The AAUP has been protecting the rights of faculty and other higher education professionals since 1915. Through training for campus organizers and activists, legal work, support for collective bargaining, assistance and advice to individuals, research, and other means, the AAUP helps shape American higher education and ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.
Protecting Academic Freedom
Advancing and protecting academic freedom is the AAUP's core mission. For more than a century, we have been developing standards for sound academic practice and working for the acceptance of these standards by the community of higher education.
Advancing Shared Governance
Since its founding, the AAUP has been working to ensure meaningful faculty participation in institutional governance. Our first statement on the subject, emphasizing faculty involvement in personnel decisions, selection of administrators, budgeting, and determination of educational policies, was published in 1920.
Legal Program
The AAUP's legal office supports the activities of the Association in a variety of ways. The office responds to inquiries on higher education law from professors, academic administrators, attorneys, and others; monitors legal developments in higher education around the country; leads workshops and presentations on higher education law; and drafts informational outlines on specific areas of the law.
Research
The AAUP's Department of Research and Public Policy promotes the economic security of the profession through advanced research on higher education.
Awards
AAUP awards are granted at the AAUP Conference and Biennial Meeting, which occurs in even-numbered years. March 15 of the year in which the meeting occurs is the deadline for all award nominations.