About Us

 Our chapter of AAUP began in the mid-1940s, at a period when many university chapters of AAUP sprang up in response to the triple threat of a "boom and bust" post-WWII academic climate, lack of faculty-driven governance, and McCarthyism. Two of the presidents in the 1950s were women, which was rare for faculty governance in the mid-20th century. Dorothea Spellman, faculty in the School of Social Work, served in a leadership role in the chapter for close to a decade and eventually took on a leadership role in the national AAUP.

 The DU chapter was active until the early 1980s, and was rebooted in 2007 in part in response to the investigation and firing of University of Colorado Boulder professor Ward Churchill in 2007.

We are currently the largest chapter in the state of Colorado, with over 100 members. 

As of 2022, the American Association of University Professors has affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). This affiliation means that the AAUP is a "national regional council" of AFT, with sole authority over its governance, and autonomy for its chapters. 

All dues-paying AAUP members are also members of the AFT, and as AFT is also affiliated with AFL-CIO, AAUP members are members as well.