The AAUP has long been committed to increasing diversity in higher education.
Because of the Association's belief that educators must be free to set criteria for student admissions and because of the well-documented benefits of racial diversity in higher education, the AAUP has filed amicus briefs in many cases about affirmative action programs. In one of the best-known cases, the AAUP joined the American Council on Education and others in support of educators’ decisions to adopt admissions policies that consider race as one of many factors.
The AAUP has also participated in a number of other cases involving diversity, arguing in favor of equal access to sports programs on the basis of sex, the ability of employees to sue employers for actions that disproportionately affect workers over forty, and institutions' rights to offer benefits to same-sex partners.
The AAUP Committee on Historically Black Institutions and Scholars of Color works on issues of special concern to historically black institutions and to minority faculty members in general. The committee is concerned with access to opportunities in higher education for traditionally underrepresented groups and has focused its recent efforts on affirmative action and diversity and outreach to faculty at minority serving institutions.
The Committee on Women in the Academic Profession addresses such issues as equity in pay, work/family balance, sexual harassment and discrimination, affirmative action and the status of female faculty in rank and tenure.
Resources on Diversity & Affirmative Action.
Relevant AAUP Policies
On Discrimination (revised 1995)
Affirmative Action Plans: Recommended Procedures for Increasing the Number of Minority Persons and Women on College and University Faculties (1983)
Statement of Principles on Family Responsibilities and Academic Work (2001)