American Association of University Professors

The American Association of University Professors is an American interest group representing the views of university professors and academia generally.

Founding

The American Association of University Professors was founded in 1900 due to the decision of Mrs. Leland Stanford to fire economist Edward Ross. Ross’s opinion on immigrant labor and railroad monopolies did not sit well with the co-founder of Stanford University (AAUP.org). After the incident, Arthur O. Lovejoy and John Dewey organized a meeting in 1915 to form an organization to guarantee academic freedom for faculty members, which gave birth to the AAUP (AAUP.org).

Current objectives and activities

The AAUP deals with many types of legislation:

• involved in state appropriations, salaries for college and university faculty members competitive to the salaries of other higher education throughout the state colleges.
• supports increased state revenue to maintain suitable funding for higher education.
• supports state aid to students attending public colleges and universities.
• supports many different aspects of public employees dealing with labor laws and women and minorities (Michigan Conference of the AAUP).

Organizational structure

• Association of State Conferences: Provides training and the coordination of state activities that deal with organizations goals.
• Chapters: Requires a minimum of seven AAUP members at an institution to be an established chapter.
• Collective Bargaining Congress: Develop information and resources in support of the local AAUP chapters.
• Conferences: Chapters coordinate statewide conferences to exchange information.
• Executive Committee: Four officers which govern the AAUP.
• National AAUP:
• National Council: A 39 member body elected to represent 10 districts across the country.
• National Staff: Staff members are appointed by the Executive committee. The staff is to oversee implementations of the policies on a daily basis.
• National Standing Committee: Work with the National staff to oversee operations and investigate complaints and concerns.

Members

Anyone can become an AAUP member. Six membership types are available:

• Associate (only for non-faculty)
• Entrant (only during first 4 years as non-tenured faculty member)
• Full-time
• Graduate Student
• Joint (available to spouses of full-time member)
• Part-time