First Meeting: Monday, October 2, 2017 3:30-5:00.
Room: Tribble A108
Upcoming meetings: same time, same place, on the first Monday of the month.
Agenda:
- Special Election: The officers have accepted resignations from Gale Sigal, to become chair of CAFR, and Kathy Smith, and according to the bylaws, have appointed Stephen Boyd (President), Jane Albrecht (Vice President) and Doug Beets (Secretary). This slate of officers is recommended for approval for two-year appointments. Lucas Johnston remains as Treasurer.
- Approval of minutes of last meeting (sent electronically).
- Report on AAUP resources informing governance issues at WFU, including the Eudaimonia Institute, Koch Foundation grant, conflict of interest policy and gift acceptance policy.
- Develop a WFU-AAUP agenda that addresses issues/problems we, the faculty, are most concerned about (such as, faculty governance, working conditions, rewards system, resource allocation, salaries, fringe benefits, university priorities). What are your biggest concerns?
Announcement: Faculty Forum on Koch Foundation Grant to WFU, Thursday, October 5, 4:00-5:00, Greene 145
Food for thought… (there’ll be real food at the AAUP monthly meetings)
As the reconstituted university committee on conflict of interest and new Senate committee on institutes and centers begin their work, here are two AAUP principles the WFU-AAUP has reminded our faculty colleagues and the administration about:
PRINCIPLE 1—Faculty Governance: The university must preserve the primacy of shared academic governance in establishing campus-wide policies for planning, developing, implementing, monitoring, and assessing all donor agreements and collaborations, whether with private industry, government, or nonprofit groups. Faculty, not outside sponsors, should retain majority control over the campus management of such agreements and collaborations.
PRINCIPLE 2—Academic Freedom, Autonomy, and Control: The university must preserve its academic autonomy—including the academic freedom rights of faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows, and academic professionals—in all its relationships with industry and other funding sources by maintaining majority academic control over joint academy-industry committees and exclusive academic control over core academic functions (such as faculty research evaluations,
faculty hiring and promotion decisions, classroom teaching, curriculum development, and course content).
And a reminder to all of us about Faculty Governance and Salaries:
The 1966 AAUP Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities delineates the respective roles and primary responsibilities of a university’s governing board, the president, and the faculty (excerpts quoted by Michael DeCesare, “Reaffirming the Principles of Academic Governance.” Academe, Jan.-Feb. 2017).
Shared governance means the faculty has areas of primacy, too numerous to list here, but several well worth mentioning: “curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process.”
In addition, the faculty “should actively participate in the determination of policies and procedures governing salary increases.”
Upcoming talk:
Nancy MacLean, the William Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University, “The Origins of Today’s Radical Right and the Crisis of Our Democracy,” November 9, 2017, 6:00-7:00, Kulynych Auditorium, Byrum Welcome Center.
The event is not sponsored by the WFU-AAUP but may be of interest.
Join the National AAUP:
The national office has a history of advising and assisting the WFU-AAUP, especially on matters of tenure and promotion. Please support the work of the AAUP by joining now at:
https://www.aaup.org/membership/join