Loyola’s American Association of University Professors chapter made themselves known on campus with the publication of an open letter in The Maroon, where they advocated for the universities’ immigrant community. But, with AAUP’s nearly 15-year campus hiatus, many on campus can’t be blamed for not knowing the organization’s purpose.
AAUP is a national organization with individual chapters. Loyola’s chapter was reinstated in the fall of 2025 after disbanding around 2011. According to former University Senate Chair, AAUP Vice President, and law professor Isabel Medina, it took a few years of effort to gather enough interested faculty to re-establish the chapter. They currently have 16 dues-paying members, all faculty.
Loyola’s AAUP functions as an independent faculty group that advocates for faculty rights and academic freedom, according to Sarah Allison, Loyola’s university senate leader and English professor.
According to Patricia Boyett, Loyola’s AAUP president and history professor, the chapter has three major goals: Faculty compensation, the preservation of academic freedom, and the pursuit of social justice.
Faculty Compensation
For years, Loyola faculty have been pushing for more equitable salaries.
“I’m a first generation scholar from a working class background. It’s very disheartening that I still cannot make a living wage,” said Pablo Zavala, a Loyola Spanish and Latin American studies professor and member of AAUP.
According to Boyett and Zavala, as well as past research and interviews conducted by The Maroon, most faculty members have not received a raise in over a decade. These pay inequities have been present across numerous generations. Current Loyola President Xavier Cole and his administration has made efforts to bridge the salary gap, such as raising $1.2 million in spring of 2025 for long-time faculty bonuses.
Loyola administration has also announced 2% raises for all faculty, effective in August. Additionally, faculty promotions will be coming with bigger salary increases.
Many Loyola faculty members, however, are still earning far less than their counterparts. According to Zavala and ProPublica, 75% of faculty at comparable universities earn more than Loyola faculty.
“It’s almost a poverty wage,” Zavala said.
Loyola’s AAUP plans to work with Loyola administration to remedy salary inequalities.
“We would like to have some shared governance with the administration to rectify some of these inequities and come up with better equitable raises in the future,” Boyett said.
AAUP leadership met with Loyola’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Thomas Chambers, regarding their goals and collaboration with the administration.
“They are dedicated and skilled faculty who care about the university, their colleagues, and our students. We look forward to working together,” Chambers said.
Boyett expressed her confidence moving forward in regards to her role as a communicator and the organization’s relationship with administration.
“We’ve expressed all our concerns… I am hopeful and I feel like part of my job as president and all of us on the board is to try to keep very open communications,” Boyett said.
The Preservation of Academic Freedom
Loyola’s AAUP members promote the importance of free debates and discussions within the classroom, with Zavala referencing Loyola’s goal of academic freedom: the free and unfettered pursuit of truth.
United States President Donald Trump and his administration have publicly targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives among universities nationwide.
“We want to make sure our students and faculty have academic freedom, because we think that that’s central to any kind of education,” Boyett said.
Boyett expressed concern that the censoring of free debate in the classroom and amongst faculty will detract from critical thinking, what she calls the “main goal of a university.”
“The main goal of a university is to prepare students to critically think and be able to do that in their careers as well,” Boyett said.
Social Justice
Loyola’s AAUP chapter’s main social justice pursuit right now pertains to the topic of immigration.
“Many of our students [and faculty] come from immigrant families, and we just think that as part of our social justice mission, we wanted everybody to know that we are standing with them in this very challenging and heartbreaking time,” Zavala said.
On Jan. 26, a protest was held on Freret Street by students and community members in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcements killing of Alex Pretti on Jan. 24. Loyola’s AAUP co-sponsored the event, a “historic” move, according to Zavala.
“The whole time that I’ve been at Loyola, the protests by our students have not been co-sponsored by faculty or any faculty organization. And the fact that the AAUP, our chapter, co-sponsored that protest to me was incredible,” Zavala said.
Zavala detailed that co-sponsoring the rally coincided with AAUP’s open letter
“I can see that the students care for the immigrant community [and] that dovetails our open letter because we said it very publicly. We love our immigrant community and the students show … that they care about the immigrant community,” Zavala said.
