The AAUP receives hundreds of inquiries on work-related issues.  We've compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions. If you can't find your answer here, please also consult our issues section.

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. 

See FAQs on

Beginning  a Faculty Appointment

• What subjects should the letter of appointment cover?
• What is the maximum length of the period of probation?
• I have taught part time, and successfully, for several years in the same department, which is about to conduct a search for a new full-time tenure-track position in my area of teaching. Am I right in believing that, because of my teaching experience in the department, I should be interviewed for the position?
• I taught for ten years at another college before starting at my current institution. How much of my previous service can count as part of the probationary period at the new college?

Evaluations and Reviews

• I have a probationary appointment. Can I be let go during the probationary period before I am reviewed for tenure?
• When I began teaching, I was told that I needed to publish at least three refereed journal articles in order to get tenure. I am at the end of my fourth year, and the requirement has just been changed to five articles. Is that fair?
• In a recent conversation with the college president, I was told that my demonstrated usefulness and loyalty to the institution will be key considerations in determining whether my appointment will be renewed. Is that appropriate?
• I believe that letters have been placed in my personnel file that are defamatory, and I want to read them. Can I be denied access to my own personnel file?

Leaving the Institution—or Staying

• My appointment was not renewed. Am I entitled to know the reasons for the decision?
• The provost notified me last spring that my contract will not be renewed beyond the end of the current academic year. The review that led to the decision was marred by procedural errors, and the provost’s explanation for the decision was factually incorrect and biased. What can I do about these problems?
• A faculty appeal committee recommended three months ago that I be given a new tenure review because of procedural irregularities. The administration, however, rejected the committee’s recommendation one week before my appointment is to expire. Must I leave the institution in a week’s time?
• For the past four years, I have taught part time. I just received word from the department chair, two weeks before the new semester begins, that my contract will not be renewed because a full-time faculty member has been appointed to replace me and other part-time faculty. What do you say about how I was treated?
• After teaching full time for twelve years in a non-tenure-track position, I have been told that in a year’s time my contract will not be renewed. Can you help me?

Contours of Academic Freedom

• My dean has told me that if I do not change the grade of a student who has complained to her about my teaching, she will change the grade herself. Can she do so consistent with principles of academic freedom?
• I have been asked to teach several sections of an introductory course, but I do not want to use the textbook used by faculty colleagues in the other sections. I believe it is poorly written and replete with errors. Do I have the right to assign a different textbook?
• A student in my physics class complained to the department chair that I am interfering with her freedom to learn by commenting during the class on national political controversies. I have made such comments, but doesn’t my academic freedom allow me to do so?
• In a letter to the editor published in a local newspaper, I questioned the decision of the board of trustees to build a new student union. The chair of the board has admonished me for speaking out on a matter not within my area of academic competence. What can I say in response to her?
• My colleagues and I are concerned about a new college policy that includes collegiality as a separate criterion for assessing faculty performance. What are the potential ramifications of this criterion for academic freedom?
• My college administration insists that it owns the copyright to a syllabus that I developed for a new course that I teach.  Is the administration’s position reasonable?
• I have just learned that my dean has opened my university e-mail account to look for any correspondence I might have had with members of a search committee. He suspects that I am trying to influence the committee to reject a candidate whom he favors. Did the dean violate my rights?