BY JULIE SCHMID
As we approach the end of the semester, I wanted to share information about some significant wins for the profession and for higher education as a common good that the AAUP has celebrated in recent months. These successes emphasize the power that the national AAUP, the state conferences, and the chapters have when we stand united in our defense of the AAUP’s core principles of academic freedom, economic security, and shared governance for all those who teach and research in higher education.
The AAUP stands up for academic freedom at Rutgers: Remarks about gentrification and race made by Rutgers professor James Livingston on Facebook were the subject of a review by the university’s Office of Employment Equity, which found that the posts were not protected by the First Amendment and furthermore violated the university’s policy on discrimination and harassment. At the request of our chapter at Rutgers, the national AAUP wrote an “advisory letter” indicating that in our view, any disciplinary action against Professor Livingston would likely violate AAUP Redbook policy, Rutgers University’s academic freedom policy, and the chapter’s collective bargaining agreement as well. After hearing from the national AAUP and the Rutgers AAUP/AFT chapter, Rutgers president Robert Barchi said that the administration would reconsider its findings and convene an advisory group of First Amendment and academic freedom scholars and attorneys. Rutgers’s Office of Employment Equity subsequently informed Livingston that he had not violated the university’s policy on discrimination and harassment. For more information on this victory at Rutgers, click here.
The AAUP achieves a significant victory at Purdue Global: Last March, Purdue University purchased the for-profit online institution Kaplan University and rebranded it as Purdue University Global. The new institution, which is exempt from the public record laws that typically cover a public institution, required its faculty to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) severely limiting faculty academic freedom and the faculty’s collective right to shared governance, and undermining faculty members’ ownership of their intellectual property. On August 22, the AAUP released a copy of this NDA, exposing Purdue Global’s attempt to stifle individual faculty’s rights, undermine shared governance, and assert ownership over faculty’s curricula and research. Then thousands of AAUP members signed on to a petition asking Purdue Global to immediately stop requiring these restrictive agreements. On September 6, Purdue Global did just that. This is a significant victory for the national AAUP and the Indiana conference of the AAUP. It demonstrates that when faculty join together they have a powerful voice to protect academic freedom, shared governance, and the common good. For more information, click here.
AAUP members at University of Northern Iowa stand strong in support of collective bargaining: On October 30, 2018, the faculty at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) voted resoundingly to recertify their AAUP chapter, the United Faculty of UNI, as their union. This vote is the result of legislation, designed to disempower unions like the United Faculty, that was passed in 2017 by the Iowa legislature. As the members and the leaders of the chapter recognized, this legislation is also an attempt to undermine the faculty voice and undermine academic freedom and shared governance. Working in collaboration with AAUP staff organizers, the chapter, which represents full-time and part-time faculty, ran a strong “Union Yes!” campaign, which resulted in 85 percent of all eligible faculty voting. Of those voting, 97 percent voted in favor of keeping AAUP union representation. Building on the momentum from this election, the chapter is continuing to strengthen shared governance on campus and to improve the working conditions of non-tenure-track members. For more information about this important victory for academic unionism, click here.
The AAUP achieves a victory for faculty governance rights at the University of Montana Western: Recently, faculty members at UMW contacted the AAUP for advice and assistance about their administration’s disregard for the role of the faculty in institutional decision making. At issue was the administration’s attempt to obstruct the faculty senate review of the chancellor, provost, and other administrators, as outlined in the university bylaws. The AAUP wrote to UMW chancellor Beth Weatherby, taking the administration to task for its unwillingness to respect shared governance, specifically the role of the faculty in the evaluation of administrators. The letter was brought to the attention of Montana commissioner of higher education Clayton T. Christian, who wrote to Weatherby to reaffirm “the important role faculty play in the campus decision-making process,” as well as the importance of principles of shared governance. The commissioner further asserted, “We must ensure that all review processes of administrators, as well as faculty, are robust, fair, and consistent with system and campus policies.” The AAUP’s intervention helped to guarantee that shared governance remains strong at University of Montana Western. Read an account by two UMW faculty members here.
Faculty form campus AAUP chapters to defend and strengthen academic freedom and shared governance: On November 30, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a story about the revitalization of AAUP chapters on campuses around the country (see it here). In the past two years, the AAUP has welcomed 42 new or revitalized advocacy chapters. Faculty are banding together to form or revitalize AAUP chapters as a collective response to attacks on academic freedom and shared governance. Members cite corporatization, legislative overreach, and the adjunctification of the profession as the reasons for joining together to form a chapter. The AAUP welcomes these chapters and looks forward to working with them on defending AAUP core principles and ensuring higher education as a common good.
Julie Schmid is the AAUP’s executive director.
