Spurred by several issues, including implications of liberal bias in classrooms by state legislators, about 40 professors from University Park and the Dickinson School of Law have formed a Penn State chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

AAUP is a national organization that works to promote academic freedom as part of its mission.

English Professor Michael Bérubé said the immediate reason for forming the University Park and Dickinson School of Law chapter of AAUP was a house resolution.

The resolution, passed by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the summer, permits the state to hold hearings to determine whether bias in the classroom is an issue at state-owned and state-related universities.

The hearings have raised concern among some faculty members that their ability to teach freely will be infringed.

"We have an interest in protecting academic freedom not only in our buildings but across the entire profession," Bérubé said.

Now that the chapter is officially formed, it will remain in an interim period until the spring semester to give time for more members to join the organization. There are about 20 professors able to vote on issues, including the adoption of the bylaws, because they are members of the national AAUP organization. Seven were present at yesterday's meeting.

Philosophy professor Claire Katz said there would be a membership drive to try to persuade more professors to join the chapter, using e-mail messages and word of mouth to promote the organization.

For the interim period, Bérubé was elected president, Katz was elected secretary, and Jay Mootz, professor of law at Dickinson, was elected vice president.

Graduate students will also have voting rights within the organization.

The issue of administration support was discussed during the meeting. Pat Shaw, associate secretary of AAUP who helped form the chapter, said that sometimes the administrations and the chapters have an adversarial relationship.

"It depends on what's going on and what you make of it," Shaw said.

Penn State President Graham Spanier has been opposed to the legislation and supportive of the organization's formation, Bérubé said.

Bérubé said that rather than being classified as a shared governance unit, which would be like a union, the organization would be an advocacy unit, along the lines of a professional association like the American Medical Association.

One concern that arose during the meeting was that when the state hearings end, the organization might not have an issue to discuss.

Katz said the resolution was one issue concerning the group, but it was used as a "galvanizing force" to interest people in the organization.

Bérubé said that another issue that might arise in the future is that fewer than one-third of professors are tenured.

"If two-thirds [of professors] don't have tenure, what do they have?" he said. "You hope they have academic freedom."