An Invitation to Join the AAUP

Fill out this form, and mail it in, to join the AAUP Print and Mail Form Have you been helped by the new indemnity health insurance plan option available to state employees? This was obtained largely through AAUP Benefit Committee efforts.

Do you plan to take advantage of the new Life Expectancy Option available in your Optional Retirement Program (and which could possibly double the amounts received by you and your heirs after you retire)? This was made available partly through the efforts of the AAUP AZ Conference.

Are you concerned that your department and job may be "reorganized" out of existence with little or no due process? Who will you go to for advice and assistance?

Who negotiates on behalf of salary issues?

Who do you go to if there is an attack on academic standards?

When a faculty member gets in trouble, he/she often turns to the AAUP for help. Many such faculty members are not members of the AAUP, but we don't ask. Our role is to protect the profession. But frankly, every faculty member who believes in the profession should become a member of the AAUP. Many of our policies, such as those that govern proper notice and due process for terminations, have become so central to professional standards that most faculty don't even know that these standards were developed by the AAUP.

We don't mind being taken for granted - it is the clearest sign of our success - but we cannot do our work without the support of members. Our national office carries out the investigations that result in censure, or altered behavior, of institutions which were not abiding by the standards of the profession. The national office does the annual salary survey of the profession. The national AAUP lobbies on Capitol Hill for support of education and research funding, and files friend of the court briefs in important cases before the Supreme Court. At the state level we interact with members of the legislature and members of the news media to promote support of our teaching, research and service roles as well as our economic needs. At the chapter level we guide faculty members who have encountered capricious or discriminatory behavior to the effective use of due process procedures to defend themselves. We also negotiate for appropriate use of campus budgets, appropriate committee structures and use of proper standards of promotion and tenure to support the missions of each university and college. If you are part of the profession, you benefit from the work of the AAUP. Like us, you have a role to play in protecting your profession. The profession has some hard work ahead of it - won't you join us in carrying it out?

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