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Friday, June 19, 2026

Straws in the Wind - Part 377

From Inside Higher Ed: The Auburn University Board of Trustees... gave itself complete control over course offerings, curriculum, degree requirements and academic credentials while eliminating shared governance at the Alabama land-grant university. Faculty say they have serious concerns about the policies and a host of unanswered questions about what the changes will mean in practice. The two policies, passed unanimously without discussion, mimic what Alabama House Bill 580 will require of other public institutions when it takes effect in October. As a land-grant institution created and governed by the state Constitution, Auburn isn’t explicitly bound by the law, but lawmakers have made veiled threats to punish noncompliance anyway by withholding state funding for offending institutions. The university appears to be taking a page out of Texas public institutions’ playbook by pre-emptively overcomplying with new state law, experts say.

...The existing Faculty Senate is dissolved. It already held an advisory-only role, but its replacement—the Presidential Academic Advisory Council—“is a shift from faculty-led governance to administratively controlled consultation,” the Auburn American Association of University Professors chapter wrote in a statement. The council will “provide advice and perspective, at the President’s request and direction, on matters related to academic policy, academic governance, and the academic mission of the University,” as well as “confidential” advice on other matters, according to the policy. The body may not issue any public statements on behalf of the university...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/trustees-regents/2026/06/05/auburn-board-takes-curricular-control-dissolves-senate.

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