NEXT MEETING: January 28, 3:30-4:30, Tribble A108

FORUM ON FACULTY SALARIES WITH PROVOST KERSH: January 30,  4:00-5:00, Library Auditorium (Room 404)

Mission and Goals:

WFU AAUP embraces the mission of the national American Association of University Professors (AAUP) which advances academic freedom and shared governance; defines fundamental professional values and standards for higher education; promotes the economic security of faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, post‐doctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education,  helps the higher-education community organize to make our goals a reality; advocates for higher education’s contribution to the common good.

WFU AAUP’s particular goals this year are:  to follow up on the motions passed in the College Faculty and Senate last year to raise faculty salaries at all ranks, but especially among the ranks of Associate, Assistant and Teaching Professors; to provide information about processes of contract renewal, tenure and promotion; and to publicize the AAUP’s guidelines and principles concerning shared faculty governance.  

WFU AAUP MEETING MINUTES – November 26, 2018 [DRAFT]

TRIBBLE A108

• Interest sign-up sheet circulated for University Budget Priorities Committee and Governance Committee.
• Collection of $10 annual dues, to be used toward maintain the website.

UDATE ON FACULTY SALARIES:

Exec. Comm. Report on meeting with Provost Kersh:

• Goals for the meeting: to facilitate communication between Provost and faculty, to discuss status of Senate and College motions on salaries that passed in Spring 2018, to set a forum date for discussion with Provost in Spring 2019, and to learn more about how and when the budget is determined.
  • The Exec Comm discussed the central differences between the Provost’s and AAUP’s data on raises over the last few years.  The Provost shared a  chart indicating a marginal cost of living increase for faculty, but only because these numbers combined faculty at all ranks.  The AAUP consequently provided data to the Provost to show that Assistant and Associate Professor salaries have failed to keep pace with inflation.  The Provost was receptive to this information.
  • Faculty are seeking a commitment to raise the salary pool and allocate a larger portion of it to junior faculty.
  • Provost Kersh indicated that a new peer group is not necessary at the moment but would be useful in the future. The Senate Compensation committee is working on generating this.
  • Because the Provost’s office is not doing so, the AAUP intends to run a survey about faculty student debt load in the next week or two.  This information will be anonymous and will be passed along to the Provost.
• Faculty in attendance discussed how there is also need for more data on teaching professional salaries.  The AAUP plans to collect this in the spring, now that we have comparative data available to us.
• AAUP faculty also discussed the need to separate merit and cost of living increases. Senate discussion on this is ongoing.
• Chairs are also now discussing merit evals and raises with Dean Gillespie.
• Present faculty also discussed how we might — rhetorically — make a better case for faculty raises. Our argument for salary increases should be about ethics, but mainly our excellence and value to the University.
• In the coming semester, the AAUP will organize a faculty forum with Provost Kersh on salaries. This might be scheduled during a Wednesday Senate meeting.

DISCUSSION ON FACULTY SOLIDARITY ACROSS RANKS:

• In 2019, the AAUP also plans to work toward better protecting Academic Freedom for WFU’s teaching professionals.  There was discussion about the need to revise the handbook to clarify that non-TT faculty are also protected. The Senate’s Academic Freedom and Responsibility Committee may make this motion in the spring. The AAUP also intends to organize ATP focus groups so as to involve greater participation from faculty at this rank in this effort.

News from the National AAUP:

Universities have become increasingly corporatized, and the significant expansion of university administration has seriously eroded faculty authority to control or make effective recommendations about university policy.

Institutional changes over the past few decades have led to increased top-down management of the university by the growing ranks of administrators, as well as the rapid expansion of non-tenure track faculty positions [see the most recent data in the chart, below]. The result has been a system wherein rather than relying on faculty expertise, growing ranks of administrators increasingly make unilateral decisions on university policies and programs, often influenced by considerations of external market forces and revenue generation.

How does WFU, an R2 school, stack up? 

No.       Type                         Percent of Total

330      Tenured                      (43%)

  84      Tenure track              (11%)

165       Non-tenure track      (21%)

197       Part-time      (25%)

    0       Graduate Employees (0%)

776     Total Individual Reynolda Campus Faculty

(Fall 2017. Sources: 2017-18 Factbook; Provost Rogan Kersh; Institutional Research)

Join the National AAUP

The national office has a long history of 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