January 2003 aaUPBEAT
Concluding My Term as AAUP President
Higher Education's Periolous Times
Serving as president of our AAUP Chapter for the past six
years has been deeply gratifying. I have had the pleasure of working
with dedicated colleagues on the AAUP Executive Council and the AAUP
Steering Committee. They have demonstrated their commitments to
enhancing the faculty's working conditions in order to improve the
quality of education and scholarship at the university. More generally,
I have come to know the personal circumstances, concerns and views of
faculty colleagues across the University. In light of all this, I thank
the AAUP membership for providing me with this opportunity for service.
As past president, I will be a member of the AAUP Executive Council. I
look forward to working with Linda Bucher, our chapter president, and
my other colleagues on the Executive Council as the AAUP builds on past
accomplishments to face the perilous environment and new challenges
that we face as faculty.
The full-time faculty represented by the AAUP has undergone
significant changes over the past six years. The faculty has grown from
920 to 1,073. With changes that have been implemented in the nontenure
track policy to include clinical and public service faculty, the
nontenure track faculty has grown from 142 to 253, an increase from
about 15% to about 24% of the current bargaining unit. With the
addition of 42 new tenure track faculty and the continuing turnover of
faculty, overwhelmingly by retirements, almost 25% of the faculty now
employed at the University were not here six years ago. Through all of
these changes, the AAUP membership has stayed over 50% and our
chapter's finances have remained strong.
With these changes in mind, I'd like to highlight some of the
AAUP's accomplishments in recent years. As a result of our Collective
Bargaining Agreements, salaries at the University of Delaware are
slightly higher than the median for comparable institutions in our
region. Faculty salaries at the University of Delaware are ranked just
below Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, the University of
Pennsylvania and one or two other Category I institutions in our
region. Our benefits package, including the University's contribution
to TIAA-CREFF, is among the best provided nationally. Faculty now have
the opportunity to take a year's sabbatical at 75% of their salary.
Tenure track faculty have the option of taking a Research Semester free
from teaching and service responsibilities before they apply for tenure.
In addition to enhancing faculty's economic status and working
conditions, recent Collective Bargaining Agreements also have provided
the faculty with rights and opportunities for governance. A faculty
vote is now required for appointment and reappointment of department
chairs. Faculty must ratify departmental policies for the allocation of
merit pay. The development of workload policies is largely the
responsibility of faculty and must be established according to
departmental bylaws determined by the faculty.
In addition to improving faculty compensation, working
conditions, and rights in governance, the AAUP has also sought to
enhance community ties on campus. In a joint effort with AFSCME's
leadership, we worked with the administration to provide tuition
remission for employees in food services and in the bookstore who no
longer have University employee status since, as the result of
outsourcing, they now work for outside vendors. Also, the AAUP has
vigorously supported the academic freedom of part-time faculty in the
belief that attacks on the academic freedom of anyone teaching at the
University of Delaware presents a danger to all faculty. We have been
advocates of racial and cultural diversity, especially in the
employment of faculty. We have created an Undergraduate Student Award
of $2,000 that is made to a worthy graduating senior planning an
academic career. We have established excellent working relations with
our colleagues in the administration. The AAUP additionally has built
ties with legislators, informing them of our concerns and our vision of
higher education in our state.
While we have accomplished a great deal, the current climate
for higher education demands that we be vigilant and engaged across a
range of issues that affect higher education faculty. In the January
2002 issue of AAUPBEAT, written as we were entering into
negotiations for our current contract, I said we were in "challenging
times" as a result of the mobilization against terrorism, the weak
economy and declining stock market, and threats to academic freedom. In
the face of difficult circumstances, we negotiated and the faculty
ratified a strong contract last spring. Still, due to developments over
the past year, higher education conditions nationally have markedly
deteriorated. Unless faculty at the University of Delaware and, indeed,
across the country become more engaged and more mobilized around issues
of higher education funding and quality, the values of academic
freedom, and the central role that colleges, universities and faculty
play in a democratic society, conditions for the academic profession
will be seriously imperiled.
The financial supports for colleges and universities have been
deteriorating. As a result of fiscal crises affecting state governments
and the relatively low priority given to higher education in spite of
much government talk to the contrary, average state appropriations for
higher education increased by only 1.2% for 2002-2003 (Chronicle of
Higher Education, December 13, 2002: A28-29). This is the lowest
level of increase in ten years and is below the rate of inflation.
Delaware's appropriation to the University of Delaware increased by
about 2.7% over this year, but the state faces growing fiscal problems.
