University Reform

How the AAUP fought to give voice to America’s faculty and defend academic freedom.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was founded to advance the professionalization of America’s faculty. University Reform examines the social and intellectual circumstances that led to the organization’s initial development, as well as its work to defend academic freedom. It explores the AAUP’s subsequent response to World War I and the first Red Scare. It also describes the founders’ efforts, especially those of Arthur O. Lovejoy and James McKeen Cattell, in securing a greater role for faculty in the government of colleges and universities.