Smith-Kaplan Academic Freedom Fund

The AAUP Foundation's Charles B. Smith, Wilfred Kaplan Academic Freedom Fund was established in 2024 when the Academic Freedom Lecture Fund, a Michigan nonprofit corporation, dissolved and transferred its assets. The Smith-Kaplan Academic Freedom Fund supports fostering an understanding of the meaning and value of academic freedom and intellectual freedom among faculty, students, staff, and the general public as an essential condition for the advancement of truth within institutions of higher learning.

The Academic Freedom Lecture Fund supported the University of Michigan Senate’s Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom, which was named for faculty members suspended after testifying before a House Un-American Activities Committee subcommittee. A history of the fund is available here.