2019 Annual Conference

Save the date for the AAUP Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education! Highlights will include a plenary session on the state of academic freedom, Friday night reception, and an awards and recognition luncheon. Registration will open in late February.

Program Highlights

Opening Plenary on the Future of Academic Freedom

Our opening plenary will feature a discussion with prominent figures in higher education and civil liberties work of the new book The Future of Academic Freedom, which raises important questions about the state of academic freedom and free expression on college and university campuses today. Confirmed participants include Henry Reichman, the book's author and chair of the AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure; Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University; Alyssa Picard, director of AFT Higher Education; and Will Creeley of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.  

Discussion Sessions and AAUP Basics

In lieu of paper panels this year, we are organizing peer-to-peer sessions in which chapters, staff, and members can share information. Confirmed sessions include:

• Current issues in shared governance. At this roundtable, participants are asked to share the good, the bad, and the aspirational so others can learn about developments in shared governance from across the country. 
• Bargaining. For collective bargaining chapters who are in or approaching bargaining--what are the big issues on the table? Share information and problem solving ideas in separate groups for public and private institutions. 
• Organizing locally around contingency. Share the best and worst practices that members are seeing, as well as your organizing ideas and activities.
• Communications interest group. Share your successes, questions, and challenges with other AAUP members who work on communications for the chapter or conference, along with national AAUP communications staff.

We'll also offer sessions that provide information about the nuts and bolts of AAUP principles and operations, including the following.

• Basics of the national AAUP's work to protect and expand academic freedom and shared governance. Staff of the AAUP's Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance and members of Committee A on Academic Freedom will discuss how academic freedom cases are handled and resolved and some recent successes, followed by Q&A.
• Governance basics. We'll give an overview of the responsibilities of the administration, board, and faculty, as well as of the main AAUP policies pertaining to governance. 

Business and Restructuring

The AAUP’s Annual Conference also includes the annual business meetings of the AAUP, the Assembly of State Conferences, and the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress. This year, we will include time for questions about and discussion of proposed changes to the structure of the AAUP and the AAUP-CBC.