In addition, largely as a result of declining stock prices, the market
value of university and college endowments have deteriorated. The
University of Delaware's endowment has declined by about 6.5%. While
federal funding for higher education through Pell grants and student
loans has increased, there are efforts on the part of Congressional
leaders and the Bush administration to make more institutions eligible
for these funds. As a result, federal funding for higher education may
be seriously diluted as it is diverted to "online universities" and
for-profit institutions.
These deteriorating financial supports for colleges and
universities heighten the trend of shifting the costs of higher
education to students, their families, and higher education employees.
The average student who borrows to finance an education accumulates a
debt of $27,600. According to the National Center for Education
Statistics, the percentage of students borrowing money increased from
46% in 1990 to 70% in 2000. According to surveys reported in The
New York Times (January 28, 2003), students have become more
skeptical about whether they should have gotten into such deep debt to
finance their educations. This may lead to greater public cynicism
toward the value of a higher education degree. Increasing financial
burdens are shaping student career goals and expectations about their
future material well-being.
The deepening financial problems facing colleges and
universities are occurring during a time when the professional status
of faculty is being broadly challenged. In 1969, only 3% of the
nation's faculty were neither tenured nor on tenure tracks. Now,
tenured faculty constitute a minority of full-time faculty members. In
addition, the number of courses taught by part-timers continues to
increase across the country. In such states as Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Colorado, legislators have been demanding that teaching loads of
faculty be increased as a condition for state funding. The boards of
trustees of many private and public institutions of higher education
have members who increasingly want to intervene in curriculum matters,
faculty hiring decisions, and academic planning. These interventions,
presented in terms of efficiency and accountability, are part of a
broader effort to model the university on corporate business practices.
In addition to these challenges, the mobilization against
terrorism in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks are posing
serious issues to our values of academic freedom, sharing knowledge,
and the integrity of our professional relationships and relationships
with students. As in previous times of national crisis, issues of
dissent on campus, the rights of faculty and students to speak freely
and engage in analyses of policy issues, and the university's role as
an area of public discussion have been emerging across the country. At
the University of New Mexico, the University of Texas, and City
University of New York, troubling questions have been raised about the
academic freedom of faculty and students engaged in either dissent from
government policies, analyses of terrorism, or specific remarks taken
to be offensive by students, faculty, administrators or politicians
(Kenton Bird and Elizabeth Barker Brandt, "Academic Freedom and 9/11:
How the War on Terrorism Threatens Free Speech on Campus," 7 Comm. L.
& Pol'y 431-459).
Just to give one example of how laws are changing, The USA
PATRIOT ACT of 2001 has provided government investigators with new
discretionary powers for gathering information. Justice department
officials may seek authorization to collect educational records about
students, for example, if they "are likely to contain" information
relevant to the prosecution or investigation of domestic or
international terrorism. This is a lower standard than the "reasonable
suspicion" standard that previously had been in effect. Disclosure of
this information by the educational institution does not require the
student's or parents' consent, the student or parent does not have to
be notified that the disclosure has occurred, and no records of
disclosure must be kept. Increasingly, higher education is being drawn
into the surveillance functions of the national security state.
The issues that I have raised in this overview are indicative
of the kinds of problems higher education faculty are now confronting.
To some extent, faculty at the University of Delaware have been
relatively insulated from these forces. We have a long tradition of
collective bargaining and a demonstrated ability to act when our
interests and values are threatened. Our past accomplishments have
minimized the number of part-timers and strengthened the economic and
governance status of the faculty. The financial condition of the
University of Delaware is solid, and both the faculty and the
University have the respect and affection of many leaders and
communities in our state. We have an ongoing dialogue with our
colleagues in the administration about the issues facing the faculty
and our campus. There is every reason to believe that these conditions
will continue.
Still, the general climate of the country and the crises
confronting higher education nationally can't be ignored since they
will have important effects on the contexts in which we teach, do our
research, participate in governance, and bargain in future contracts.
As professors, I believe that we have individual and collective
responsibilities to shape the conditions of our work so that the values
of education, scholarship and shared governance can be continued for
ourselves and for future generations of scholars. As a profession, we
are at a decisive moment in our history. As scholars and teachers, we
love to get lost in our work. Our work is often individual, creative
and deeply engaging. As we pursue our work, we must be mindful of the
political storms and cultural currents that shape our institutions and
determine our resources. Through active memberships in the AAUP and our
professional associations and as individual citizens, we must
participate in making the world that we live in. We must profess not
only the knowledge and ethics of our disciplines, but also the values
and interests of our profession.
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