The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was formed in January 1915. John Dewey (professor of education and psychology at Columbia) was selected as its first president, and Arthur Lovejoy (professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins) as secretary. AAUP’s core mission has been

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, postdoctoral 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.[1]

In one of his first acts as president, Dewey appointed Edwin R. A. Seligman (professor of economics at Columbia) to chair a committee on academic freedom and tenure that has come to be called “Committee A.”[2]

The AAUP has chapters at over 500 colleges and universities across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands. To my knowledge, MIT has not had an active chapter for decades. However, MIT faculty have been members at-large, and the history of the AAUP at MIT is strong. Judith Jarvis Thomson (1929-2020), one of the philosophy section’s most notable faculty, was an AAUP member for over 50 years.[3] Thomson played a significant role in the AAUP, having served as vice president of the Association and many years on Committee A. Matthew W. Finkin, once Chair of Committee A, imagines someone researching academic freedom in the United States, and suggests

what our researcher will find is how generously Judith Thomson has given of her time and extraordinary intelligence; and of how measurably better not only Committee A nor only the Association, but the American academic community is for it.[4]

Given increasing challenges to higher education and concerns about academic freedom, this is a moment when it makes sense to work together to strengthen our commitment to academic freedom and faculty governance at MIT. With this in mind, a group of faculty has revived the MIT AAUP Chapter. This entitles the chapter to professional resources to support our work, including expert advice, historical documents, policy statements, webinars, networks of faculty addressing similar issues, and more. Any MIT member of the AAUP is eligible to join the MIT Chapter.

In order to form this chapter, a minimal executive committee was formed, including: Sally Haslanger (philosophy), president; Erica James (DUSP and anthropology), vice-president; Eric Robsky Huntley (DUSP) secretary; and Marzyeh Ghassemi (EECS), treasurer. Two at-large members of the executive committee will be elected once we gain critical mass. Chapter meetings will be held monthly, and the agenda for our efforts at MIT will be shaped in those meetings.

We encourage research and teaching staff – including faculty, postdocs, lecturers, research scientists – to join the AAUP and the MIT Chapter. To join the AAUP, visit their website: https://www.aaup.org/. To express your interest in being involved in the MIT Chapter (whether or not you are an AAUP member), please fill out this form: https://tinyurl.com/mitaaup. For further questions about the MIT Chapter, contact: aaup-info@mit.edu.

[1] https://www.aaup.org/about/mission-1

[2] https://www.aaup.org/about/committees#CommA

[3] https://www.aaup.org/article/fifty-year-aaup-members-0

[4] https://academeblog.org/2020/12/09/judith-jarvis-thomson-a-reminiscence/

Back to top