Jordan Kurland, Long-Serving AAUP Official, Dies at 87

Jordan E. Kurland, the associate general secretary of the American Association of University Professors and a member of the group’s professional staff for more than 50 years, died on Saturday after a brief illness, the association announced. He was 87.

In a resolution adopted at the association’s annual meeting last summer, the AAUP honored Mr. Kurland for a half-century of service and noted that he had continued to preside over the group’s major case work in academic freedom and tenure, despite having officially stepped down 15 years earlier as director of staff for Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

Mr. Kurland played a role in more than 90 percent of the case investigations conducted in the association’s history, the resolution stated, including a 2007 investigation that resulted in a report criticizing five New Orleans universities for layoffs and program cuts after Hurricane Katrina.

The resolution credits Mr. Kurland with contributing, “quietly and behind the scenes, more than any other individual to the AAUP’s core endeavor of developing and implementing recommended standards on academic freedom, tenure, and governance.”