American Association of University Professors

American Association of University Professors, a nonprofit organization committed to preserving Academic Freedom and maintaining high standards of academic and moral excellence in American universities. Its membership, now exceeding 45,000, comprises faculty and professional staff from accredited American universities and colleges. The American Association of University Professors has played a major role in the shaping of American academe in the twentieth century.

In 1900 sociologist Edward Ross was fired from his job at Stanford University over a disagreement with Mrs. Leland Stanford. This alarmed academics across the country, including Johns Hopkins philosopher Arthur O. Love-joy. In 1915 he and John Dewey held a meeting at Johns Hopkins in order to establish an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of university professors and others in academia. The American Association of University Professors was founded at that meeting.

In 1940 the American Association of University Professors left their greatest mark on the landscape of American academia when they released their "Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure," which served as the blueprint for academic freedom and faculty standards throughout the country. The statement claims that academic freedom, in both teaching and research, is essential to the quest for truth, the true purpose of academia. The statement asserts that tenure is a necessary means for ensuring academic freedom as well as providing economic security and lays out a tenure system practically identical to that still used in the majority of American universities at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This was reinforced by the Supreme Court's 1957 ruling in Sweezy v. New Hampshire, which stated that the essentiality of academic freedom was almost self-evident and argued that teachers and students must "remain free to inquire." The association's statement was reevaluated and amended in 1970 and again in 1990, when all gender-specific language was removed.

The national headquarters of the American Association of University Professors is in Washington, D.C. They serve as a unifying force between the state and local chapters and as a congressional lobby. The legal division deals with a variety of issues, such as discrimination, intellectual property, and faculty contracts; it also submits amicus briefs before the Supreme Court and appellate courts.

Any institution with seven or more national members can form a campus chapter. These campus chapters together form state conferences to deal with legal and legislative issues on the state level. In 2000, the American Association of University Professors had members at more than 2,000 institutions, with 500 campus chapters and 39 state conferences. Six times a year they publish Academe, a journal for higher education. Their other major publication is the Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, which is a comprehensive analysis of salaries in the field.

Bibliography

Lucas, Christopher J. American Higher Education: A History. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.

Rudolph, Frederick. The American College and University: A History. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990.

—Eli Moses Diner

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) held its first meeting in 1915, in response to a 1914 call by a committee of full professors at Johns Hopkins university to organize a national association of professors. Concerned about the faculty role in college and university decision-making, the committee members made clear that the new organization was to serve university professors in ways parallel to the ways that the American Medical Association served doctors and the American Bar Association served lawyers, and the AAUP addressed many professorial concerns in its early years. The most pressing concern was academic freedom; although, according to the association's first president, John Dewey, academic freedom issues were thrust upon the organization.

The first academic freedom investigations, at the University of Utah and the University of Colorado, where the presidents had dismissed faculty members, set the precedent for future AAUP investigations, focusing on the reform of institutional practices and procedures. The association representatives negotiated with all of the parties involved (including dismissed professors not qualified for AAUP membership, administrators, and trustees) and the association published all of the evidence. The first AAUP report on the principles of academic freedom and academic tenure was the 1915 General Declaration of Principles and Practical Proposals. The report served as the basis for a 1925 conference on academic freedom that resulted in a code of academic freedom, the 1925 Conference Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure. By 1930 the association recognized that it needed a method to inform professors, administrators, trustees, students, and even the general public when colleges and universities failed to meet the standards of academic freedom and tenure. In 1931 association members agreed to publish a list of such institutions, institutions that in 1938 became known as censured colleges and universities. The AAUP still uses this method of highlighting the most intransigent administrations and governing boards.

The AAUP appointed its first full-time general secretary, Ralph E. Himstead, in 1935. Himstead was influential in the negotiations between the AAUP and the Association of American Colleges (AAC) dealing with a revision of the 1925 Conference Statement, insisting upon implementation of a maximum acceptable probationary period of seven years for professors in tenure-track positions. These negotiations resulted in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, which the AAUP continues to use, and the association has secured endorsement of the statement by a wide range of education associations.

Aaup Committees

From its beginning the AAUP has designated its standing committees by letter - including Committee A for academic freedom, Committee T for governance issues, and Committee Z for salary concerns. Association concerns about professors' economic conditions began in 1916 when it negotiated with representatives of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to determine the future of a rapidly decreasing pension fund for professors. In 1920 Committee T presented the results of the first AAUP survey of faculty participation in institutional governance, concluding that extensive faculty participation was rare. Subsequent Committee T reports in the 1920s and 1930s reiterated that finding.

