circled around a petition to guarantee academic freedom, although had little chance to get signatures as the year was coming to an end.
Since the initial meeting, there has only been one other time where the article on academic freedom was discussed, on the June 18th bargaining session[2]. During that meeting, the administration, to quote PSUFA’s report back, “fully rejected PSUFA’s Article 6 Academic Freedom … Instead of engaging meaningfully with PSUFA’s proposal, management simply copied AAUP’s academic freedom article and maintained the provision in our current contract that academic freedom cannot be grieved. Any language on academic freedom that is not grievable has no contractual force and is only symbolic.”
It has been made clear from ongoing bargaining that the fight for academic freedom will be a long and hard fight, one that the PSU administration does not care for the urgency of. To win this, students and workers across the University will need to unite, and fight for their basic, democratic rights.
On October 17th, PSUFA will be having a bargaining session from 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. in the Richard and Maurine Neuberger Center. PSU-YDSA will be present, and we encourage all students who want their rights respected to attend either virtually or in-person, and RSVP for it.
[1] - Judge Rules Mahmoud Khalil Can Be Deported, by Adrian Florido, NPR
[2] - Bargaining Recap 6/18/25, by PSUFA
[3] - The RSVP link for the next bargaining session can be found on PSUFA's blog post titled Fighting For Benefits and "Common Good" Articles, by PSUFA