The following resolution and proposal were passed by the 102nd Annual Meeting of the AAUP on June 18, 2016.

Resolution Marking the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities

A resolution expresses the opinion of the assembly.

From 1958 to 1964, Committee T on College and University Government issued a series of draft statements of principles on faculty participation in college and university government. Under the leadership of committee chair and Yale University law professor Ralph S. Brown, Jr., and with notable encouragement from Logan Wilson, the president of the American Council on Education, the initial work of the committee led to cooperative efforts in 1963, first with the ACE and then with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. The goal was, in the words of Professor Brown, “to describe, delimit, and recommend the appropriate spheres of faculty, of presidents and other senior administrative officers, and of governing boards in college and university government.” These efforts culminated in the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities. This jointly formulated statement, with its call for shared effort among the different components of institutional government and its specification of areas of primary responsibility for governing boards, administrations, and faculties, remains the Association’s central policy document on academic governance. While the ACE and AGB commended the Statement on Government to their members, the Council of the AAUP adopted it in October 1966, and the Fifty-third Annual Meeting endorsed it in April 1967. In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the formulation of the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities, the 102nd Annual Meeting affirms the Association’s steadfast commitment to the principles and standards articulated therein.

Motion to Create an AAUP Committee to Address the Threat of Climate Change

A proposal recommends to the AAUP Council a certain action and if the Council concurs, it becomes the action of the AAUP.

Recognizing that the mission of higher education includes a responsibility to exercise intellectual and moral leadership in service of the public good, the AAUP will create a committee charged to determine how American colleges and universities can best address the grave threat posed by climate change. The committee will provide a substantive background report and its tentative recommendations to both outside experts and the general AAUP membership, and solicit their input. At the 2017 AAUP Conference on the State of Higher Education, the committee's final recommendations will be presented as a resolution to be voted on by the attending AAUP members.