BY AAUP STAFF
If you’re a faculty member and Academe Blog reader who is not an AAUP member yet, now is the time to join the AAUP!
AAUP and AAUP Foundation President Todd Wolfson speaks at a protest against the Trump administration’s “compact” for higher education
During a year of unprecedented attacks against higher education, the AAUP has fought back relentlessly—harnessing the collective power and talents of its members to protect colleges and universities from the Trump administration’s authoritarian interference. Standing up for US democracy means standing up for academic freedom and institutional autonomy on behalf of campus community members and the wider public, which benefits from lifesaving and innovative academic research and healthcare infrastructure.
The AAUP’s membership grew by more than 21 percent in 2025, and members are more engaged than ever—working together on and beyond their campuses through direct advocacy, nationwide protests, and lawsuits that resulted in historic victories against government funding cuts and deportation campaigns designed to exert ideological control. Ensuring a strong future for higher education and the academic profession depends on solidarity. Encourage your friends and colleagues eligible for membership to join the AAUP and join the fight in 2026!
Whether or not you are a member, you can fuel the collective power that enables the AAUP’s work by making a year-end gift of any amount to the AAUP Foundation, which supports the AAUP’s charitable and educational purposes. The AAUP Foundation endeavors to protect academic freedom and the quality of higher education in a free and democratic society through financial assistance to the AAUP and other grantees whose projects advance AAUP principles.
In 2025, the Foundation provided essential funding for groundbreaking AAUP lawsuits, including victories in AAUP v. Trump, AAUP v. DOJ, and AAUP v. Rubio; faculty member education through distribution of “Redbooks” (the AAUP’s Policy Documents and Reports, now in its twelfth edition) and mini Redbooks; publication of scholarship on academic freedom in the AAUP’s annual online Journal of Academic Freedom; teach-ins on political repression developed by Historians for Peace and Democracy and Convergence magazine; and a database of collective bargaining contracts for analysis of academic freedom clauses by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education. Help the Foundation to continue fostering such important work in the coming year.
Make your tax-deductible contribution to the AAUP Foundation today!
