The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was founded in 1915 to defend faculty rights, especially academic freedom and tenure. The AAUP protects professors from arbitrary dismissal and harassment and assures due process when a professor is charged with incompetence or moral turpitude, the two most common grounds for dismissal. The University of Michigan Chapter of the AAUP, evidently formed in the mid-1920s, defends the rights of the faculty of the University of Michigan. As one might expect given the collegiality of university professors, the local chapter maintains a close relationship with the national AAUP.
Within the chapter, these bonds of collegiality are often strained as freethinking individuals bridle at acting in concert. This is manifest, for example, in the Nickerson and Davis dismissal case of the mid-1950s during the McCarthy era. This appeared to be a clear cut case of preventing the arbitrary dismissal of colleagues for their leftist politics. Despite extensive efforts, the chapter was unable to prevent the dismissal of Nickerson and Davis; some attribute this failure to a group of the faculty which esteemed conformity over academic freedom. The University of Michigan Chapter of the AAUP survived this episode and continues its work to protect the freedom and rights of the professoriate.
From the guide to the American Association of University Professors, University of Michigan Chapter, records, 1926-1995, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)
