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Higher Education
Texas AFT is proud to represent faculty and higher education professionals in community colleges and universities.
Historic Affiliation : AAUP and AFT Join Forces
Delegates to the biennial meeting of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) voted in 2022 to affiliate with the American Federation of Teachers, joining forces to build a more powerful and inclusive academic labor movement that will be better able to take on the challenges facing higher education as well as the threats to our democracy.
What we stand for in Higher Education
Fair wages
Like K-12, higher education institutions statewide are experiencing staffing shortages, with unfair wages as a major contributing factor. Significant budgetary investments must be made in the faculty and staff at Texas colleges and universities.
Academic Freedom
In higher education, protecting tenure and ending the attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs ensures Texas colleges and universities can recruit and retain the best and brightest academic minds to open the world to our students.
Voice in decisions
Empowered educators produce engaged students. History consistently shows how unions can raise the bar for all of us. If educators have a voice in their workplace, they can negotiate and win better working and learning environments.
Higher Education affiliates
AFT Lone Star College
P.O. Box 788 Spring, Texas 77383
📞 (281) 889-1009
Texas AAUP-AFT
912 South HWY 183 Suite 100-A Austin, Texas 78741
📞 (512) 516-5991
New 2026 AFT Platform
Starting in Austin on April 13, 2026, the American Association of University Professors and the AFT jointly launched a new comprehensive national policy platform ahead of the 2026 midterms to counter the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education and secure a vibrant future for America’s public colleges and universities. The new framework, “A Blueprint for Strengthening and Transforming Higher Education,” champions a vision where colleges and universities, rather than corporate entities, are treated as an indispensable public good crucial for a functioning democracy.
The AAUP and the AFT are calling on local, state and federal candidates and elected officials to run on this platform and commit to making higher education a central issue at the ballot box. The AAUP is affiliated with the 1.8 million-member AFT.