Please reserve the fourth Monday of the month for this year’s meetings, which are open to ALL faculty.
UPCOMING MEETING: September 23, 3:30-4:30, Tribble Hall A108
On the Agenda:
- Approval of minutes of April, 2019 meeting.
- Memberships, Buttons – local dues $10
- Summary of progress made on corporate undue influence: Senate Draft of Resolutions on COI/GAC (Gift Acceptance Committee – handout; on website)
- Salary update and new peer group, issues to be explored:
a) Are promises being kept for a two-year increase (this will be the 2nd year)?
b) Administrative bloat
c) The spring salary report should include VAP numbers for the first time.
d) The Chairs’ group is working on a new merit evaluation process.
e) Senate approval of new peer group for salary comparisons.
- Teaching Professors – Longer contracts and other issues
- Discussion of ideas for educating colleagues about faculty governance.
- Possible AAUP motion and draft a charge for a new College Committee on Workload and Compensation?
- Other issues? What are your biggest concerns?
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; and, advocates for higher education’s contribution to the common good.
Towards Fair Salaries for All Faculty
Our voice has been heard. President Hatch announced in the Senate meeting on March 27, 2019 a significant increase in the salary pool next year and the year after. We hope that the two-year commitment will take us to where we need to be.
WFU AAUP will continue to monitor salaries, seek increases in the pool and the equitable allocation of salaries among the faculty.
Join WFU AAUP. There is strength in numbers and in knowing the facts and figures. You will find the latest average faculty salary and comparison salary tables on the website, wfuaaup.org, under Salary Issues (“2017-18 and 2018-19 Average Faculty Salaries, all Ranks, Reynolda Campus and College Only, with Instructor Breakout” and “2017-18 and 2018-19 Comparison of WFU and Nine Cross-admit Faculty Salaries and Benefits“).
AAUP’s Position on Non-Tenure Track Faculty and Governance
The AAUP’s 1994 statement on faculty governance and academic freedom articulates the necessary reciprocal relationship between academic freedom and academic governance and urges faculty to participate in governance to prevent the loss of those powers of governance to the administration. The 2003 statement on contingent appointments recommends that such appointments include service as well as teaching and research. The statement also advocates the extension of shared governance responsibilities and opportunities to “all faculty,” including part- time faculty.
Many postdocs thus meet the criteria for being defined as “faculty.” These would include the relatively small number of postdocs outside of the sciences, where “postdoctoral fellow” is often another euphemism for “non-tenure- track, short- term faculty member.”
Classification is also difficult when administrative and teaching or research duties overlap in the same individual. In these instances we believe that those individuals who hold such appointments should be defined as “faculty” if their primary responsibility is teaching or research, rather than administration.
An institution or a department, if it wishes, should establish a time- in- service threshold for certain governance activities— for example, one year of service before a new faculty member is eligible to run for the faculty senate. This concern, however, applies equally to all faculty— full and part time, tenure track and contingent— and thus any restriction should apply equally to all faculty as well. If such a requirement for full- time faculty were expressed in calendar time (for instance, a year), it would have to be translated into terms (for instance, two semesters) for part- time faculty, in order to avoid excluding those who teach intermittently. It should also be noted that many contingent faculty have more multi- institutional experience than their tenure- track colleagues and that this experience is valuable in all governance functions as well as in other roles, such as teaching and research.
Eligibility for voting and holding office in institutional governance bodies should be the same for all faculty regardless of full- or part- time status. Institutions may wish to establish time- in- service eligibility requirements; if the eligibility requirement for full- time faculty is expressed in calendar time (for instance, a year), it would have to be translated into terms (for instance, two semesters) applicable to part- time faculty in order to accommodate those who teach intermittently.
Extracted with slight modifications from: https://www.aaup.org/report/inclusion-governance-faculty-members-holding-contingent-appointments
Annual Conference of the NC- AAUP
The annual conference of the North Carolina AAUP will be held on October 4th and 5th, 2019 at UNC-Chapel Hill.
AAUP’s national president Rudy Fichtenbaum will give a keynote address on the evening of Friday, October 4. Saturday, October 5 will feature a presentation and workshop with a representative from the organization UnKoch My Campus. A detailed program will be circulated soon.
Please register by emailing michaelcbehrent@gmail.com by September 23rd. This will help organizers know how much food to order for the (free) Saturday lunch. There is no registration fee.
Workplace Discrimination Based on LGBTQ Status is Unlawful
The national AAUP has joined an amicus brief arguing that workplace discrimination based on LGBTQ status is discrimination “because of . . . sex” and therefore is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The brief, filed in the Supreme Court of the United States, was prepared primarily by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and was joined by other civil rights organizations. The brief involves three separate cases arising from the termination of employees based on their LGBTQ status, which were consolidated by the court. A decision from the court is expected by June 2020.
The amicus brief that the AAUP has joined argues that Title VII applies to workplace discrimination based on LGBTQ status since it is discrimination because of an individual’s sex. The brief outlines how the Title VII has resulted in progress toward eradicating workplace discrimination and how it bars disparate treatment because of sexuality. It also explains that a decision to exclude LGBTQ status from Title VII’s protections would leave LGBTQ people of color unprotected from pretextual racial discrimination because of the intersectionality of identities. As the amicus brief argues, carving out an exception in Title VII’s protections for LGBTQ individuals would be contrary to its text and other precedents. It would also would leave those most vulnerable to workplace discrimination without protection, rendering Title VII unable to fulfill its purpose of eradicating discrimination in the workplace.
Join the National AAUP
