The Western Michigan University Chapter of the
American Association of University Professors

Founded in 1915, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has helped to shape American higher education by developing the standards and procedures that maintain quality in education and academic freedom in colleges and universities in the United States. The AAUP's mission is to advance academic freedom and shared governance, define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education, and ensure higher education’s contribution to the common good.

The Western Michigan University chapter was founded in 1950 to champion the causes of academic freedom, shared governance, and due process here on our own campus and to advocate for higher education as a public good. In March 1974, Western’s board-appointed faculty voted to unionize, and the WMU-AAUP became a collective-bargaining chapter.

Today, the WMU-AAUP is a thriving organization of WMU’s nearly 900 board-appointed faculty members. We are an active community of teachers, scholars, researchers, and artists committed to student success and academic excellence. The WMU-AAUP is a faculty-driven, faculty-led organization that continues to advocate for academic freedom, due process, shared governance, and the preservation of higher education as a public good.