Hans-Joerg Tiede Joins the AAUP Staff

In January, the AAUP welcomed Hans-Joerg Tiede as a new senior program officer in the Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance. Prior to joining the staff, Tiede was a professor of computer science at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he had also served as president and secretary-treasurer of his campus’s AAUP chapter. His contributions as a national AAUP leader include serving on the Council, the Committee on Membership, the Committee on College and University Governance, Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and the Committee on the History of the Association, which he also chaired. As a member of the Committee on College and University Governance, he was the primary author of two statements: Confidentiality and Representation in Academic Governance (2013) and Faculty Communication with Governing Boards: Best Practices (2014). While a member of Committee A, Tiede served on investigating committees at the University of Northern Iowa (2012) and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2015).

In 2011 Tiede became an at-large member of the Executive Committee of the Assembly of State Conferences, and he subsequently served two terms as chair. As an ASC officer, Tiede attended more than a dozen state conference meetings and gave presentations on AAUP principles and standards at campuses around the country. For the last several years, he has regularly taught workshops on shared governance, faculty handbooks, and academic freedom and tenure at the AAUP/AAUP-CBC Summer Institute, and at the two most recent AAUP annual conferences, he gave plenary presentations on AAUP history. Tiede honed his extensive knowledge of the Association’s history, principles, and recommended standards through archival research for his 2015 book, University Reform: The Founding of the American Association of University Professors, and through his role as editor of the 2015 centennial edition of AAUP Policy Documents and Reports (known as the Redbook).

According to Gregory Scholtz, the department’s director, “We are incredibly fortunate that Joerg was able to join our staff, especially at this critical time. He has a unique knowledge of the AAUP’s early history, an inspiring commitment to the values and ideals of the Association, and endless energy.” Scholtz added, “Joerg really hit the ground running, in his first few months picking up a number of difficult cases, including the highly publicized firings at Mount St. Mary’s and the University of Missouri.”