AAUP@CU
Welcome to the Columbia University Chapter of the AAUP
The mission of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is to advance academic freedom and shared governance; to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education; to promote the economic security of faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, post‐doctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education; to help the higher education community organize to make our goals a reality; and to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.
Founded in 1915, the AAUP has helped to shape American higher education by developing the standards and procedures that maintain quality in education and academic freedom in this country's colleges and universities.
We are the Columbia University Chapter of the AAUP, re-established on December 13th, 2021. Now more than ever we need an effective forum for faculty to organize and advocate for ourselves, for our more vulnerable colleagues, for our students, and for educators nationwide.
When possible our Chapter works with the University Senate, the Arts and Sciences Planning and Policy Committee, and other existing bodies to further faculty governance, but it provides an independent voice and a common space for faculty from all across the University.
History
Columbia University has hosted an AAUP Chapter in the past, as evidenced by this announcement, from the March 11, 1935 Spectator.
The speakers that evening were Robert Haig and Carl Shoup, both economists, and Roswell Magill and Edwin Patterson, law professors with specialties in tax law; Magill also served as Under Secretary of the Treasury. Wonder if they were discussing the parlous state of university finances?
Join us!
Concerned about increasingly top-down decision-making? The erosion of shared faculty governance? The university’s restructuring and priorities? Join us!
Columbia University affiliates who join the AAUP are automatically members of our Chapter. You can join the AAUP here.
Stronger together
The AAUP voted to affiliate with the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. Together, the AAUP and AFT now represent more than 300,000 higher-education workers nationwide, more than any other union. Read more about this affiliation here.
As of August 1, 2022, all AAUP members are AFT members.