Throughout the past year the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) has spoken out to signify our community’s integrity, stewardship of research and resources, and abiding support of intellectual freedom as well as equity and inclusion.
Significantly, the Association responded to Texas state legislative overreach in school libraries by joining like-minded organizations in two amicus curiae briefs. Filed in August and November 2023 by AUPresses counsel Linda Steinman of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, these briefs supported the plaintiffs—Texas booksellers BookPeople and Blue Willow Bookshop, the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Association, the Authors Guild, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund— seeking injunction of a new Texas law that would have imposed a vague rating system to limit books available in the state’s school libraries. The appellate circuit court upheld the original injunction in January and April 2024, agreeing that the law was unconstitutional because it would compel speech.
The Association’s values-based contributions to public discourse about education at all levels, scholarship, and scholarly publishing continued throughout the year:
AUPresses Condemns Florida Classroom Teaching Bans, May 2023
Joining the American Historical Association to condemn the Florida Department of Education’s ruling aimed at banning classroom instruction that acknowledges “sexual orientation or gender identity”
AUPresses Renews Endorsement of The Freedom to Read Statement on its 70th anniversary, June 2023
With the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the American Booksellers Association, and the Authors Guild
AUPresses Joins in Affirming Value of Diversity in Higher Ed after SCOTUS Ruling, July 2023
With the American Council of Learned Societies
AUPresses Responds to Texas School District’s Plan to Eliminate Libraries, August 2023
Joining with the National Coalition Against Censorship to call on the Houston Independent School District to affirm the importance of libraries and librarians in the education of children.
“For open monographs, collective library subscription is the key”
Addressing concerns about the impacts of the UK Research Excellence Framework and other open-access policies on sustainable long-form scholarship, written by President-elect Anthony Cond (Liverpool) and President Jane Bunker (Cornell), and published in Times Higher Ed, April 23, 2024.