The mutual protection resolution has already passed the CSU Faculty Council and the Associated Students of CSU, and AAUP chapters throughout Colorado continue their efforts to build this important infrastructure to protect our institutions of higher education.
AAUP-CSU is pleased to announce that following discussions with President Parsons at Faculty Council on October 7, 2025, CSU administration has withdrawn their recent changes to the Freedom of Speech and Peaceful Assembly policy.
AAUP-CSU thanks all who took time to submit comments or postcards surrounding this policy and the more general topics of Academic Freedom and Shared Governance. Once again, we learn the power of unity:
When we Fight We Win.
But, we are not done fighting yet.
Unfortunately, withdrawing these policy changes was not soon enough to prevent a CSU student from being publicly harassed and intimidated with insults and threats by CSU officials for chalking on the LSC plaza on the afternoon of October 7, 2025. AAUP-CSU and representatives across campus were horrified to learn of this incident when they were discussed at faculty council. This injustice highlights the potential impacts and long-range consequences that poorly considered policies can have on employees and students.
The radical changes have been withdrawn this time, but…
Continued and increased faculty and student engagement is essential to ensure that administration meaningfully consult, in the spirit of shared governance, with affected parties before making policy changes that have such profound and lasting effects on our university and our community members.
Read more about the policy and AAUP-CSU’s advocacy response here:
In this video produced by AAUP TV, AAUP president Todd Wolfson, NYU Professor Chenjerai Kumanyika, and University of Pennsylvania Professor Lorena Grundy discuss why all universities should forcefully reject Trump’s loyalty oaths.
The Fifty-Fifth Senate of Associate Students of Colorado State University (ASCSU) passed Bill 5514 on September 24, 2025: Supporting an American Association of University Professors Fort Collins Initiative. The passage of this bill is a demonstration of ASCSU’s commitment to support the work of the AAUP, and a commitment to raise student voices to fight for change on campus.
This legislation furthers the relationship that the AAUP and ASCSU have built up over the past year. After discussion within the Senate, Bill 5514 ultimately passed with no dissent, highlighting the ASCSU Senate’s support for this initiative. Upon passage of the Bill, several ASCSU members helped the AAUP table in the plaza, and there is a strong interest from the Senate to table with the AAUP again to protect academic freedom, freedom of speech and student services at CSU.
In response to recent changes to CSU’s “Free Speech and Peaceful Assembly” policy (see “Revised Free Speech Policy Alarms Faculty and Students”), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE*) shares AAUP-CSU’s concerns that this fast-tracked policy revision
“…constitutes an impermissible restraint on faculty members’ speech and threatens to chill expression. As a public university system legally bound to protect community members’ First Amendment rights, CSU must revise this policy and allow faculty members to speak their minds freely.”
