April 2004 aaUPBEAT
AAUP Gains Are Your Gains: Support the Union
by Linda Bucher, President
Whether or not a UD faculty member belongs to the local AAUP
chapter, he or she receives the salary increases, benefits packages and
grievance rights that the union offers.
Although the AAUP is like other unions in that our mandate is
to help our members in a variety of economic and workplace-based ways,
we also possess a spectrum of concerns unique to education and
research. Our job, in other words, is multifaceted. For example,
protecting UD faculty's economic stability and freedom from arbitrary
treatment at the Administration's hands is a priority. We also guard
free speech rights and conceptualize, and make the Administration aware
of, specific ways in which the University can strengthen its commitment
to educational excellence while simultaneously recognizing the
faculty's indispensable role in producing that excellence. In these
areas of the AAUP's work, just as with bread and butter issues, UD
faculty members reap the benefits of these union activities whether or
not they are AAUP members.
It is clear that one reason why faculties like UD's are able
to meet the varying economic and philosophical challenges presented by
the nation's changing higher educational environment is the existence
of the AAUP and other unions that represent faculty. For instance,
studies show that following the founding of an AAUP chapter at a
college or university, salary increases outpace salary improvements at
nonunion colleges and universities, although this pattern of outpacing
frequently decelerates as the union becomes more entrenched and faculty
begin to take the union's existence for granted.
Which brings us to our local situation?
As of this month (April 2004), 48.4 percent of the UD faculty
belong to our AAUP chapter while 51.6 percent do not belong. This
represents a decline from the above-50 percent membership level that we
sustained for a number of years. Since bargaining power and the success
of other AAUP activities depend in significant part on membership
level, nonunion faculty members play with fire by remaining aloof from
the union, since this aloofness undermines the union's capacity to win
things that benefit all faculty members, union or nonunion -
e.g., a year's sabbatical at 75 percent of salary and above-median
salaries in our comparator group.
Some faculty of course have philosophical views that prevent
them from joining the union. Although we may disagree with such views,
we respect faculty members' right to hold them and to act in accord
with them. However, many faculty who don't belong to our AAUP chapter
have remained nonmembers not because of principle or ideology, but
rather as a consequence of other matters: (1) being recently hired and
therefore being preoccupied with other concerns, (2) absentmindedness
or (3) taking the union for granted.
Whatever the reason, if you are a nonmember, you should
consider altering this immediately by joining the AAUP. As we prepare
to negotiate a new contract during the coming academic year, the union
must be as strong as possible. We are all in this together. It's our
salaries, benefits and rights that will suffer if the union is unable
to go to the bargaining table backed by a committed membership. If a
university like Rutgers, which is comparable to UD, can achieve a 66.7
percent membership level, we certainly should be able to increase our
own membership level significantly and in the process maximize the
union's capacity to represent UD faculty with regard to bread and
butter issues as well as in the area of academic freedom.
Remember that these issues are of concern to all of us. If
you're not a member or have let your membership lapse, please join the
AAUP now.
Below, for your use, I will provide some information about
both the National AAUP and the UD chapter.
One of the factors that precipitated the AAUP's formation
occurred a number of years before its founding in 1915. That factor was
the firing in 1901 of an economist, Edward Ross, from Stanford
University because the wife of the University's biggest donor, Leland
Stanford, a millionaire railroad builder and ex-California governor,
was angered by Ross's criticisms of railroad monopolies.
After Ross was fired a number of faculty members resigned in
protest, including the philosopher, Arthur Lovejoy who later in his
career taught at Johns Hopkins University. Not only did Lovejoy never
forget the Ross affair, the incident became a defining moment in his
life and, as a result of it, guaranteeing academic freedom became one
of his lifelong concerns. Consequently, Lovejoy eventually proposed the
formation of a national association of professors whose role would be
the protection of faculty rights. In 1915 he sponsored the founding
meeting of the organization and John Dewey was elected president. The
AAUP was born.
