On her campaign website, Irene Mulvey, a professor of mathematics at Fairfield University, has a statement from an endorser that characterized this year’s election of the American Association of University Professors’ office-bearers as one that would decide the future course of the organization. The AAUP would either remain true to its commitment to standards and principles of the profession, or focus on unionization as a way to achieve its goals, it said.

In results declared Wednesday night, Mulvey, whose bid for president was endorsed by outgoing AAUP President Cary Nelson, lost by about 1,000 votes, (a sizeable margin in an election where the total number of votes cast in the contest was about 3,500) to Rudy Fichtenbaum, an economics professor at Wright State University and a former member of the organization’s National Council. Fichtenbaum’s campaign had stressed union organizing to protect the profession and bring reform to higher education, and he is part of a group that has been critical of the ouster of Gary Rhoades as the AAUP's general secretary last year.

Was the statement on Mulvey's website just election hyperbole, or is there a battle for the soul of the AAUP...