Southern professors are optimistic on AI, but worry about government overreach in survey

When it comes to AI, the outlook is actually a lot sunnier than expected, said Matthew Boedy. He's president of the AAUP Georgia chapter and oversees the survey.

"Is there going to be a major in your discipline? Are you going to have students?" said Boedy. "I mean, many of these are going away on their own and I wanted to get a sense if they thought AI would accelerate that or not."

So, they asked if professors thought their disciplines would survive the AI era — 85% said yes. 

But, professors in the South have concerns about government overreach. Over 60 professors from Mississippi responded to the survey, and several said they've had to self-censor or remove content from courses, and worry about funding and job security.

"Faculty morale is very low, workloads are increasing, and hesitancy to engage in anything that could be viewed as progressive is discouraged or underfunded," one Mississippi faculty member wrote in response to a question asking for examples of how attacks on higher education were affecting faculty work. Responses were presented anonymously. 

At the federal level, that government overreach presents itself in funding risks and disappearing resources, Boedy said. 

"That is a lot of money being stopped or being made hard to get by the federal government for certain disciplines and certain sectors, but also it's become a very politicized system," Boedy said. "There is really no standard way to know if you're going to get your grant again or if you are going to keep your grant."

"That is a very disturbing thing for a lot of research-based professors."

But it hits the classroom more directly at the state level.

"At the state level, it becomes about curriculum and courses and course titles and what content in those courses. There [are] states that have a very specific ban on this or that subject," said Boedy, adding that other states lean toward targeted attacks as content and classes enter the spotlight. 

In the Gulf South, Boedy said professors may not face direct bans or restrictions on course content, like other Southern counterparts might, but pressure still exists. 

"The faculty in Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana report there's a chilling effect and they're having to change their courses and change their content — on their own at the moment —but they feel a kind of implicit, unstated pressure," said Boedy. "Whereas in Texas and Florida and other places, it's much more explicit." 

The survey found that about 29 percent of respondents have applied for academic jobs in other states in the last two years. That includes about a third of Mississippi respondents, many of whom cited LGBTQ+ issues, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion issues, the state's political climate and academic freedom as reasons for pursuing opportunities outside Mississippi. 

Boedy said that's a particular problem for Mississippi.

"People are not applying to Mississippi; I think there was like 13 people out of the 2,700 who said they had applied for a job in Mississippi," said Boedy. "If you're losing people and also people are not applying to jobs in there, that's both an input problem and an output problem for the state of Mississippi."

Around 20 Mississippi professors said they planned to look for a job in higher education in another state in the next academic year or hiring cycle. Over 40 respondents, however, said they'd encourage graduate students or colleagues to look for a job in Mississippi. 

States like California, New York and Massachusetts were among some of the top states that faculty were applying to.