Post - World War II Activities

In the decade following the end of World War II, the AAUP began a period of inaction, especially in the area of investigations of alleged violations of academic freedom. The association did not publish any investigations of alleged violations of academic freedom and tenure from the summer of 1949 until the spring of 1956, even though professors were under attack. Senator Joseph P. McCarthy was the primary force in these attacks, but requirements such as loyalty oaths for faculties and trustees' condemnations of irreligious professors went far beyond McCarthy's work in the United States Senate. The AAUP leadership feared the consequences of investigating the attacks, and the association offered no defense of beleaguered professors.

General Secretary Himstead died in 1955, and he was replaced by Ralph F. Fuchs. Fuchs accelerated the removal of the backlog of Committee A cases by appointing a special committee to report on academic freedom cases arising since 1948. The committee exercised considerable caution in its 1956 report in response to still powerful anti-Communist sentiments; the report also signaled, however, a renewed AAUP commitment to academic freedom principles. William P. Fidler became the AAUP's general secretary in 1958, a position he would hold until 1967. The AAUP enjoyed considerable success while Fidler was general secretary, expanding its programs in a variety of areas.

In 1958 Committee Z began a remarkable program to address members' concerns about their low salaries and benefits. The committee began not only to survey colleges and universities to determine institutions' salary scales for professors, it also began grading the salary scales. This program continued until the 1980s, and the AAUP continues to publish an annual report of professors' salaries at most U.S. colleges and universities.

Also in 1958 Committee T began to develop a revision of a statement of principles on faculty-administration relationships that had first been presented in 1937. In the early 1960s the committee began negotiating with representatives of the AAC and the American Council on Education in order to develop a statement on governance. In 1966 the AAUP approved its Statement on College and University Government, a statement soon endorsed by the AAC, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. The statement espoused a cooperative approach to governance, arguing that governing boards and administrations, faculties, and students all had important responsibilities in the operations and policies of colleges and universities.

The association initially expressed an interest in legal proceedings with the 1958 decision to file an amicus curiae brief in a United States Supreme Court case (Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U.S. 109, June 8, 1959) on academic freedom. In 1954 Professor Barenblatt refused to answer some questions, on the basis of the First Amendment, at a hearing of a sub-committee of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although the Court used AAUP arguments to sustain a decision contrary to the association's arguments (the Court upheld Barenblatt's conviction for contempt of the United States Congress), the association had developed another means of addressing faculty concerns. Since then the AAUP has often filed briefs in court cases, typically in support of professors' grievances.

By 1964 the AAUP leadership recognized that the faculty union movement was developing and began to raise questions about the association's role in collective bargaining. Despite the organizers' intent to create a professional association, the AAUP had often faced claims that it was a trade union, and association leaders had consistently denied any affiliation with unions and based association programs on negotiations with administrators and trustees. When the AAUP first approved collective bargaining in 1966, it did so as a tentative organizational commitment, declaring faculty unionization to be appropriate under only the most extreme conditions of administrative intransigence. In 1972 the AAUP established a firm commitment to faculty collective bargaining, although a substantial number of leaders and members were not convinced of the wisdom of such activity. For several years the association struggled with its new role, on the one hand continuing its work to reform practices in higher education, while on the other assisting local faculties in their efforts to unionize, an activity that at times led the AAUP into direct conflict with college and university administrations.

Since the mid-1970s the AAUP has attempted to address faculty concerns on a wide range of issues - in addition to academic freedom, tenure, and faculty unions. The association has offered policy statements on such matters as hate speech, the relationship of gender and race to academic freedom, and the rapid increase of part-time faculty members. It also continues to provide assistance to college and university faculties considering unionization. Most importantly, however, it remains the primary voice for professors on issues relating to academic freedom and tenure, supporting professors' unique opportunity to offer reasoned, even critical, assessments of the world at large.

Bibliography

Gruber, Carol. 1975. Mars and Minerva: World War I and the Uses of Higher Learning. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

Hofstadter, Richard, and Metzger, Walter P. 1955. The Development of Academic Freedom in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hutcheson, Philo A. 2000. A Professional Professoriate: Unionization, Bureacratizion, and the AAUP. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.

Metzger, Loya. 1978. "Professors in Trouble: A Quantitative Analysis of Academic Freedom and Tenure Cases." Ph.D. diss., Columbia University.

Schrecker, Ellen W. 1986. No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities. New York: Oxford University Press.

— PHILO HUTCHESON

American Association of University Professors

Motto	Academic freedom for a free society
Formation	1915
Type	Nonprofit charitable association
Headquarters	Washington D.C.
Location	United States
Membership	47,000 professors and professional university staff
Official languages	English
President	Cary Nelson
Key people	John Dewey Arthur O. Lovejoy Albert Einstein

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States. Association claims they have near forty-five thousand members. ^[1] As of 1997, less than 5 percent of faculty members in the United States belong to the AAUP.^[2] The AAUP is not an accrediting body.^[2] Its stated mission is to advance academic freedom and shared governance, to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education, and to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good. Founded in 1915 by Arthur O. Lovejoy and John Dewey, the AAUP has helped to shape American higher education by developing the standards and procedures that maintain quality in education and academic freedom in the country's colleges and universities. Cary Nelson is the current president.

