2017 AAUP Updates

The AAUP endorsed the College for All Act, introduced this month by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, which would make four-year public college free for families making less than $125,000 and make community college free for all. The College for All Act restores the promise that higher education is an accessible public good, not a privilege for the wealthy few.

This year's Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession is based on the largest faculty compensation survey in the United States. Beyond looking at faculty compensation based on rank, gender, and regional variation, it highlights state appropriations trends based on political control and examines the unsustainable practice of out-of-state students subsidizing state schools.

The AAUP investigated the case of a part-time faculty member fired by Colorado’s Community College of Aurora in disregard of basic principles and standards of academic freedom.

Full time faculty at Santa Fe Community College voted overwhelmingly today to form a union under the AAUP umbrella. As a result, approximately fifty full time faculty at the college will now be represented by the Santa Fe Community College-AAUP chapter.

In keeping with its mission to support principles of academic freedom and the quality of higher education in a free and democratic society, the AAUP Foundation welcomes grant applications from faculty impacted by the Trump Administration’s travel ban or by other threats to academic freedom. The next quarterly application deadline is March 31.

President Trump released an initial budget proposal Thursday containing deep cuts that would severely damage scientific research, the arts and humanities, and access to higher education. This is not a design for the world class system of higher education that Americans have come to expect. It is, instead, a design that will undermine the world's finest system of higher education and further harm low-income college students. 

Judge Neil Gorsuch has been proclaimed a “natural successor” to former justice Antonin Scalia on the US Supreme Court, and, unfortunately, would likely continue Scalia’s work to dismantle many of the protections extended to workers, the public, minorities, and the disabled.

AAUP chapters in New Hampshire worked with other unions and community members to defeat a “right-to-work” bill that the governor had promised to sign. Together, they protected the right of faculty and other working people across the state to negotiate collectively.