Our Programs

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.

The main principle behind successful organizing, and behind the formation of AAUP chapters, is collective action. When faculty speak and act with one voice, they demonstrate a large-scale commitment to the issues around which they organize.

The AAUP provides resources and guidance for all chapters as well as specialized services for chapters that engage in collective bargaining.

Academic collective bargaining includes the unionization of all sectors of the higher-education workforce—from tenure-line faculty to graduate student employees, and from academic professionals to support staff. The growth of academic collective bargaining has occurred in two waves. The first was the expansion of faculty and support staff collective bargaining fueled by the changes in federal and state labor laws during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The second was the rapid increase in graduate-employee unionization during the 1990s in response to the increased use of graduate-employee labor.

The AAUP's education & training program includes a Summer Institute and webinars.

Our Summer Institute is the premier training program for faculty advocates.

The AAUP's research program promotes the economic security of the profession through advanced research on higher education.

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. 

The AAUP's government relations program tracks legislation that is relevant to our mission at both the federal and state levels. We also communicate legislative information to members and encourage them to become active in the issues affecting higher education in general and faculty in particular.