AAUP documents unprecedented wave of state anti-DEI and anti-tenure legislation threatening shared governance

The American Association of University Professors published an analysis documenting that the 2021 to 2025 period had produced more state legislation affecting higher education tenure, DEI programs, curriculum, and governance than any comparable period in American history. The AAUP counted active anti-DEI laws in more than 20 states, post-tenure review changes in at least 10 states, and dozens of bills that gave governors and appointed boards additional power over faculty appointments and curriculum. The cumulative effect of these legislative changes was to shift authority over academic programs, hiring, and firing from faculty and academic administrators — selected through peer processes — to politically appointed boards and elected officials. The AAUP noted that shared governance, the principle that faculty have primary authority over academic matters, had been formally eroded in multiple states.