Since 1915 the AAUP has been promoting sound academic practices and working for those practices to be accepted by the higher education community, as well as by national and state legislators.

In the interest of the common good, it defends academic freedom and tenure, advocates collegial governance, develops policies ensuring due process, backs affirmative action, and seeks the overall well-being of the profession.

The New York State Conference promotes the activities and values of the AAUP on the state and campus level. It has a Chapter Service Program to assist local chapters in the areas of recruitment, tenure, academic freedom, governance, leadership training, lobbying, legal referrals, and the economic welfare of the profession. It publishes its newsletter, New York Academe, three times a year; and has two Conference meetings a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, alternating downstate and upstate sites.

To check out its concerns, click on the appropriate links. The national AAUP website carries even more news of importance to higher education, as well as many of the classic AAUP statements on academic freedom, etc., and up-to-date ones about currently hot topics such as the use and pay of part-time faculty members, distance education, and intellectual property rights.

The AAUP has  about 45,000 members nationwide; the New York State Conference-AAUP has about 4,000. Different kinds of membership are available to faculty members and others on campus and off.