More than eighty years have passed since the AAUP's founding,
yet the organization not only still exists, it has established itself
as the major national organization devoted solely to faculty rights,
including academic freedom, fair salary and promotion processes, and
access to arbitration for those with grievances.
Representing over tens of thousands of faculty members across
the nation, AAUP chapters have not only dug in and done the nuts and
bolts work of providing the services just mentioned, but they have been
backed by a national organization that, just over the past year, has:
- Supported contingent faculty's efforts to obtain secure
positions, fair wages, and benefits.
- Organized conferences on academic freedom and collegial
governance at religiously affiliated colleges and universities and also
authored and distributed policy reports on these issues as well as on
the reform of intercollegiate athletics and the plight of contingent
faculty.
- Received a grant of $406,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation to pursue research and policy initiatives on work-family
issues in the academic workplace.
- Received $50,000 from the Ford Foundation to support the
Special Committee on Academic Freedom and National Security in a Time
of Crisis.
- Filed amicus briefs in academic freedom, affirmative
action, and discrimination cases.
Our local AAUP chapter was founded in 1972 when UD faculty
selected the AAUP over the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and
the National Education Association (NEA) as their bargaining agent.
Although in the decades since the union's inception it has experienced
ups and downs in its relationship with the Administration, over recent
years the two parties have bargained on a more equal footing after more
than a decade of the union strengthening its campus presence and
formulating a vision of faculty's role in higher education.
As a result of the UD AAUP's evolution, our accomplishments
over recent years have been noticeable. Seven of those accomplishments
are:
- As a result of our Collective Bargaining Agreements,
salaries at the University of Delaware are higher than the median for
comparable institutions in our region.
- Our benefits package, including the University's
contribution to TIAA-CREFF, is one of the best nation-wide. Not only is
it now possible for faculty to take a year's sabbatical at 75% of their
salary, but faculty members also now have at their disposal the option
of taking a Research Semester free from teaching and service
responsibilities before they apply for tenure.
- Faculty empowerment was increased when AAUP efforts
resulted in the fact that faculty must now approve departmental
policies for the allocation of merit pay.
- A faculty vote is now required for appointment and
reappointment of department chairs.
- In a joint effort with AFSCME's campus leadership, the AAUP
worked with the Administration to win tuition remission for book store
and food services employees who no longer have University employee
status since, as the result of their jobs being outsourced, they now
work for non-UD vendors.
- We have vigorously supported part-time faculty's academic
freedom as a result of our belief that attacks on the academic freedom
of anyone teaching at UD present a danger to all faculty. Just as
vigorously, we have advocated greater ethnic and cultural diversity in
the employment of faculty.
In spite of these accomplishments, however, the need for a
strong union remains, since corporatization trends, the expansion of
distance learning, post 9/11 pressures on freedom of speech, and
increased demands for curtailing research projects that do not have
"practical" outcomes have put faculties across the nation on the alert.
Increasingly, we are in the position of rapidly having to adapt in
unified ways to new challenges that have been evolving for years but
are now coming to a head.
Take as one example, the increased emphasis on administration
as opposed to teaching/research as crucial to higher education.
Over the last two decades, from 1980 until the present, higher
education institutions have budgeted their monies in ways that indicate
an ominous shift in the traditional way of viewing education. During
that time investment in administration has far outstripped investment
in instruction, with administrative costs growing by 60%, whereas
instruction-related costs have risen by only 39%. Coincident with this
is the fact that as enrollments grow at public colleges and
universities, the economic investment per student haven't grown
equivalently. Teaching-related spending per student increased only 4
percent at public colleges and 12 percent at public universities since
the late 1970s to the end of the 20th century.
As stated at the beginning of this section, although the union
has experienced ups and downs in its relationship with the
Administration over the last thirty years, for more than a decade now
we have bargained on a more equal footing with the Administration. This
has not occurred by accident, but as a result of the union's
development of strategies to strengthen our campus presence.
This greater equality between the AAUP and Administration has
sometimes resulted in greater ease of communications, but not always.
