Membership FAQs
What is AAUP Membership?
The American Association of University Professors has two types of chapters—advocacy and collective bargaining. Our chapter at TNS is an Advocacy Chapter. Currently, The New School Chapter of AAUP does not collect internal dues.
To be a member of The New School Chapter of AAUP, you must also be a member of the national association (AAUP.org). Your dues go entirely to the national association.
Since 1991, the mission of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has been to advance academic freedom and shared governance; to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education; to promote the economic security of faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, post‐doctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education.
Eligibility for membership in the AAUP-TNS chapter is twofold and extends to:
Current members in the national AAUP organization.
Current and retired members of The New School who hold (or held) a professional position of teacher, researcher, student workers (graduate and undergraduate), or those with a related professional appointment such as librarians, Making Center staff, or other teaching support, excluding those who hold a 100% administrative role in upper management. These members should also have joined the national AAUP. Since we are an advocacy chapter, union members in teaching roles at TNS (e.g. part-time faculty; student workers; health center staff; clerical and professional workers) can join AAUP.
AAUP was, like the New School, founded, in part, by John Dewey. Like our University, the AAUP stands for protecting cutting edge thought and all the people who produce it, from campus workers to students to our neighbors and comrades.
Why Become a Member?
The benefits of AAUP membership include webinars (with upcoming topics like academic freedom and shared governance), as well as access to research, publications, and insurance programs organized by the national association. AAUP membership comes with a subscription to Academe magazine. It also features a career center for job listings.
AAUP offers protection and advocates for economic security for faculty. Its mission statement is here.
Your membership means reinforcing faculty governance, academic freedom, and solidarity with other university workers.
At The New School, your membership sends a signal to the university leadership that workers care about governance and transparency.
The very structure of The New School promotes competition and insecurity among workers. A strong AAUP-TNS chapter means greater transparency as active members refuse the siloeing and inequities that exist between different divisions.
AAUP-TNS wants to create better protection and more participation for part-time faculty, who are often afraid to speak in faculty councils.
What Is the Cost?
Dues range between $67 (typically student workers, with an academic income of less than 30,000 a year) to $298 (for those making more than $120,000 a year), with a sliding scale based on your yearly income. As your dues go entirely to the national office, our Chapter does not have access to the information you share with AAUP and we encourage you to pay what you can. The registration form, with the scale of incomes, is here.
You can pay your dues once a year or on a monthly basis. You are also encouraged to set up auto renew, which will bring stability to our Chapter.
Full-time faculty can pay for membership using their research and travel funds.
Why Renew?
When you renew your membership, you help the chapter, its standing committees, and working groups achieve their goals. You retain an important voice in shaping the work and future of the AAUP.
The AAUP-TNS was founded in 2020 in the midst of a university in crisis. In the past year, it has worked to ensure that The New School is attentive to the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized and to develop a people-centered approach to the immense challenges facing higher education in moments of crisis. Solidarity, respect, compassion, and collective power are key principles guiding the work that we do.
Join or renew now to build on the momentum from last year’s efforts, and to continue the work of supporting bottom-up channels of participation.
New School workers joining the national organization automatically become members of The New School AAUP chapter.
Stay in Touch
Once you have joined AAUP, please subscribe to our general members mailing list.
Donate
The Open Collective is a platform where AAUP-TNS members can donate and help cover membership dues for TNS part-time faculty.