American Association of University Professors

The AAUP is a nonprofit membership association of faculty and other academic professionals. Headquartered in Washington, DC, we have members and chapters based at colleges and universities across the country.

Since our founding 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 define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education, advance the rights of academics, particularly as those rights pertain to academic freedom and shared governance, and promote the interests of higher education teaching and research.

AAUP chapters at campuses across the country work to advance the mission of the AAUP through advocacy, organizing and, in some cases, collective bargaining. In some states, state conferences support chapters and work on state level issues.

Our sister organization, the AAUP Foundation, is a public charity; it funds, through its grant-making process, the charitable and educational purposes of the AAUP, including support for academic freedom and quality higher education.