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Delegates at the American Association of University Professors’ biennial meeting voted to affiliate with the American Federation of Teachers Saturday, forming an alliance of 300,000 college and university faculty members, the largest such network in the U.S. The groups say their partnership comes at time of increased legislative attacks on teaching and academic freedom, and they link what they describe as persistent underfunding for higher education to student debt levels and precarity for adjunct instructors. The AAUP’s governing council previously recommended the partnership with AFT, under which the AAUP will remain an independent, autonomous organization. This new alliance is an extension of a longer-term relationship between the AFT and the AAUP. Going forward, the AFT will contribute to the AAUP’s advocacy efforts, and AFT and AAUP union chapters will be affiliated with both groups.
“Working together, we will be much better equipped to take on the challenges facing higher education—anti-intellectual attacks on the teaching of history, legislative intrusion into the academy, disinvestment and chronic underfunding of public higher education and the resulting casualization of academic workers,” Irene Mulvey, AAUP’s president, said in a statement.
AFT president Randi Weingarten, who addressed AAUP members earlier during the biennial meeting, said after the vote that with the affiliation, “we double down on the work to make colleges and universities excellent places to teach and learn, and to join forces to battle the ongoing threats to academic freedom and democracy. We will marshal forces to better fight for the necessary resources for postsecondary education to thrive, and we’ll organize to make academic jobs more sustainable and the promise of higher education more accessible to all.”
