Report from the March 5 ACSA Annual Business Meeting

Nearly 300 individuals, including 79 full-member school representatives, heard reports about the organization’s member programs over the last year, the organization’s financial state, its efforts to plan for significant change in higher education and architecture over the next five years, and information on the board of directors’ decision to halt an issue of the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) titled 79:2 Palestine and subsequently end the paid service contract with the interim executive editor.

ACSA presented details about the timeline for the JAE decision, the framework that governs the journal’s relationship to the ACSA, and the legal and financial threats facing the organization. The meeting’s reports also reiterated ACSA’s continued priority of addressing racial equity, social justice, and climate action across architectural education.

In addition, we provide these summary points about the JAE decision.

1. ACSA–JAE Relationship

• Out of legal obligation, and according to its Articles of Incorporation, the ACSA board must exercise oversight to all of its programs and services. This includes decisions to hold, change, or halt programs because of potential damage to ACSA’s financial resources. This oversight role is clearly stated in the contract with the executive editor, which is a paid position with an established line of communication to the ACSA Executive Committee and Executive Director.
• Recognizing the amount of time and energy it takes to serve as editors, the ACSA board takes halting or changing a volunteer-driven program very seriously. The JAE decision was not made out of disrespect for the editors, reviewers, or authors. The board weighed the legal risk against its ability to continue to uphold its commitments to that same group and to the over 7,000 other faculty and scholars in our membership, as described in the business meeting reports.

2. Legal and Financial Risk

• In the current legal and political climate, organizations must weigh the ability to operate with their values and mission to resist injustice. We respect and understand members’ disagreement with our decision, and commit to ongoing conversations that affirm our values and establish strategies to navigate new challenges.
• International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definitions and examples of antisemitism—adopted in two-thirds of states prior to 2025 and in federal government policies—present the highest threat for lawsuits and prosecution. These definitions are overly vague and restrictive of free speech. However, these laws exist, and are being applied widely.
• This is not anticipatory obedience. ACSA learned that university presidents and governors in two states with IHRA antisemitism statutes were notified about the JAE call for papers, and urged to restrict the use of state funds for ACSA membership dues and activities. These two states alone have 12 architecture programs. We expect that other states have also been notified. Joining ACSA could be deemed illegal due to the call for papers.
• ACSA gets 55 percent of its revenue from member dues, part of which fund the JAE. Proceeding with the issue, framed by the specific language in the call for papers, threatens the ability for member schools and their faculty to join or engage with ACSA safely. Losing large portions of this funding would severely affect future programs that are vital to the full range of faculty in architectural education.
• Other threats exist, particularly executive orders and federal task forces addressing antisemitism and attempting to define diversity/equity/inclusion programs as illegal. A Department of Justice interagency task force launched investigations of multiple universities, most recently against the University of California System. These actions also dangerously chill debate, protest, and free speech.
• ACSA’s legal assessment is that the language of the already-circulated call for papers, JAE 79:2 Palestine, would not withstand legal claims. The threat for these claims is real. Submitted papers have not been reviewed or assessed. However, the call has already been targeted and drawn attention to the situation.

3. Censorship, Academic Freedom

• Claims of censorship or violation of academic freedom do not acknowledge the difference between a university setting—where faculty should have the liberty to research and educate as they determine—and a nonprofit organization.
• ACSA members can rightly question what the boundaries are for ACSA’s scholarly programs. The boundaries are not unlimited. No membership association can delegate unlimited authority to a journal editorial board or other program without question.
• The ACSA has not defined these exact boundaries, and invites submission and discussion of good examples, based on values and mission. We aspire to be an inclusive organization, and seek to do better when fairly called out.
• ACSA will reassess how it frames the mission and purpose of its scholarly programs, starting with the JAE.

4. Opportunities to Publish the Palestine Call for Papers and Responses

• JAE is not a fully independent journal. A fully independent journal that answers only to its editorial board and no other organization may take on any risk inherent to its speech.
• Editorial board members and authors may publish their work in any venue they wish.
• Any university or media platform may publish the text of the call for papers for the Palestine issue with advance permission of the issue editors. ACSA will not exercise any restriction on what was previously published about this issue under its copyright.

5. Moving Through the Moral Dilemma

• The terms for discussion of the journal look like a moral dilemma: either the ACSA publishes what the editorial board says, or ACSA is immoral, wrong, and should be boycotted and publicly excoriated.
• This binary framing disables discussion that brings people together with similar values but differing opinions.
• ACSA has invited JAE editorial board members individually and as a collective to meet to discuss paths toward a working relationship and opportunities for external collaborations to publish the issue.
• The ACSA organization, led by an elected board, guided by the participation of its volunteers, and supported by funding from its member schools and faculty, will create opportunities to discuss how to see our way through this aporia, with humility and respect for the feelings of those who invested their time and care into the issue.