The report invited interested parties to indicate by June 1997 whether they would support or oppose the proposed guidelines. Twenty years ago, only two educational organizations publicly opposed the Classroom Guidelines. But the AAUP's almost isolated action two decades ago set an example. This year, dozens of educational organizations expressed their concern about the Confu guidelines. The response has not been uniform.
Many organizations support the new guidelines.
But some leading organizations, such as the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, the American Library Association, and the Association of Research Libraries, oppose all of the Confu guidelines. Strangely, the AAUP, the model of critical reflection twenty years ago, was not present at the negotiating table during the Confu meetings. Nor did the AAUP respond to the invitation for comments on the proposed guidelines. 6 Organizations may choose not to participate in Confu or to put their reflections on the public record for many reasons. Regardless of whether they take a public stand, nearly every educational institution, professional society, and individual member of the academic community will eventually need to address fair use and consequently decide whether to accept or reject various guidelines.