The truth is that when it comes to policy interpretations and grievance
analyses, there is always the possibility of union and Administration
arriving at different conclusions. When this happens, the differences
must be resolved through presentation of data, discussion and a shared
commitment to fairness.
This process, based on differences of opinion regarding the
meaning of certain facts, is inevitable no matter how well intentioned
either side is. The reason for this inevitability can be found in the
Administration and AAUP's two different mandates. Whereas the
Administration's job is to manage the University's infrastructure, the
AAUP's task is to make sure our institution's educational essence, and
the balance of power that is crucial to that essence, remains intact.
These two orientations can certainly coexist in a cordial way,
but it is also true that they don't always share exactly the same
interests. For instance, look at the ongoing discussion about the
corporatization of higher education. The Administration often views
corporatization as a cost-cutting and efficiency-creating strategy.
Faculty, on the other hand, recognize that corporatization can also be
used as a model for increasing workloads and diminishing academic
freedom.
Without the AAUP there would be no dialogue on these matters,
which means that the AAUP does not only serve faculty members, it
serves the cause of higher education in general by guaranteeing that a
greater, rather than a lesser, variety of perspectives is brought to
the table when higher education's present and future are discussed.
- If a faculty member who has been hired during this academic
year joins the AAUP, she or he is exempt from local and national dues
for the first year of their membership
- If a faculty member who has been at UD for more than one
year joins the AAUP, she or he is exempt from local dues for the first
year of their membership.
- AAUP members receive a free half hour of legal consultation
for non-employment related issues and a ten percent discount at Newark
Opticians.
- Please note that a union enrollment card is included with
the newsletter.
- For additional information, phone the union office at
831-2292 or email us at aaup-mail@udel.edu.
There are a number of ways faculty can contribute to the union.
Attend open faculty meetings sponsored by the AAUP so you can
participate in discussions concerning AAUP business and policies.
Seek appointment to an AAUP committee, for example the Awards
Committee or the Grievance Committee, or present an idea for a new AAUP
activity.
Faculty in each department elect an AAUP representative to be
the liaison between their department and the AAUP. AAUP members who
want to play a role in the union can seek to serve as a departmental
representative.
Interested AAUP members can also consider serving on the
union's Steering Committee. AAUP members in each college elect Steering
Committee representatives. (See last section below for current Steering
Committee members.)
The union's Executive Council members are elected by all AAUP
members at UD. Any AAUP member desiring to run for one of these
positions is eligible to do.
Executive Council members are willing to (a) meet with any
faculty member or group of faculty or (b) attend
department/college/committee meetings to discuss issues of concern to
faculty members. This academic year, we met with faculty from the
Colleges of Business and Economics and Arts and Science. These meetings
provide an important mechanism for communication between the faculty
and the AAUP. We will come if you ask, but you must ask!
Paul Evenson
Bartol Research Institute
College of Arts & Science
Arwen Mohen
Department of History
College of Arts & Science
Benjamin Fleury Steiner
Department of Sociology
College of Arts & Science
Richard Braun
Department of Mathematical Sciences
College of Arts & Science
Peter Cole
Department of Linguistics
College of Arts & Science
Kevin Kerrane
Department of English
College of Arts & Science
Russell Murray
Department of Music
College of Arts & Science
Patricia Barber
Department of Food and Resource Economics
College of Human Services, Education, and Public Policy
Howard Garland
Department of Business Administration
College of Business & Economics
Steven Dentel
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
John O'Neill
Department of Health & Exercise Science
College of Health, Nutrition and Nursing Sciences
Carolyn Manning
Department of Health & Exercise Science
College of Health, Nutrition and Nursing Sciences
Frances Mayhew
Department of Consumer Studies
College of Human Services, Education & Public Policy
Julie Wilgen
Department of Individual and Family Studies
College of Human Services, Education & Public Policy
Karen Stein
President of Faculty Senate
Department of Consumer Studies
College of Human Services, Education & Public Policy
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