2022 Texas Tech Faculty Legal Action Association (TTFLAA) / American Association of University Professors (AAUP) scholarships
Topic: "The Role and Importance of Academic Freedom”
Amounts: one valued at $1,500 and two at $500
Available to: all current Texas Tech students - graduate or undergraduate (these are competitive scholarships which provide out-of-state tuition wavers if appropriate)
Background: In recent years we are seeing increasing threats to academic freedom and the tenure system which helps protect it. The scholarships will be awarded for the best original essays on the topic.
History: Academic Freedom and Tenure involve the freedom of faculty and staff in higher education to conduct research, create art, and make it public without administrative interference. The TTFLAA was formed in the mid-1980s when then-President Lauro Cavazos sought to replace the existing system of tenure. The Scholarships were created with money originally contributed by many faulty members, in order to challenge the proposed policy. AAUP was founded in 1915 and focuses on the issues of academic freedom and tenure. The details were laid out in the Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, released in 1940 and endorsed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Preserving and protecting academic freedom is a core tenet of the accreditation of this and other academic institutions. The TTU chapter of AAUP offers membership to all academic instructors at the university, whether tenure-track or not.
Submission: Entries must be 500 - 1,000 words. Students may use MLA style footnotes with a bibliography at the end. Essays must be double-spaced and attached, as Word files, to a cover email submitted to the address below by 5 pm on Friday, 18 November 2022. To allow anonymous judging by a faculty committee, the essay must not identify the writer. The winners will be announced by Friday, 29 April 2022. We reserve the right to publish or otherwise use for academic purposes any essay submitted, and to publish the name and/or photograph of the recipient.
Send essay to: Professor Gad Perry, Gad.Perry@TTU.edu.
