The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) advocates for people and principles in higher ed. Don’t go it alone as a faculty member! Please consider joining AAUP.  AAUP welcomes all faculty, including clinical, instructional, practice, research, tenure-track, tenured, and retired, as well as future faculty, including graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. Dues are on a sliding scale and we keep membership confidential.

Texas AAUP provides guidance for AAUP members on due process matters such as faculty investigations and grievances.

Administrator Ambushes. If you’re ever called to meet with an administrator and they won’t tell you what it is about, ask for an explanation in writing. Some administrators have been known to try to catch a faculty member off guard in these kinds of meetings as a precursor to an investigation or part of an investigation.  If you decide to attend a meeting with an administrator that has the potential to be adversarial or disciplinary in nature, be sure to take an advocate/representative with you – you have a legal right to advocacy and representation by a personal third party, and that third party does not have to be a lawyer.  You can leave the meeting any time.

How AAUP Can Help You. Although Texas AAUP cannot provide legal advice, legal counsel, legal representation, or legal referrals at the present time, we’ll advocate like heck for our members:

Texas AAUP Intervenes on Behalf of Tenured Associate Professor Mickie Mwanzia Koster at UT Tyler. As a result, UT Tyler rescinded its 15-day notice of termination sent to Dr. Koster without any due process procedures, in violation of its own policies and procedures and Dr. Koster’s Constitutional Right to due process. (Oct. 2023)

Texas AAUP members can contact Texas AAUP Interim President Brian Evans (aaup.texas@gmail.com) to request an advocate for due process matters.

Any faculty member, whether they are an AAUP member or not, can reach out to Dr. Evans on other faculty matters involving academic freedom, tenure and shared governance.

About AAUP. We champion academic freedom, advance shared governance and organize all faculty to promote economic security and quality education.  Here are AAUP member benefits and reasons to advocate with Texas AAUP.  AAUP has 45,000 members and is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, which has 1.7M members including 148,000 professors. Please consider joining AAUP.

Please follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @TexasAaup for daily updates.