The Association of University Presses (AUPresses) is deeply alarmed by the current flood of US federal government policy upheavals, and the likely effects on individuals, institutions, and the scholarly record.
Motivated by our core values of equity and inclusion, intellectual freedom, integrity, and stewardship, we resolve to speak clearly, on behalf of our global association of mission-driven publishers and in concert with our peers in the wide scholarly community, about the very real threats to knowledge and scholarship that these unprecedented and potentially illegal/extra-legal mandates present.
Our mission as an association—to ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge—rings clearly in our support of the statements below. University presses strive to give voice to the breadth of human experience and knowledge. University presses assert that researchers must be freely able to conduct, collaborate on, share, review, and discuss their research, including accurate and comprehensive government research and data. University presses are dedicated to preserving the integrity, rigor, and reliability of the scholarly record and to stewarding it responsibly, not only for today’s scholars and readers but also for future generations.
University presses will continue to champion the freedom to think, research, publish, read, and teach as pillars of an open and just society.
March 18, 2025. The Association joins with the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in strongly opposing the White House Executive Order designating English as the official language of the United States.
We agree with the LSA that the United States has always been multilingual and that this is a source of the nation’s strength, not an indicator of or fuel for disunity. This executive order, like many others issued by the current administration, attempts to rewrite US history in a way that is fundamentally flawed and simply untrue (see below).
Further, this executive order encourages a dangerous retreat from global, multilingual knowledge. Combined with the US State Department’s recent pause in Fulbright-Hays awards for research and training in non-Western languages as well as the uncertain future of the US Education Department’s International and Foreign Language Education office, this order casts a chill on American scholars’ and publishers’ essential work.
Statements made earlier in 2025
AUPresses Joins in Denouncing Federal Censorship of American History
AUPresses Supports Anti-Censorship Declaration
AUPresses Decries Executive Order on Gender
AUPresses Joins in Repudiating Executive Order on K-12 History Education