Past Events

Register here for a virtual discussion on Eve Darian-Smith’s new book Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters.

Register here for the first in a series of virtual panel discussions co-sponsored by Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education, Critical Legal Collective, and the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.

In the past few years, campuses across the country have faced increasing pressure from extremist forces aimed at limiting or reshaping Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as challenging the boundaries of campus free speech and academic freedom. This AFT-led webinar session will examine the ongoing attacks on DEI initiatives and how these intersect with broader debates about free speech, and academic freedom.

By cutting funds to lifesaving research and medical care, the Trump administration is abandoning families who are suffering and costing taxpayers billions of dollars. These cuts are dangerous to our health, and dangerous to our economy. On Tuesday, April 8, workers across the country are standing up and demanding NO cuts to education and life-saving research.

A meeting for all AAUP members.

A workshop for members of collective bargaining chapters only. Participants will discuss the power of supermajority participation, structure tests, escalating tactics, and tools for tracking campaign progress.

Chapter leaders, please join national AAUP leaders and allies in planning for two upcoming national days of action that the AAUP is sponsoring in partnership with other unions and organizations. Check your email for registration information.

A workshop for members of bargaining chapters only. Participants will discuss their rights and responsibilities in negotiations, keeping the bargaining team organized, writing and presenting proposals, staying on topic at the table, and creating a bargaining narrative.

Part of the PEN America Digital Safety Series. In this session, we will share strategies for navigating online abuse if it happens to you or someone you know. We will discuss practical tips for documenting and reporting abuse as well as examples of creative counter-speech that faculty and staff have used to push back.

A workshop for members of advocacy chapters and bargaining chapters. Members will look at the important steps to take when accompanying a colleague to a disciplinary meeting in a union and nonunion context.

Part of the PEN America Digital Safety Series. We will assess our digital footprint and discuss ways that we can take control of our personal information. We will "think like doxxers" in order to discover what information about us is available online, including on our social media accounts, and what we can do to remove it.

A workshop for members of bargaining chapters only. We will discuss the rights and responsibilities of grievance officers, how to investigate a grievance, how to write a grievance statement, and prepare for each step. Arbitration hearings will not be covered in this session.

This webinar will explore findings from the recent report Academic Freedom and Civil Discourse in Higher Education: A National Study of Faculty Attitudes and Perceptions and provide actionable strategies for colleges and universities to deepen their commitment to academic freedom and civil discourse. It will highlight key recommendations for promoting institutional engagement, facilitating meaningful dialogue, and aligning these efforts with the broader goal of ensuring that our colleges and universities serve the common good.

A meeting for AAUP chapter leaders. Please check your email for registration information.

The Trump administration and many state governments appear poised to accelerate attacks on academic freedom, shared governance, and higher education as a public good. They will likely attack the curricular authority of the faculty, including the ability to engage in teaching and research on certain topics. Join us in a virtual discussion of this issue, what is going on on your campus, and how we can respond.

A workshop about strengthening AAUP Redbook policy in your collective bargaining agreement or your handbook. We'll talk about academic freedom, protest and dissent, suspension, and more.

All members can sign up now for an organizing town hall meeting on Tuesday, January 21, at 7–8 p.m. ET / 4–5 p.m. PT. We will hear from Eric Blanc, author of We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big and assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University.

Part of the webinar series "Academic Freedom School: Defending Academic Freedom in Florida."

A meeting of the AAUP's governing Council. 

As we’ve seen increasing attacks against our right to teach, research, and advocate for higher education as a public good, we also know what we have to do in response: organize with even greater purpose. We’ll start with a workshop on November 16–17, run by Jane McAlevey’s Skills to Win program. The program will help hone and develop member and leader organizing skills so that we can stand together, fight back, and build a better future for ourselves, our students, and higher education.

Join AAUP's former general counsel Risa Lieberwitz and Channing Cooper, deputy director of AFT Legal, for a discussion on what faculty and staff can do to develop and implement Title IX policies that build on the baseline provided by new regulations to prohibit sexual harassment while also protecting academic freedom and due process for all workers.

A meeting of the AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

Part of the webinar series "Academic Freedom School: Defending Academic Freedom in Florida." Panelists include Risa Lieberwitz and Jennifer Proffitt, and the discussion will be moderated by Tim Cain.

Part of our fall series of workshops for collective bargaining chapters. Join this workshop to discuss elements of a strong proposal presentation, navigating questions at the table, packaging proposals, and strategies for avoiding impasse.

Recently, we joined with AFT, HELU, UAW, and other labor allies to send a strong message to the political establishment: our nation’s democratic future depends on renewed federal investment in public higher education and sustainable working conditions for higher ed employees. Now we want to talk to you about the best ways we can help you organize to achieve those goals and strengthen the work you’re doing on your campuses.

Join Isaac Kamola of the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom for a panel discussion on the threats facing academic freedom.

The 2024 AAUP Conference and Biennial Meeting will take place in the Washington, DC, area, starting on Thursday, June 13. The conference includes informational sessions, presentations on pressing issues in higher education, AAUP awards, and plenary sessions. 

Join us for an online discussion of a new white paper out from the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom—Manufacturing Backlash: Right-Wing Think Tanks and the Legislative Attack on Higher Education, 2021–2023—which examines the well-funded political operatives and conservative think tanks behind this legislative attack on higher education.

A meeting of the AAUP's national governing council.

Please join us for a virtual discussion. Policy experts and local leaders from the AAUP and AFT will delve into how the AAUP’s policies and AFT and AAUP contract language on academic freedom and campus speech apply to the current situation, what faculty at different campuses are facing on the ground, and what our affiliates are doing to support our members and protect campus speech

A meeting of the AAUP's governing Council.

This training is designed for AAUP chapter and conference leaders and field staff interested in learning about a primary role of AAUP chapters: working for the incorporation of AAUP standards on academic freedom, tenure, and governance into the institution’s faculty handbook

A webinar on how to form an AAUP chapter and how a chapter can help you change the status quo.

Join AAUP researcher Scott Sederstrom for a discussion on recent hiring trends in US higher education.

An introduction to working with a mediator, the fact finding process, and preparing for arbitration in bargaining.

A workshop about creating a game plan for using financial data and facts to counter your administration's claims.

A workshop about proposal packaging, strategies for avoiding impasse, and mapping an endgame timeline.

A workshop about effective proposal presentation and basic tips for writing language. Participants will also discuss their most successful and challenging proposals.

A workshop about communicating bargaining priorities at the table, with members, and in media. Participants will look at platform examples and work on their own bargaining narrative.

The 2023 AAUP Summer Institute will be July 6-9 at the University of Vermont in Burlington, VT.

A meeting of the AAUP's Committee A for Academic Freedom and Tenure.

A meeting of the AAUP Foundation.

Join us for a virtual roundtable featuring contributors to the winter issue of the AAUP magazine, Academe. We'll discuss how achieving racial equity in the tenured faculty ranks will require concrete changes to tenure and promotion policies that too often devalue the work of faculty members of color, how the long-term decline in tenure density threatens the future of higher education in blue and red states alike, and how the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure sought to solve the contingency crisis of the Great Depression.

We will hold an online Summer Institute with free webinars every Tuesday and Thursday between July 7 and August 4 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EDT. Due to guidance issued by the CDC and state and local governments, we are unable to hold the in-person Summer Institute previously scheduled.