Purposes of the Association shall be to promote a more general and methodical discussion of problems relating to education in higher institutions of learning; to create means for authoritative expression; to make collective action possible; and in general to maintain and advance the ideals and standards of the profession.

Members of the faculties of a number of institutions have undertaken to bring about the formation of a national Association of University Professors. The general purposes of such an Association would be to facilitate a more effective co-operation among the members of the profession in the discharge of their special responsibilities as custodians of the interests of higher education and research in America; to promote a more general and methodical discussion of problems relating to education in higher institutions of learning; to create means for the authoritative expression of the public opinion of college and university teachers; to make collective action possible; and to maintain and advance the standards and ideals of the profession. The specific activities in which these general purposes may best find expression will, of course, become fully evident only through experience. There is, however, already manifest among university teachers an interest in such matters as the proper organization of departments, and their relation to one another; the relations of instruction and research, both in colleges and graduate schools; the adjustment of graduate to undergraduate instruction, and of professional studies to both; the possibility of co-operation between universities to prevent unnecessary duplication of effort; the effectiveness of the manner in which the university teaching profession is now recruited; the problem of graduate fellowships and scholarships; the desirability and practicability of an increased migration of graduate students; the suitable recognition of intellectual eminence, and the manner of awarding honorary degrees; the proper conditions of the tenure of the professorial office; methods of appointment and promotion, and the character of the qualifications to be considered in either case; the function of faculties in university government; the relations of faculties to trustees; the impartial determination of the facts in cases in which serious violations of academic freedom are alleged.

Those concerned in the organization of the Association do not, however, desire in any way to determine its programme in advance. What seems to them essential is that, in the working out of a national policy of higher education and research, the general body of university teachers shall exercise an effectual influence; that in the determination of the future of the profession, the profession itself shall have a voice; that issues hereafter arising which may seriously affect the work of the universities, or the usefulness, dignity, or standards of the professoriate, shall be dealt with only after carefully consideration and wide discussion.