Campaign for the Common Good, The

The AAUP has launched a capital campaign to establish a $10 million endowment to ensure the future of the Association. Interest from the endowment will allow the AAUP to respond to current crises and undertake initiatives beyond our current financial capabilities. Why is your help important? Here's what Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., one of the national campaign committee members, has to say.

The Campaign for the Common Good is vitally important for the fiscal health of the AAUP, and the AAUP's fiscal health is vitally important for the preservation of academic freedom in America. For more than ninety years, the AAUP has been working conscientiously to protect and preserve academic freedom for all scholars in America, whatever their ideology, gender, religion, status within the profession, nationality, or sexual orientation. The AAUP has never asked for support before, but it is asking now. I encourage all my colleagues, and all friends who value academic freedom, to contribute generously to the AAUP in support of its mission to advance the free search for truth and its free exposition.

The Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, is considered one of the most influential figures in higher education in the twentieth century. He was the first person from higher education to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Father Hesburgh also received the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. He has received numerous awards from education groups, among them the prestigious Meiklejohn Award of the AAUP in 1970. This award, which honors those who uphold academic freedom, recognized Father Hesburgh's crucial role in blunting the attempt of the Nixon administration in 1969 to use federal troops to quell campus disturbances.

Why does the Association need an Endowment Fund?

Father Hesburgh has strongly stated why the Association's work is so important. Each day, the Association in small ways and large advocates for the profession and defends the academic freedom of the professoriate.

But the defense of academic freedom comes at a substantial cost.

The Association depends almost exclusively on the dues of its members and operates on a budget that provides little margin for emergencies or special initiatives. Without a dependable financial base, the Association's future as a trusted and independent voice for American faculty is limited. To secure our past gains for the profession and for society at large, the Association needs a stable source of income. For that, we need your help!

Please use this pledge form to make a gift to the Association today.