2013 AAUP in the News

About the mysteriously disappearing grades, AAUP's Robert Kreiser observes,  "Interference with the faculty's role in that regard by an administrative officer in any way, including the deletion of previously recorded grades, is inconsistent with basic principles of academic freedom and faculty governance,"

"The AAUP reported in April that the continuing rise of non-tenure-track faculty members, the sharp decline in state appropriations for higher education and the growing salary disadvantage for faculty members teaching in the public sector remained as the 'three perennial concerns.'”

The AAUP's Anita Levy told the News Journal that Bethune-Cookman will remain on the AAUP's list of censured administrations "until (administrators) demonstrate they have revised their policies and made an effort to compensate the faculty who were the subject of the report as well as to be sure the overall climate for academic freedom and tenure is good."

Read an article focusing on the discussions about contingent faculty during the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education's 5th annual gathering hosted by the AAUP's Ohio Conference.

Regarding healthcare coverage cuts and contingent faculty, the AAUP's John Curtis warns, " I think the potential is that these people would feel even less supported by their institutions.” 

On April 12, 2013, the BGSU Faculty Association, an AAUP chapter, voted 97% in favor of their new collective bargaining agreement. On Friday, May 3, the Bowling Green State University Board of Trustees on Friday voted 8-0 to approve the first contract with the faculty union.

In this op-ed, Saint Louis University AAUP chapter president Steve Harris explains why faculty are no longer "putting up with a top-down management style." Update: Read about Biondi's surprise announcement that he is stepping down in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch.

Rudy Fichtenbaum, AAUP president, and Howard Bunsis, chair of the AAUP-CBC, report that the University of Maine's finances are in very good shape contrary to the claims of the system's officials.

Greg Loving, president of the University of Cincinnati AAUP chapter, calls on Governor Kasich "to appoint a widely respected person with significant experience in higher education to help guide UC into a better future of service to Ohio and to our community."

The AAUP's annual salary report receives tremendous amount of media coverage. For a sampling, see stories in the Chronicle of Higher Education , Fox News, Hindu Business Line, Huffington Post, Inside Higher Ed,  London Times Higher Education, MLive, Marketplace Morning Report, New York Times, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Salt Lake Tribune, and the Washington Post.

The Huffington Post quotes the AAUP's Statement on the Affordable Care Act and Part-Time Faculty Positions, "We have been dismayed by news reports of a handful of colleges and universities that have threatened to cut the courseloads of part-time faculty members specifically in order to evade this provision of the law."

AAUP past president Cary Nelson discusses academic freedom, the First Amendment,religious beliefs,and a lesson about the power of symbols at Florida Atlantic University with Inside Higher Ed.

AAUP's Jordan Kurland tells the New York Times, “I think that the sheer turnout should tell everybody, not just the trustees of N.Y.U. but the general public, that the professors — those who have basic responsibility for seeing through the academic processes — are much more involved than they have been in the past.”

Read this story in the Washington Post..  A sample of additional coverage includes the Chronicle of Higher Education, Daily Progress, Inside Higher Ed, NBC 29, New York Times, and the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Larry Gerber, chair of the AAUPs’ Committee on College and University Governance, discusses academic governance with reporter Anna Douglas.

"Progress is being made and we can see the end of the negotiations," said Charles Parrish, president of the AAUP-AFT Wayne State University chapter. "I anticipate if there are no last-minute glitches, we may come to a contract this week."

The AAUP censured the administration at LSU last year over van Heerden’s loss of his contract.

"That is a mistake that BGSU must not make," says David Jackson, president of the BGSU Faculty Association. Learn more by watching the video and reading the article about the march.

"The nation’s top organization of professors issued a letter to LSU this week calling for an end to what it called the “seeming disregard” for faculty input taking place as the university is going through its current reorganization."

“It is unconceivable that this will not have a negative effect on the quality of education here at BGSU,” says David Jackson, president of the BGSU Faculty Association, an AAUP chapter.

"Although AAUP’s investigation began as a probe into financial exigency, Bérubé said it ultimately became more about the importance of shared governance – something already 'in tatters' across higher education. The report and revised recommendations are intended to be a 'wake-up call' to faculty as well as administrators."

AAUP chapter leaders discuss the impact of these news laws with Peter Schmidt of the Chronicle.

Read about the AAUP's newest statement, Joint Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians.

Ann Green, chair of the AAUPs' Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, discusses trying to balance work and caring for a family member.

"The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) wrote to Gov. Kasich during the closed-door process asking that faculty be involved in the discussions and received no response, and there was no involvement."

Joerg Tiede of the AAUP’s Committee on College and University Governance discusses the AAUP's new report on confidentiality with Inside Higher Ed.

Andrew Ross, the president of N.Y.U.’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors and an outspoken critic of Dr. Sexton, dismissed the question altogether. “There has never been a vote of no confidence at N.Y.U., so there is no procedural precedent.”

"The Yale Corporation can say all it wants to say about academic freedom in Singapore, but it’s not true that in such an authoritarian state one can maintain an acceptable level of academic freedom,”  AAUP past president Cary Nelson tells the Yale Daily News.

Read about why the Bowling Green State University faculty have filed an unfair labor charge.

AAUP's Jenn Nichols explains to George Washington Hachet readers why hiring fewer tenure-track faculty hurts what universities get back in research and teaching. “If you’re worried come April or May [of] every year that you may not have a job in a few months, you can still be committed to students and teaching, but you have to keep one eye open to what you have to do to support yourself."

Regarding university research with ties to the shale gas industry,  AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum tells McClatchy newspaper readers, "I would certainly be very concerned about industry-funded research at academic institutions, which always has the potential for having strings attached to it. In a number of cases there's a clear conflict of interest and these corporations have a direct interest in research results that support their goals."