The American Association of University Professors is an organization that gives higher education institutions some of the resources they need to run effectively while protecting the rights and needs of their faculty.

According to their website, the AAUP’s goal is “advancing academic freedom and shared governance; defining professional values and standards; promoting the economic security of those who teach and research in higher education; organizing to make our goals a reality; and ensuring higher education’s contribution to the common good.”

Here at Saint A’s, there are many ways that the AAUP is utilized for the betterment of faculty life, even if indirectly.

The faculty handbook that is published every year is created by the Faculty Senate and then approved by the Board of Trustees, but there is a lot of language in the handbook that is derived from AAUP statements.

This is an important part of the AAUP’s role on campus.

Founded in 1915, the AAUP has spent 100 years thinking about what it means to be faculty at a higher education institution and what the needs are to create a healthy working environment in order to best serve the higher good.

Thus, the statements they put out have been tried and proven true, ensuring that if there is an issue that needs to be addressed in the faculty handbook, the AAUP is likely to have the best procedure on how to handle it.

Things like maternity leave and sexual harassment are covered in this manner, providing colleges and universities with a guide for protecting the happiness of their faculty and students.

Another crucial part of the AAUP is the protection of academic freedom. The term “academic freedom”, while meaning many different things, can primarily be applied to mean the rights that professors have within the classroom.

Through the code of academic freedom, professors are allowed to research and discuss topics that may be controversial as long as they are directly related to and relevant to their subject matter.

By providing clear statements on academic freedom and its protection, the AAUP provides a neutral resource where there may be tension between faculty members and their employer.

While the AAUP may not be needed for questions of academic freedom, faculty salary, or shared governance at Saint A’s, its presence on camps is essential.

The president of the AAUP chapter here at Saint Anselm is Professor Leapley of the Modern Languages department, and she stresses that the AAUP is a necessity: “The fact that we have an AAUP…helps us as a college stay at the forefront of issues and stay at the pulse of what is going on in society.”

By being connected to colleges and universities across the country through the AAUP, our small hilltop campus can maintain a sense of what is going on nationally in other colleges and stay ahead of issues before they reach us, as Professor Leapley explained.

Even more than that, the AAUP is beneficial to the entire college community, even students, by providing the faculty and the college administrators with the security of a common resource to guide them if any issues should arise.

Thus, students can rest assured that the people in charge of their higher education can focus on advancing the success of the college.

Professor Leapley also stressed the importance of the AAUP’s mission to pursue the common good. She believes that this goal will help colleges and universities to focus not only on “training teachers and nurses but training students how to think…this is hard to defend because it is expensive and payoff… is not always immediate.”

Leapley also notes that through their involvement in the AAUP, faculty are reminded to “remain a part of the conversation” in pursuing the common good.

The AAUP remains a quiet but guiding force on the campus, aiding our professors in a whole mission that is often overlooked.