Among the events that led to its founding was the dismissal of economics professor and sociologist Edward A. Ross from Stanford University. Ross investigated the problems of immigrant workers, including the Chinese who worked for Southern Pacific, the railroad run by Stanford founder Leland Stanford. Leland's widow Jane Stanford intervened and, over the objections of the president and the faculty, succeeded in getting Ross dismissed. [6]

University portal

Contents 1 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure 2 Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities 3 Conflict with Religious Institutions 4 Contingent Faculty 5 Attempt at Collective Bargaining 6 External links 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading

Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure

As the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) details the history of their policy on academic freedom and tenure, the association maintains that there “are still people who want to control what professors teach and write.” The AAUP's "Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure"[7] is the definitive articulation of these principles and practices, and is widely accepted throughout the academic community. The association's procedures ensuring academic due process remain the model for professional employment practices on campuses throughout the country.

The association suggests that "The principles of Academic Freedom and Tenure" date back to a 1925 conference. Also providing a history, O’Neil (2005) suggests that the formal origins of the statement of academic freedom in the United States begins with an earlier 1915 “declaration of principles,” when the “fledgling” AAUP first convened (p. 92). While it seems commonsense that academic freedom aligns with the values of democratic rights and free speech, O'Neil (2005) also notes the ideas of academic freedom at the time were not entirely well received, where even the New York Times criticized the declaration, but that today the statement remains “almost as nearly inviolate as the U.S. Constitution” (p. 92-94). The AAUP notes that following a series of conferences beginning in 1934, the association officially adopted the "1925 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure," which then started to become institutionalized in universities only since the 1940s.

The AAUP offers the original principles, including the 1940 interpretations of the statement and a 1970 interpretation, which codified evaluation of the principles since the time they were adopted. The statement is straightforward, based on three principles of academic freedom. Briefly summarized, the first principle states that teachers are entitled to “full freedom in research and in publication of the results," and that the issue of financial gains from research depends on the relationship with the institution. The second principle of academic freedom is that teachers should have the same freedom in the classroom. The third asserts that college and university professors are citizens and should be free to speak and write as citizens “free from institutional censorship.” (American Association of University Professors, 1970)

Based upon five principles, the statement on academic tenure is equally simple and to the point. The first principle maintains that the terms of appointment are to be stated in writing. The second details the conditions and length of time professors are given to attain tenure. The third notes that during the probationary period before attaining tenure, the teacher "should have all the academic freedom that all other members of the faculty have." Detailing terms for appeal of the decision to deny tenure, the fourth point notes that both faculty and the institution’s governing board should judge whether tenure is to be granted or denied. The final point suggests that if the faculty member is not granted tenure appointment for reasons of financial restraint upon the university, the "financial exigency should be demonstrably bona fide."

Noting the Supreme Court Case Keyishian v. The Board of Regents (1967) which established the constitutionality and legal basis for the AAUP's principles of academic freedom, the 1970 interpretations believes that the statement is not a "static code but a fundamental document to set a framework of norms to guide adaptations to changing times and circumstances." The commentary iterates key points of the 1940 interpretations. The statement does not discourage controversy but emphasizes professionalism, believing that professors should be careful "not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject." The interpretive statement also maintains that while professors have the rights of citizens, both scholars and educational officers "should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances," noting that every effort should be made "to indicate they are not speaking for the institution." The comments provide for further insights into the evaluation for tenure appointment and direct to the "1968 Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure," which recommends policy based upon the 1940 statement and a later documents on standards for faculty dismissal.

Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities

Main article: Governance in higher education

The American Association of University Professors published its first "Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities" in 1920, “emphasizing the importance of faculty involvement in personnel decisions, selection of administrators, preparation of the budget, and determination of educational policies. Refinements to the statement were introduced in subsequent years, culminating in the 1966 Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities” (American Association of University Professors, 1966). This statement was jointly formulated by the American Association of University Professors, the American Council on Education (ACE), and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB). The statement clarifies the respective roles of governing boards, faculties, and administrations. The document does not provide for a “blueprint” to the governance of higher education. Nor was the purpose of the statement to provide principles for relations with industry and government (though it establishes direction on “the correction of existing weaknesses”). Rather, the statement aimed to establish a shared vision for the internal governance of institutions. Student involvement is not addressed in detail. The statement concerns general education policy and internal operations with an overview of the formal roles for governing structures in the organization and management of higher education.

