American Association of University Professors (AAUP) records

The Berea College Chapter of the AAUP formed in 1933. For much of the next three decades the goals of the organization centered on improved teaching and curriculum, presentation of faculty research, shared governance and contact with the College’s Board of Trustees, badly needed increases in faculty salaries, and clarity in policy related to tenure and academic freedom. By the mid 1970s, faculty interest dwindled and the organization essentially went defunct. By this time, many of the aims of the organization had been achieved and faculty had gained other avenues for influence and shared governance within the formal structures of the College’s administration.  Also, closer relationships between the Board of Trustees and faculty had developed in large part due to the efforts of the AAUP’s outreach activities.  In May 2010, the AAUP was revived, due in large part to the low morale, mistrust, and perceived loss of shared governance resulting from the College Administration’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and the 2009 Scenario Planning and Academic Restructuring process which followed. Records did not survive from every year or every group of elected AAUP Berea Chapter officers, and for some years it is not possible to ascertain what business was conducted or who served.  However, most years provide papers of some kind and reveal a very active faculty life and engagement with the College’s core values, coordination and cooperation with the National AAUP agenda, and significant involvement with the Kentucky Conference.