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"To Make Collective Action Possible": The Founding Of The Aaup, Hans Tiede

Hans Joerg Tiede

The article reviews the developments that led to the founding of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). The AAUP was not founded specifically as the primary defender of academic freedom that it subsequently became. Its broader goal was to further the professionalization of the professoriate. Locally, the Association’s founders hoped to reform university governance by shifting the balance of power away from presidents and lay governance boards. Nationally, the Association was to serve as a body to speak for the profession as a whole in response to organized efforts to standardize American higher education - efforts that did not …