POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

The collective effort expressed in this pledge has been organized by AAUP Advocacy Chapters at Ohio University, Ohio State University, and Miami University.

We pledge to demand genuine shared governance—visible and tangible involvement in decisions affecting the academic mission, at our own schools and all over Ohio.

We pledge to demand transparency. Our administrations must share the specific budget data justifying decisions affecting our mission to educate students (regarding furloughs, salary and workload adjustments, faculty cuts, and nonacademic spending) at our own schools and all over Ohio.

We pledge to fight damaging austerity policies that hollow out education and harm our students, at our own schools and all over Ohio.

We pledge to support contingent faculty and fight unnecessary dismissals at our own schools and at schools all over Ohio. We pledge to stand with graduate students, faced with shrinking funds, visa challenges, research limitations, racism, and reduced job opportunities.

We pledge to fight for safe learning and working conditions for our students and for our fellow workers, at our own schools and all over Ohio. We pledge to stand in solidarity with the workers essential to the day-to-day safety and operations of our campus.

We pledge to defend the values of diversity and inclusion in every aspect of academic life. We pledge to defend departments and programs in the arts and humanities being attacked as “non-essential” (such as Women’s Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and African American Studies).

We pledge to demand shared sacrifice to protect the academic mission, which must be prioritized above capital projects, upper administrative salaries, and subsidies for intercollegiate athletics.

We pledge solidarity with colleagues across campuses, ranks, categories, races, genders, salaries, and disciplines, celebrating healthy debate while rejecting constructed inequities that damage our shared commitment to learning. We pledge to transcend our division and embrace our collective power, at our own schools, all over Ohio, and all over the country. We are #OneFaculty.

If you would like to sign the pledge, you can do so here (go to the bottom of the page).

Please encourage others to sign this pledge and also consider adapting it as a mechanism for organizing similar, multi-institutional efforts in your own states or regions.