Who can get help from the AAUP?
Any full- or part-time faculty member, whether tenure-track or lecturer, research, clinical, or instructional, may ask for help from the AAUP.
Will you help me if I’m on the faculty but not a member of the AAUP?
Yes, we’ll help even if you’re not a member. We encourage all faculty to become members, by visiting the AAUP’s national website. We’re your advocacy group, and we defend your right to academic freedom and to participate in faculty governance.
Can you help graduate students who teach?
Unfortunately we cannot. We recommend that graduate students with difficulties contact their representatives on the Graduate Council, the Graduate Professional Council, the Graduate Student Senate, or the Office of the Ombuds. Graduate students may also wish to join their own advocacy organization, the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students.
Whom should university staff (non-faculty employees) contact for help?
We suggest that you start with your representatives on the Staff Council, or with the Staff Ombuds.
What sorts of problems does the AAUP help people with?
We deal with issues of academic freedom, broadly conceived, and we also advise faculty on many other matters related to their employment or tenure status. In general, the cases in which we intervene are those in which we find that university officials have not adhered to standards of fair processes, especially as spelled out in the “Policy on Academic Freedom, Responsibility, and Tenure.”
Some cases brought to the AAUP involve employment termination or denial of tenure, but we consider other sorts of cases as well.
What will happen when I contact you?
You will get a response via the means you specify (your WU address if you do not say otherwise), putting you in contact with a colleague on the Executive Board member assigned to serve as your primary contact with us. That board member will discuss your case or situation with you, and if you wish, arrange for you to present it to the whole board.
But what can the AAUP actually do?
First, we can offer advice based on our experience in dealing with the administration and in resolving conflicts involving academic freedom, employment conditions, and other issues of basic concern. We have, collectively, many years of dealings with the administration, so we can suggest the university processes we think would be the most helpful in your situation and guide you in your approach to them.
Second, we can in some cases advocate on your behalf by making recommendations to university administrators. They are under no obligation to follow these recommendations.
Finally, we may refer extreme cases to the national AAUP, which may then investigate, and when warranted, issue a public report and formally censure the university.
Is all this confidential?
It remains as confidential as we can reasonably make it, except to the extent required by law, and subject to policies such as the University’s rules on computer use. Executive Board meetings discussing individual cases are confidential.
Board members with prior personal knowledge of cases that come to us generally recuse themselves and do not receive any email or attend any meeting in which we discuss the case or our role in it. A faculty member bringing a case to the AAUP may request that a member of the board recuse him or herself.
What else does the WU AAUP do?
We advise colleagues and administrators on university policies (existing and proposed) as they relate to academic freedom or the interests of faculty. We advocate in all cases for the principle of faculty governance of the university, and the respect of faculty members’ intellectual freedom and property rights.