Reports from the 2025 AAUP Summer Institute

From Andy Vaughn (AAUP-Penn, PA-AAUP Conference Board member):

I had an excellent time in Atlanta attending this year’s Summer Institute at Morehouse College. It was truly inspiring to see so many other professors from a wide variety of schools come together to recognize and devise action plans to address the unprecedented challenges facing our universities right now.

I attended several sessions that I thought were especially valuable. In the “Building Power and Solidarity through Shared Governance and Collective Bargaining”, I learned the power of cooperation between AAUP chapters and a school’s faculty senate, and I plan to bring that lesson back to my chapter to promote better integration and communication between these two crucial bodies in faculty governance.

Another session I really enjoyed was “Political Mobilization for 2026 and Beyond.” This session was chaired by folks working at AFT to help mobilize efforts to promote candidates who best represent the values of AAUP. It was really useful to learn what exactly is and isn’t allowed in terms of talking to colleagues about political issues, the best ways to go about doing so, and how to move forward politically after recent major setbacks. Finally, I really enjoyed getting together with representatives from the other Pennsylvania AAUP chapters for drinks and discussing our shared goals while recognizing the unique challenges faced in each of our universities.

I highly recommend the summer institute for new AAUP members as well as long-time members looking for new ways to get involved!

Stay tuned for additional member reports from this year’s SI!