The
American Association of University Professors (
AAUP) is an
organization of
professors and other academics in the
United States. AAUP membership is about 47,000, with over 500 local campus chapters and 39 state organizations. The AAUP's 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
eugenicist, economics professor and sociologist
Edward Alsworth Ross from
Stanford University. Ross investigated the problems of immigrant workers, including the Chinese who worked for
Southern Pacific, the railroad run by Stanford's founder
Leland Stanford. Leland's widow
Jane Stanford intervened and, over the objections of the president and the faculty, succeeded in getting Ross dismissed.
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...
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