The University of Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Association of University Professors

Current Issues at Pitt

New: The average 2011-12 salaries of male and female faculty at Pitt and each of the other 34 public AAU universities is now available for viewing and downloading as Excel and pdf files on our Pitt Salaries Vs AAU Peers Page.

On April 5, 2012, the University of Pittsburgh suspended admissions to its graduate programs in Classics, Religious Studies and German.  A Pitt AAUP investigation concluded that this was done without adequate consultation with the chairs of these departments, or review by the relevant Arts and Sciences and Planning and Budgeting committees, as mandated by the University's 1995 Guidelines for Review of Academic Planning Proposals.  Pitt AAUP sent its conclusions to the University Times (May 17, 2012) and to Provost Patricia Beeson in a letter dated May 10, 2012, which you may read by clicking this hyperlink: May 10 Letter to Provost Beeson.

These graduate program suspensions have not been lifted, nor is it clear that the 3 affected departments will survive, as discussed in a follow up Pitt AAUP letter to the University Times (December 6, 2011).  Faculty and students need to voice their support to Provost Beeson for re-instatement of the graduate programs in Classics, Religious Studies and German, or these and possibly other as yet unidentified graduate programs at Pitt will soon be history.  
 

The purposes of this organization are:

• To promote and protect higher education and its contribution to the common good, and to advance the standing and welfare of the profession and the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh.
   

• To protect academic freedom and tenure, and to defend members of the faculty against institutional discrimination, as defined by the AAUP Statements on Academic Freedom and Tenure, on Discrimination, and on Professors and Political Activity.
   

• To preserve and strengthen the role of the faculty in the University’s system of shared governance.
   

• To promote the values, principles, and standards of the American Association of University Professors, articulated in AAUP Policy Documents and Reports (the “AAUP Redbook”) and on the AAUP web site:  http://www.aaup.org/aaup.

If you share our concerns about these issues, Join Our Chapter and help defend and promote them. We offer information and advice to all faculty on:

• Tenure and academic freedom issues;

• Appealing a denial of tenure or contract non-renewal decision;

• Pitt Policies and Procedures;

• Pitt faculty salaries by responsibility center (school);

• Pitt faculty salaries versus public AAU university Peers; and,

• Useful websites. 

Contact us by regular mail at the above address or by email by clicking on one of the hyperlinked names of our Executive Committee members. You can also contact us by visiting our Facebook page.