- Date:
- 1915 - present
- Areas Of Involvement:
- higher education
- academic freedom
- Related People:
- John Dewey
- Arthur O. Lovejoy
American Association of University Professors
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What is the American Association of University Professors?
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization for faculty and researchers in American higher education, founded in 1915. The AAUP's goals include defending academic freedom and shared governance, ensuring economic security for teachers and researchers, and promoting professional values in U.S. higher education.
The AAUP has a structure of standing committees that mirror its goals and the problems its members face. Academic freedom, professional ethics, governance, and the status of women and minorities are among the topics covered.
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Who can join the American Association of University Professors?
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization for faculty and researchers at American colleges and universities, founded in 1915. Its goals include defending academic freedom and shared governance, ensuring economic security for teachers and researchers, and promoting professional values in higher education.
The AAUP has a council, which meets twice a year, and an executive committee that convenes between council meetings. The organization also has committees focusing on issues facing its members, such as academic freedom, professional ethics, and the status of women in academia.
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What are the main goals of the American Association of University Professors?
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), founded in 1915, is dedicated to promoting academic freedom and shared governance within higher education institutions. It strives to ensure the economic security of educators and researchers in colleges and universities and aims to define and promote professional values and standards for higher education in the U.S.. The organization was formed after a faculty member's dismissal at Stanford University due to disagreements with the founder's wife on economic reform. The AAUP is organized as a nonprofit charitable educational organization with a council and executive committee that govern its functions. Academic freedom is never unlimited and is liable to contract during times of war, economic depression, or political instability.
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How does the AAUP protect academic freedom for professors?
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) champions academic freedom and shared governance in higher education institutions. Established in 1915, the AAUP aims to protect the rights of faculty and researchers to teach, study, and investigate subjects without facing unreasonable interference, promoting the advancement of knowledge free from restraints.
The organization defends the freedom of teachers to inquire into any subject, present findings, and publish data without censorship, advocating for professional values and standards in U.S. higher education.
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What is tenure, and how does the AAUP support it?
Tenure is a guarantee of permanent employment granted to teachers after a probationary period. It can be terminated only for serious misconduct, incompetence, or misbehavior.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) champions academic freedom and tenure. After the 1950s, the AAUP campaigned aggressively for the academic freedom of professors by defining a code of professional ethics and outlining procedures institutions must follow before discharging a professor. The AAUP also has a standing committee on academic freedom and tenure.
Tenure is seen as a way to protect teachers who teach challenged or unpopular curricula, encouraging careful selection of qualified teachers.
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How has the AAUP influenced higher education in the United States?
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), founded in 1915, significantly influences higher education in the United States by promoting and protecting academic freedom and shared governance. It strives to ensure the economic security of educators and researchers, and it defines professional values and standards.
The AAUP's structure includes a council and various committees focused on academic freedom, professional ethics, and the status of women, among other issues. In 2008, the organization restructured to include the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress (AAUP-CBC) and the AAUP Foundation, enhancing its support for collective bargaining and its capacity to accept donations.
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American Association of University Professors (AAUP), organization of faculty and researchers employed at American colleges and universities, established in 1915. Among its primary goals are to promote and protect academic freedom and shared governance in institutions of higher learning, to ensure the economic security of those engaged in teaching and research at colleges and universities, and to define and promote professional values and standards for higher education in the United States.
The AAUP was founded following a protest against the firing of a faculty member at Stanford University. The noted economist Edward Ross lost his job in 1900 because the wife of the university’s founder did not agree with his views on economic reform. The philosopher Arthur O. Lovejoy and six other faculty members resigned in protest against the dismissal. In 1913 Lovejoy, who was then teaching at Johns Hopkins University, persuaded 17 other full professors to join him in sending a letter of invitation to other professors of equal rank in nine leading universities to discuss an association of professors from all fields of study. The eminent philosopher and educational theorist John Dewey became the first president and Lovejoy the first secretary of the AAUP at the organization’s founding meeting in New York City in 1915. Early members of the AAUP were primarily interested in developing a code of ethics, protecting academic freedom, and developing standards for promotion.
The AAUP is organized and operated as a nonprofit charitable educational organization. Its governing structure consists of a president, a first vice president, a second vice president, a secretary-treasurer, and a council. The council, which meets at least twice each year, is the elected body charged with executing the AAUP’s functions and acts on its behalf as defined in the association’s constitution. From the council membership comes the executive committee, which exercises powers delegated to it and acts on behalf of the association between meetings of the council. The executive committee also meets at least two times per year.
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The AAUP has a strong committee structure that reflects its purposes and the issues facing its membership. Among the several standing committees are those on academic freedom and tenure; academic professionals; accreditation; college and university governance; economic status of the profession; government relations; graduate and professional students; historically black institutions and scholars of colour; professional ethics; sexual diversity and gender identity; teaching, research, and publication; and women in the academic profession. The AAUP’s advisory committees include those related to its two publications, the magazine Academe and the Bulletin of the AAUP, and the Litigation Committee, which provides expert advice on amicus curiae briefs that the association may consider submitting incident to litigation. Several other committees deal with business and investment, elections, grievances, membership, and other matters.
In 2008 the AAUP approved the restructuring of the organization into three entities: the AAUP, the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress (AAUP-CBC), and the AAUP Foundation. The AAUP-CBC develops and disseminates information and resources in support of collective bargaining, among other activities. The AAUP Foundation is a nonprofit entity whose purpose is to accept donations to the AAUP of money, property, or any other item of value.