Faculty Employment

Since its founding in 1915, the AAUP has assumed responsibility for developing standards to guide higher education in service of the common good. The modern conception of tenure in US higher education originated with the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Jointly formulated and endorsed by the AAUP and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the 1940 Statement has gained the endorsement of more than 280 scholarly and higher education organizations. It is widely adopted into faculty handbooks and collective bargaining agreements at institutions of higher education throughout the United States.

Many AAUP chapters, both unionized and nonunionized, include faculty in contingent positions and work on local issues relating to contingency. The One Faculty campaign is designed to help chapters make concrete gains for faculty with contingent appointments. It grew out of the AAUP's long history as an organization seeking to improve working conditions, shared governance, economic security, and academic freedom for all who teach and do research in our universities and colleges. It explains why a united faculty is a strong faculty and includes specific guidelines for bargaining key contract issues.

The AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey (FCS) program was established in 1958 and is the largest independent source of data on both full-time and part-time faculty salaries and fringe benefits. The survey is open to all nonprofit degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States and serves as a reliable source of independently verified and validated data for faculty and other higher education stakeholders, such as trustees, policy makers, economists, researchers, media, parents, and the public. The survey compiles compensation data on approximately 400,000 full-time and 100,000 part-time faculty members at nearly 900 colleges and universities, representing faculty in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Faculty handbooks can provide a powerful tool to help faculty members vindicate their rights when facing termination or other unwarranted personnel actions. For comprehensive information about what a faculty handbook is and how it can be contractually enforced, check out the new section to Faculty Handbooks as Enforceable Contracts: A State Guide. The guide will allow members to access a more in-depth understanding of the contractual impact of their faculty handbooks on their employment relationships.

The AAUP receives hundreds of inquiries on work-related issues.  We've compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions. 

AAUP members can access additional resources, including guidebooks about the Family and Medical Leave Act and Pregnancy in the Academy and an online guide to when faculty handbooks can be enforceable as contracts.

The AAUP receives many inquiries about the application of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to faculty members at colleges and universities. To clarify how to apply the FMLA in academic settings, our guidebook is broken into sections in which specific mandates are introduced and explained through a series of questions and answers. The guidebook has been updated to reflect changes since the US Supreme Court's June 2013 decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act.

The AAUP guidebook "Pregnancy in the Academy: A Guidebook for Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Graduate Students" explains how the Pregnancy Discrimination Act applies to women in the academic workplace and addresses such issues as the differences between pregnancy disability leave and family and medical leave; the application of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in job interviews and the promotion and tenure process; and academic employees’ rights under the act.