Conflict with Religious Institutions

Some scholars have criticized the AAUP's "antipathy toward religious colleges and universities."^[2] And the AAUP has censured numerous religious institutions, including the Brigham Young University and the Catholic University of America.^[3] Others have criticized the AAUP's current stance regarding academic freedom in religious institutions as contradicting its 1940 statement on academic freedom, which permits religious institutions to place limits on academic freedom if those limitations are clearly stated.^[2][4] In 1970, the AAUP criticized its 1940 statement, positing that most religious institutions "no longer need or desire" to place limits on academic freedom.^[5] In 1988, the AAUP offered up another interpretation, stating that the "1970 de-endorsement clause" requires a religious institution to forfeit its "right to represent itself as an 'authentic seat of higher learning.'"^[5] But the AAUP's Committee A did not endorse it, thus the issue on whether a religious institution can place limits on academic freedom if those limitations are clearly stated appears to be unresolved.^[5]

Contingent Faculty

In recent decades, the AAUP has added a focus on addressing the dramatic increase in faculty positions off the tenure track. An increasing percentage of faculty has become "contingent," or non-tenure track. Many are hired into part-time positions, often multiple part-time positions which together equal a full-time load or more, but with dramatically lower pay, little job security, and few or no fringe benefits. As of 2005, 48 percent of all faculty served in part-time appointments, and non-tenure-track positions of all types accounted for 68 percent of all faculty appointments in American higher education ^[6].

The AAUP has released a number of reports on contingent faculty: in 2008 a report on accreditors' guidelines pertaining to part-time faculty and a report of an investigation involving alleged violations of the academic freedom and due process rights of a full-time contingent faculty member; and in 2006 an index providing data on the number of contingent faculty at various colleges. also in 2006, the AAUP adopted a new policy dealing with the job protections that should be afforded to part-time faculty members. in 2003, it released its major policy statement Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession. The statement makes new recommendations in two areas: increasing the proportion of faculty appointments that are on the tenure line, and improving job security and due process protections for those with contingent appointments.

Attempt at Collective Bargaining

The AAUP attempted to establish itself as a collective bargaining agent for college and university faculty in the 1970s and early '80s. In 1979, the Boston University faculty went out on strike to gain recognition for the AAUP as its trade union. B.U. simultaneously was hit by a strike of clerical and custodial personnel seeking union recognition. Eventually, the administration of B.U. President John Silber settled with the AAUP, which went back to work while the clerical and custodial personnel continued their strikes. Five B.U. professors, including Murray Levin and Howard Zinn of the political science department, refused to cross the picket lines and were targeted for dismissal by Silber. The plight of the "B.U. 5" became a local cause celebre in the Boston-area academic community, and eventually Silber backed down. B.U. eventually sued the National Labor Relations Board (N.L.R.B.) to stop recognition of the AAUP as the collective bargaining agent of B.U.'s academic faculty.

The AAUP's role as a trade union was obviated by the Supreme Court's 1980 N.L.R.B. v. Yeshiva decision, which ruled that professors were not employees but were a kind of supervisory personnel, and thus not privileged to conduct collective bargaining. Many AAUP chapters became dormant until they were used by graduate students to push for collective bargaining rights. The struggle for on-campus unionization shifted from professors to graduate students-cum-teaching assistants, who won their first battle at New York University in 2001.

External links

• American Association of University Professors
• 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure
• AAUP Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities
• AAUP Statement on Shared Governance
• "The Yeshiva Case: Special Analysis; The Impact of the Supreme Court Decision", by Aaron E. Levenstein, National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education Newsletter, v8 n1 (Jan-Feb 1980)
• "Acadmemic Unions: The Legal Landscape", by Donna Euben, Academe (Jan/Feb 2001)
• "The Constitutional Context: Universities, New Information Technologies and the US Supreme Court" (Abstract), by Sandra Braman Information, Communication & Society, Volume 3, Issue 4 (December 2000)
• AAUP Collection (MUM00513) owned by the University of Mississippi, Archives and Special Collections.

See also

• Academic freedom
• Governance in higher education
• Higher education
• University organizations (annotated list)

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ ^{a b c d} The Issue of Academic Freedom: An Interview with Jim Gordon
3. ^ Censured Administrations [2]
4. ^ The Idol of Academic Freedom [3]
5. ^ ^{a b c} The Value of Limitations [4]
6. ^ Trends in Faculty Status, 1975-2005 [5]

Further reading

• American Association of University Professors. (1966). “Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities.” Retrieved September 26, 2006, [8]
• American Association of University Professors, "1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure," Retrieved December 11, 2006, [9]
• O’Neil, R.M. (2005). Academic Freedom: Past, Present, and Future beyond September 11. In P.G. Altbach, R.O. Berdahl, and P.J. Gumport, (Eds.), American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges, (2nd ed.). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)