of the American Association of University Professors
The mission of the American Association of University Professors is to advance academic freedom and shared governance; to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education; to promote the economic security of faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education; to help the higher education community organize to make our goals a reality; and to ensure higher education’s contribution to the common good.
On more than 450 campuses of U.S. colleges and universities, AAUP chapters serve the profession by supporting principles and programs that vitally affect the quality of higher education and professional life. The AAUP enterprise consists of three entities: (a) the AAUP, a professional membership association, (b) the AAUP-CBC, a labor union; and (c) the AAUP Foundation, a public charity.
The AAUP was formed in 1915 by Arthur Lovejoy and John Dewey, in response to an incident at Stanford University 15 years earlier when a Edward Ross, professor and economist, lost his job. Ross’s his views on immigrant labor and railroad monopolies were at odds with the economic interests of the university’s founding family. Numerous professors at Stanford resigned over concern for freedom of expression and control of universities by private interests. Academia has changed a lot since 1915, but universities and colleges still want to control what professors teach and write. Thanks to the AAUP, academic freedom is recognized as the fundamental principle of our profession.