NFA will defend faculty who are targeted or accused of VIOLATING UNJUST policIES
The 2020s may be remembered on college and university campuses as the years when many of the longest-standing bedrock principles of the American higher education model came under sustained attack. The siege is rooted in the ideology of the extreme right-wing groups who lobby to influence laws and policies and to support like-minded candidates for legislative and governing board seats across the nation, including Nevada. It remains to be seen if faculty will fend off the attacks.
You are not mistaken or paranoid if your perception is that these efforts are partisan, coordinated, and targeted. Isaac Kamola, the director of AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, recently published a comprehensive report, Manufacturing Backlash, Right Wing Think Tanks and Legislative Attacks on Higher Education, investigating the sources and strategy behind these attacks. It reveals that a small group of think tanks promote shared political objectives by pushing the same messaging and amplifying each other's work to create the false impression of legitimacy and whip up moral outrage targeted at higher education, and mostly, at faculty. For example, this disinformation led many legislators and policymakers to see critical race theory (CRT) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as divisive topics requiring regulation, or worse, prohibition. They subsequently introduce bills based on model legislation developed and promoted by this network. From 2021 to 2023, over 150 bills, based on models developed by these think tanks, were introduced across the United States. This number, however, does not include the number of model-based policies submitted to governing boards of regents/trustees.
Although multiple think tanks are involved, they share many of the same board members who direct their activities. For example, a LittleSis search of conservative activist Christopher Rufo reveals that he is a board member at the New College of Florida, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, director of the Discovery Institute's Center on Wealth, Poverty, and Morality, and has held (or currently holds) positions at a fellow at both the Claremont Institute and the Heritage Foundation, an adjunct fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, and a contributor to the Federalist Society. It's very likely that he is a major contributor to the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.
Working almost exclusively with Republican politicians, these groups are actively bringing the culture war to campuses and manufacturing a backlash against faculty and the autonomy of academic institutions. The strategy is not arbitrary and it is often racist. It has been honed by these highly partisan think tanks to not only have a chilling effect on faculty, but to also encourage governing bodies to curtail academic freedom and institutional autonomy by weakening tenure and accreditation.
Some members of the Nevada Board of Regents embrace this dogma. By making restrictive policy proposals advanced by this network, and even inviting one of the participating think tanks to make a presentation on higher education governance, these Regents expose themselves as partisans who are hostile to faculty rights and higher education values. Unfortunately, they sometimes succeed despite vigorous opposition from NFA and other campus groups.
The Nevada Faculty Alliance will continue to zealously oppose any and all efforts to erode faculty rights and protections, or diminish the foundational principles that made the American higher education model the global gold standard. NFA will actively defend these fundamental rights for all our members, and by extension, all others in the profession. If you or a colleague experience discipline, retaliation, or any other adverse employment actions based upon these ill-advised policies or activities, please contact an NFA officer on your campus. You can find more information at NevadaFacultyAlliance.org.
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