Northwestern faculty are purchasing additional professional liability insurance to protect themselves from complaints and lawsuits, according to political science Prof. Jacqueline Stevens, president of NU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
The Occupational Liability Insurance Plan, available to AAUP members through the American Federation of Teachers, covers damages and attorney fees. Some professors are using it as a backup to the University’s own liability coverage, which, according to NU, protects employees when they are “acting at the direction of or on behalf of the University.”
Specifically, Stevens said faculty are opting for extra coverage as a hedge against two risks: NU not honoring its contractual liability protections and University actions that would require faculty to defend themselves.
In a statement to The Daily, a University spokesperson said, “Northwestern honors and abides by the rights and responsibilities contained in the Faculty Handbook.”
McCormick Prof. Michael Peshkin said he purchased the AFT’s insurance out of concern that the University wouldn’t protect him if he faced outside harassment.
“Northwestern is supposed to defend us from legal harassment for academic activity, and I have to wonder to what extent they will and to what extent the Trump administration will succeed in co-opting the University in harassing people for academic activity,” Peshkin said. “If you worry about your primary protection, then it’s helpful to have that secondary protection.”
Peshkin attributed this unease to NU’s negotiations with the Trump administration to unfreeze $790 million in federal funding amid what he called a general “environment of repression.”
Sociology Prof. Laura Beth Nielsen said concerns over students recording and reporting her to the University are becoming increasingly prevalent.
“A lot of times in an undergrad class, I have to make an argument I don’t agree with,” Nielsen said. “It’s all really easy to cut and take out of context, and faculty are getting turned in for things. It feels very McCarthy-esque.”
In cases like these, Nielsen said additional insurance would ensure faculty have adequate legal representation with which to defend themselves.
Moreover, Stevens said if students file complaints about professors under the University’s policies — including NU’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism — the additional insurance would give faculty the resources to retain counsel rather than relying solely on NU’s discretion.
She added that, in her role as AAUP president, she encounters colleagues who have been told to change their syllabi, denied access to grievance procedures, retaliated against and told to make certain statements in class — instances where the extra coverage could serve as legal backstop.
In a statement to The Daily, the University spokesperson said they had not received any of these complaints.
While Peshkin said he is less worried about being targeted in the classroom as a STEM professor, he still fears being harassed beyond the classroom, which led him to purchase the extra protection.
He described the combination of openly voicing one’s opinion and being at a university as “more and more scary.”
“The environment can be just really threatening to anybody who says the wrong things about Charlie Kirk or about the Trump administration or about the claims of antisemitism, and so on,” Peshkin said.
In addition to this restriction of free speech, Nielsen said she and other professors are wondering whether negotiations to restore federal funding could influence the support they receive from University administrators going forward.
“Northwestern is obviously, and for very good reasons, interested in getting the $790 million back, but what are we willing to give up for that?” Nielsen said.
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