According to Webster’s, one definition of “lapse” is “a fall from a higher to a lower state.” This is undoubtedly not what the president of the American Association of University Professors, Cary Nelson, had in mind when he recently acknowledged “a more-than-regrettable lapse in [the organization’s financial] record keeping.” (See The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Director of Finance Quits Professors’ Association After Major Delay in Annual Financial Report,” June 6.) More regrettable is the AAUP overall “mission lapse” – its longstanding fall from its once high place as defender of academic freedom without bias to the lowly rungs of upholder of a political double standard in the name of “free expression” (as criticized by the Capital Research Center and a host of others). Now it would appear that the group can’t even get its bookkeeping straight – one more sign that the AAUP needs a through overhauling. Or perhaps it has outlived its usefulness.