Boston University 

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is a storied organization that has stood for academic freedom in the United States for over 100 years and is the main organization pushing back on attacks on higher education in the United States today.

The AAUP was founded in 1915, with a mission “to advance academic freedom and shared governance; to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education; to promote the economic security of faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, post‐doctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education; to help the higher education community organize to make our goals a reality; and to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.”

Today, the BU AAUP chapter is an active advocacy chapter and not a union, as described in our bylaws. As an advocacy chapter, the BU AAUP chapter is a vehicle for faculty, graduate student workers, and other instructional and research employees to raise our collective voices to organize for and promote shared governance, academic freedom, and a diverse, equitable and inclusive Boston University. 

AAUP summer institutes, training and workshops, and campaigns such as the New Deal for Higher Education enable opportunities to transform our campus climate. We also see models for future action in the work of other AAUP advocacy chapters, including George Mason University, Dartmouth College, and Hampshire College with its #ssavehampshire campaign.

BU AAUP, however, was not always just an advocacy chapter. In the 1970s, it was the labor union for BU faculty. To learn more about BU AAUP's storied history and the important role that prominent scholars like Howard Zinn and Frances Fox Piven played in it, check out our history webpage.

BU AAUP's current status as an advocacy chapter, however, does not preclude the chapter from exploring options related to unionization in the future. Union membership, likewise, does not preclude lecturers and graduate students, who already enjoy membership in a union, from becoming AAUP members. BU AAUP encourages worker solidarity across worker categories.

BU AAUP Steering Committee 

Mary Battenfeld  (BU AAUP Co-President and Clinical Professor of American Studies, College of Arts & Sciences)

Joseph Harris  (BU AAUP Co-President and Associate Professor of Sociology, College of Arts & Sciences)

Merry White  (Secretary-Treasurer, Professor of Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences)

Jen Cappione (Assistant Professor of Virology, Immunology, and Microbiology, College of Medicine)

Brian Cleary (Assisant Professor of Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences; Biology, College of Arts & Sciences; and Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering)

Andre de Quadros  (Professor of Music & Music Education, College of Fine Arts)

Jonathan Feingold (Associate Professor of Law, College of Law)

Lida Maxwell (Professor of Political Science, College of Arts & Sciences)

Pankaj Mehta (Associate Professor of Physics, College of Arts & Sciences)

Daniel Star  (Associate Professor of Philosophy, College of Arts & Sciences)

Aaron Walker (Master Lecturer, Film and Television, College of Communications)

We encourage BU instructional and research employees to join our chapter's email list and come to our meetings. Fill out this form to be added to our chapter listserv and be kept informed of upcoming meetings.

All queries to be sent to our email address: aaupbu@gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter @aaupbu and on our Facebook page.

We welcome queries from the media.

Frequently Asked Questions