FAQs

Why should I join AAUP?

Organize with your colleagues. The AAUP chapter is a place where faculty can organize, share information, and speak candidly without administrative oversight. 

Puts your values into action. AAUP exists to defend academic freedom, shared governance, tenure, and the idea that higher education serves a public good rather than a corporate one. If those are your values, AAUP is where they get translated from beliefs into action.

Provides access to tangible resources. The North Carolina state conference and national AAUP offer legal guidance, organizing training, policy research, sample contract and handbook language, salary survey data, and crisis support when something goes wrong on campus. 

Builds power in numbers and networks. When one faculty member raises a concern, administration can set it aside. When a critical mass of faculty raise it together—backed by a state conference and a national office that has been doing this work for over a century—administration is much more likely to engage. 

What has AAUP done / What will AAUP do for me if I join?

We get this one a lot, understandably. But AAUP is not a product you are purchasing with your dues. AAUP is faculty—at Elon, across North Carolina, and across the country—pooling resources and acting together. What AAUP "does" is what faculty members in AAUP do. 

Another way to think about this is: What have you been able to change at Elon as an individual? When you have raised a concern—about salary, governance, working conditions, academic freedom, the direction of the institution, etc.—on your own, how far has it gone? University administration is structured to absorb individual concerns and move on. Think about what could change at Elon if you and fifty of your colleagues raised the same concern together, with a state conference and a national organization standing behind them. That is the actual offer of membership: solidarity with and from your colleagues.

Why do I have to pay dues?

It takes real resources to win big fights. University leadership has their own resources to fight for their interests, and nationally, conservative forces and the elite are pooling their money to pass legislation that undermines higher education and your rights as a worker. When you and your colleagues pool your resources together, you are building your own organization to fight for your collective interests. 

Can I join the Elon group without paying dues?

No. A faculty-only organizing space only works if everyone inside it is committed to the cause. Paying dues is a small but meaningful signal that you are bought in. The colleagues who have put their own resources into building this chapter extend more trust to those who have done the same. 

What are dues used for?

Your dues fund, among other things, the national legal program, the annual Faculty Compensation Survey, the journal Academe, organizing staff who support chapters, and national political advocacy on academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance.

Your dues also support state-level coordination, legislative advocacy on issues affecting every NC campus, and the connections between Elon faculty and colleagues across UNC system schools, Duke, Wake Forest, and other private institutions.