BY JANE M. FRASER

This blog post is based on a speech the author made at a retirement celebration for her on April 30.

Some people are unprincipled. I don’t mean that in the usual sense of that word. I simply mean that they don’t use principles in decision making. They don’t think about which principles to apply in a certain situation. I also don’t mean that people should use principles as rigid rules; principles can conflict with each other, but they still provide guidance.

As I always do in my teaching, let me start with an example. As chair of the department of engineering at CSU-Pueblo, one important principle for me is that the faculty come first. Yes, before the students. This idea comes from a book called The Customer Comes Second, which focuses on the importance of prioritizing employees. What is the work of the university? Teaching, research, and service. Who does that work? The faculty. In my work as chair, I am not teaching or doing research or service. I am providing support to the faculty. My job is to make sure they have what they need to do their jobs well. Everyone at the university who is not a faculty member is support to the faculty. That principle is one of the first things I think about when I make decisions as chair.

I’ve picked three other principles to discuss here: democracy, community, and the common good.

For me, the most important principle is democracy.

I have tried to practice democracy in running the department of engineering because it is the right thing to do—you shouldn’t make decisions about me, without me—but also because talking, thinking, discussing, and working things through as a group results in better decisions than any I could make on my own. Decisions reached by a few at the top and then handed out in a memo are almost always bad decisions, overlooking important Implications of those decisions and missing the opportunity to find better solutions. In challenging times, people want to help and to be part of the decisions that affect them. Why should we accept bad decisions made undemocratically?

I’ve been studying, teaching, and writing about sustainability. Sustainability has three pillars: environmental justice, economic justice, and social justice. Lately, people are adding a fourth pillar, often called governance, but essentially this fourth pillar is democracy. A society that doesn’t value democracy is not sustainable because eventually out come the torches and pitchforks.

The second principle is community. I grew up in a paper mill town in New Jersey and after I came to Pueblo twenty-one years ago, it took me a while to figure out why I felt at home so quickly. I realized that Pueblo has the same ethnic blue-collar diversity, the same friendly but tough goodwill, and the same hands-on “we can do this” attitude of my hometown. Both towns are maker towns. Pueblo workers make steel, but we also roast coffee, design and make jewelry, customize hot rods, and paint murals. We have great manufacturing companies that make carbon disk brakes for aircraft, towers for wind turbines, traction chains, rail products, custom kitchen cabinets, fruit-handling equipment, high-end GPS devices, bath and body products, and more. I sew.

I won’t be moving away after my retirement because Pueblo is home. I have been involved in helping this community, helping southern Colorado ever since I moved here.

The university should be embedded in this community; we should be the people’s university—but that phrase doesn’t just mean access and affordability. It means practicing democracy, listening to the people of southern Colorado, and helping them.

Here is my vision for what it means to be the people’s university. I want CSU-Pueblo to be the place you call when you need ideas. Anywhere in southern Colorado—or even in the southwestern US—if a group of people gather to discuss or work on a problem, I want them—when they get stuck, when they can’t figure out what to do—to say: that university in Pueblo, they help people; let’s call them and see if they can help us.

Finally, the third principle is the common good. Jonathan Poritz, a fellow AAUP member, has reminded me several times recently about the purpose of tenure for faculty. The American Association of University Professors stands for two core principles: academic freedom and shared governance. Academic freedom is a more expansive version of my statement that the faculty are the most important people on campus and shared governance is, of course, a form of democracy. The AAUP’s 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure begins:

The purpose of this statement is to promote public understanding and support of academic freedom and tenure …. Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. … Freedom and economic security, hence, tenure, are indispensable to the success of an institution in fulfilling its obligations to its students and to society.

Democracy, community, and the common good. These three principles are intertwined—not separate.

I will close with a quote from John Dewey, the noted educator and co-founder of the AAUP, which has been on my office door for years:

…whether this educative process is carried on in a predominantly democratic or non-democratic way becomes therefore a question of transcendent importance not only for education itself but for its final effect upon all the interests and activities of a society that is committed to the democratic way of life.

I am retiring from CSU-Pueblo, but I’m not done yet. I will continue contributing in various roles in my community and practicing democracy for the common good.

En la lucha, in the struggle. Forever, en la lucha!

Guest blogger Jane M. Fraser recently retired from her position as professor of engineering and engineering department chair at Colorado State University–Pueblo. She also served as the president of the CSU–Pueblo AAUP chapter.