Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signed into law a large spending adjustment stripping $18 million from Iowa’s three public universities this budget year. Referring to a multitude of attacks on higher education in Iowa and elsewhere, AAUP's Joerg Tiede said, “The concern is that these are attacks on the role that higher education plays in supporting democracy...the very important role that universities have as spaces where ideas can be explored, where dissent can occur, and where the truth can be investigated."

Online harassment of academics is nothing new. But the increasing trend following the 2016 elections, many targeted faculty members sharing stories in recent months, and with political winds blowing in a decidedly anti-science direction, the AAUP released a statement condemning actions like those taken against professors like Joseph Palermo, a history professor at Sacramento State University.

The AAUP issued a statement—in part crafted by Penn State University scientist Michael Mann, who has come under severe attack for his research on climate change—urging universities, governing boards, and faculties to defend academic freedom and condemn targeted harassment and intimidation of faculty. “We cannot tolerate bad-faith smear campaigns and attacks on academics whose findings or views might seem threatening to powerful interest groups,” Mann said. Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher and Temple University faculty union president Arthur Hochner weigh in.