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AAUP
Principles
(From the The American Association of University
Professors was founded in 1915 by John Dewey, A.O. Lovejoy, and other eminent scholars because they
felt that the quality of higher education in America was dependent on the
extent to which the faculty, as highly-trained professionals, maintained
primary control over teaching, scholarship, and faculty governance. One of the
fledgling organization's first undertakings was to formulate principles and
standards for a tenure system that would protect the academic freedom of
professors in teaching, research, and governance. That formulation, the 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and
Academic Tenure, provided the first effective defense of academic freedom
in American higher education. In the last
ninety years, the AAUP has continued to promote academic excellence by
advocating for the highest professional standards. The traditions of tenure, academic
freedom, due process, and shared governance that have contributed to making
our colleges and universities the best in the world were all established by
the AAUP, and have been kept alive and strengthened by its activities. Academic
Freedom and Due Process
The
definitive exposition of the principles that support this country's model
tenure system is the AAUP's 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure.
The 1940 Statement has been endorsed by 213 disciplinary and other higher
education associations. A fabulous collection of resources on
academic freedom is available on the AAUP's
website. To assist
colleges and universities in developing their own policies supporting
academic freedom and tenure, the AAUP has developed several sets of recommended
standards and policies. Among these, the most important are the
Shared
Governance
Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities.
Jointly formulated in 1966 by the Association of Governing Boards (AGB ), the American Council on Education (ACE), and the
AAUP, this document contains the definitive understanding of the concept of
shared governance. "What Is Shared Governance Anyway?" An attempt
to capture the essence of the 1966 Statement. "The End of Shared Governance: Looking Ahead or Looking
Back." In this 2003 conference paper distinguished higher education
scholar Robert Birnbaum affirms the
utility of shared governance as defined in the Statement on Government. His
conclusion: "There
is no doubt that, as its critics suggest, faculty participation in shared
governance will have the effect of making it more difficult to change the
programs and purposes of higher education. Whether this is a good thing or a
bad thing is a matter of ideology. The faculty are the primary upholders of
the academic culture, and so those that give precedence to the idea of a
university as an academic institution—who believe with [the English
poet John] Masefield that 'there are few earthly
things more spendid than a university'—are
likely also to continue to believe in the importance of shared governance.
The basic question to ask is not whether we want to make governance more
efficient, but whether we want to preserve truly academic institutions. If
the answer is affirmative, then shared governance is the essential
precondition." The Role of the Faculty in the Accrediting of Colleges and
Universities. A set of guidelines and recommendations for applying the
principles of shared governance to the process of institutional
accreditation. You can access
a treasure trove of additional
resources on governance on the AAUP web site. |
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