Updated November 20, 2025.

In Texas, the need to organize faculty to advocate on campus and in the State Legislature is greater than ever.  By itself, Texas AAUP lacks the lobbying, policy analysis, IT support, media consultants, and lawyers to meet the need.  All statewide and campus chapter officers in Texas AAUP are volunteers, and Texas AAUP has no employees.  National AAUP staff, which have dwindled from about 60 to 25 in the last two years, are very efficient but are stretched thin to serve the 42,000 AAUP members and 500 campus chapters.

Texas AFT, with 66,000 members and 45 staff, amplifies Texas AAUP advocacy.  Texas AFT has organizers, lobbyists, policy analysts, IT, media consultants, and lawyers.  During the last Legislative session in Spring 2023, Texas AFT gave us the training, guidance, and staff support to champion academic freedom.  Through Texas AFT, Texas AAUP garnered bipartisan support to amend the definition of tenure in SB 18 to be continuous employment instead of one-year contracts.

On March 30, 2024, Texas AAUP voted in favor to affiliate with Texas AFT.  The agreement took effect on March 30, 2024, because Texas AFT, National AAUP, and National AFT had already approved the Affiliation Agreement. The agreement was possible because National AAUP had affiliated with National AFT on August 1, 2022.

Through the affiliation agreement, Texas AAUP became Texas AAUP-AFT and AFT Local 8041A.  That is, Texas AAUP-AFT is now a Local Union within Texas AFT.  Texas AFT hired two full-time organizers solely for Texas AAUP-AFT who started July 1, 2024, Alvaro Chavez and Amanda Garcia. During the Texas Legislative Session from Jan. 14, 2025, to June 2, 2025, Amanda Garcia has been primarily a lobbyist who was at the Legislature every day lobbying for academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance in higher education.

Per the Affiliation Agreement, “The Texas AAUP will pay the Texas AFT the per capita consistent with the Texas AFT constitution on all its members that it receives dues.” (page 7).  Here, “per capita” means “per member”. On July 15, 2024, Texas AFT President Zeph Capo adopted a sliding scale of three dues bands with $120 for the highest dues band, $60 for the middle dues band, and $30 for the lowest dues band.  President Capo considered different groupings of the nine National AAUP dues bands into three levels using data from National AAUP before making his final decision.  The AAUP Lifetime Members as of July 15, 2024, would be grandfathered in and would not have to pay any additional dues.

No matter how the nine National AAUP dues bands are grouped into three bands, there will be a different impact on those in each of the nine National AAUP dues bands.  Here’s the effect calculated for each band.  The highest increase as a percentage of salary occurs in National AAUP dues bands 1, 4, and 7, and National AAUP dues bands 3, 6, and 9 have the lowest percentage increase.

First, I consider three salary levels in each band that represent the lowest, middle, and highest salary in that band.  In band 1, I set the lowest salary to $20,000.  In band 9, there’s only one salary, which is $120,001:

AAUP Salary Band	Lowest	Middle	Highest
1	$20,000	$25,000	$30,000
2	$30,001	$35,000	$40,000
3	$40,001	$45,000	$50,000
4	$50,001	$55,000	$60,000
5	$60,001	$65,000	$70,000
6	$70,001	$75,000	$80,000
7	$80,001	$90,000	$100,000
8	$100,001	$110,000	$120,000
9	$120,001

Below, I subtract the new dues as a percentage of their academic income from the National AAUP dues as a percentage of their academic income:

AAUP Salary Band	Lowest	Middle	Highest
1	0.38%	0.30%	0.25%
2	0.18%	0.15%	0.13%
3	0.06%	0.06%	0.05%
4	0.30%	0.28%	0.25%
5	0.16%	0.15%	0.14%
6	0.09%	0.08%	0.08%
7	0.22%	0.20%	0.18%
8	0.15%	0.14%	0.12%
9	0.10%

These new dues include National AAUP dues and Texas AFT dues.  The Texas AFT dues help cover the salaries of the organizers, lobbyists, policy analysts, IT support, and media consultants who are assisting our members. 

In addition, Texas AAUP-AFT also receives 4% of the National AAUP dues back for its cash reserves and also receives funding from Texas AFT. 

Collectively, the new dues structure will help Texas AAUP-AFT build its Legal Defense Fund.  Here are example legal costs:

$    2,500 Letter from a lawyer

$  25,000 Legal Representation through a Faculty Grievance Process

$250,000 Legal Representation through trial 

The volunteers in the Texas AAUP-AFT Office of Faculty Representation are assisting 80 faculty in responding to investigations, discipline, and/or dismissal. Prior to the Texas AAUP-AFT registration portal opening on Sept. 27, 2024, everyone using OFR services would have had to pay for legal representation out of their personal funds. Since Sept. 27, 2024, members who join through the Texas AAUP-AFT registration portal would be eligible for our Legal Defense Fund.

From September 27, 2024, to August 31, 2025, here are the current Texas AAUP-AFT dues to provide the services and support critical for Texas AAUP-AFT members to advocate on campus and in the Legislature: 

$155/yr (or $12.50/mo) for annual income below $50k (AAUP bands 1-3)
$305/yr (or $25.42/mo) for annual income $50k-80K (AAUP bands 4-6)
$451/yr (or $37.60/mo) for annual income above $80k (AAUP bands 7-9)

For comparison, the top dues category is $633/year for the Texas Faculty Association and $42.25/mo for the Austin Community College AFT Local.  The new Texas AAUP-AFT dues structure would apply when one renews their membership or joins as a new member.

Texas AFT increased its dues on Sept. 1, 2025. Here’s the new sliding scale dues structure for Texas AAUP-AFT based on one’s annual academic income:

$13.34/month for an annual income of $50,000 or less
$26.74/month for an annual income between $50,000 and $80,000
$39.48/month for an annual income above $80,000.

In Texas, the need to organize faculty to advocate on campus and in the State Legislature is greater than ever.  Through the Texas AFT dues, Texas AFT provides the staff support through organizing, lobbying, policy analysis, IT support, media consultants, and lawyers to meet the need.  National AAUP does not have these resources.  As we build the Texas AAUP-AFT Legal Defense Fund using our new dues structure, we’ll be able to help cover more and more of the costs for legal representation for our members, with a goal of having a fully funded Legal Defense Fund in two years.

Best,

Brian

Brian L. Evans, PhD | He/His/Him | aaup.texas@gmail.com | 512-516-5991
President, Texas AAUP-AFT Conference, AFT Local 8041A

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