The AAUP office reopened on September 7, 2021. Contact information for all staff, including those working remotely or on a hybrid schedule, is available here.
United Academics, a joint affiliate of the AAUP and the American Federation of Teachers, reached an agreement on a first contract with the University of Oregon administration in September. United Academics is a union representing over 1,800 faculty members and other academic employees at the University of Oregon.
In late September, the AAUP chapter at Wright State University in Ohio signed its first contract and workload agreement with the university covering about 180 fulltime non-tenure-eligible faculty members, giving them unprecedented job security and other benefits.
Since the US Supreme Court’s infamous NLRB v. Yeshiva University decision in 1980, faculty members at private colleges and universities have confronted major roadblocks to unionization. Yeshiva labels most tenure-track faculty as “managerial,” excluding them from the right to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Now, more than thirty years later, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has signaled its interest in opening greater possibilities for faculty unionization.
It’s our brand: academic freedom. Whatever else the AAUP does, the defense of academic freedom is what distinguishes it from every other organization. As the American system of higher education has evolved, so, too, has the Association’s mission, but despite embracing collective bargaining and the provision of other services to the professoriate, the AAUP has not abandoned its central concern with protecting the professional autonomy and intellectual integrity of the nation’s faculties.
Faculty at the University of Illinois Chicago are striking Tuesday and Wednesday after eighteen months of contract negotiations. A key issue is pay, especially for nontenured lecturers. The union wants minimum pay to be raised to $45,000; it’s set at $30,000 now. The union, UIC United Faculty, is an AAUP & AFT affiliate.
We have great news to share—there’s a new AAUP union in New Hampshire. Lecturers at the University of New Hampshire voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionization, with 141 lecturers casting ballots in favor of being represented by the UNH Lecturers United AAUP.
The University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees unanimously approved the proposed contract. The faculty had overwhelmingly ratified the contract, with 94 percent approving the deal.The new three-year agreement is the culmination of a year of negotiations between AAUP and the university.