TO: ADVOCACY CHAPTER LEADERS PAST AND PRESENT
FROM: CARY

Below is the email membership campaign message we sent this morning to our big list of non-members. I am copying you for several reasons—first, to let you know what we are doing; second, to join Gary in inviting your participation:

--our email list was mostly compiled in 2007 and 2008. It would be great if you could block mark the message below, then paste it into an email and send it to people who have joined your faculty since then. If your school is large, you could do that department by department. Also: if you copy us (membership@aaup.org), we’ll update your email lists.

--this is our best opportunity so far to recruit new members, but both email and snail mail are inherently passive approaches. You will be amazed (if you haven’t done it before) at your success rate at getting new members if you follow up our email by visiting people in their offices. People often find that 75% of their colleagues will join if asked one-to-one.

--there are other recruitment aids both on the national web site and on my personal web site: www.cary-nelson.org

THE MESSAGE TO NONMEMBERS:

If you’ve been reading the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Inside Higher Education, or the Chronicle of Higher Education over the last year, then you know that the AAUP is increasingly visible and influential. In fact, accounts of our work have recently appeared in Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Finnish, Hungarian, French, German, Dutch and other languages. When Virginia’s attorney general tried to launch a fishing expedition into university files, we were there. When BP tried to embargo Gulf area oil spill research, we were there. When universities tried to misrepresent the state of their finances, we were there.

The need for our vigilance over academic freedom and shared governance issues grows greater every month. Now it is time for you to join us in our efforts. If you’ve been reading our emails, you’ve taken the first step toward building a relationship with the thousands of your colleagues who already support and participate in our work. Now we invite you to come on board. We want to help keep higher education afloat. We want American higher education to remain the principled and high quality enterprise it has been and can continue to be. But you all know those values are threatened.

Our new dues structure—just announced this month—makes AAUP membership less expensive for many of you. Is academic freedom worth $5, $10, or $15 a month? We think it is. AAUP membership is the premier insurance policy for the profession. With your help, we are prepared to expand our reach still further. But it costs money to draft our legal briefs. It costs money to send our investigators and organizers across the country. Joining the AAUP is the most cost effective way you have to promote higher education’s pivotal role in our democracy.

Take advantage of our special introductory offer for new members. Join today and receive new member status through December 2011 – up to 16 months – while paying only the annual, 12-month rate:

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/involved/join/

Join Today!

Cary Nelson
AAUP President