Thursday, July 21st, 2011
Opening Seminars 3:00pm – 5:00pm
(A) History of the AAUP
For all attendees.
New to the AAUP or just want to learn more about the Association? This seminar presents a brief history of the organization, from its founding as a professional voice for faculty through its development into a broad-based advocacy organization.
(B) Legal Round-Up: Top Cases Affecting Higher Education Today!
For all attendees.
For all attendees. Join us for a review of the year’s most important legal cases and a discussion of how they may affect your work. Academic freedom, free speech, collective bargaining, and more—this session has it all! Come hear about the battles being fought and the victories being delivered. All are welcome.
(C) Government Relations Update: From Capitol Hill to Campus
For all attendees.
This session gives participants the opportunity to learn about and discuss higher education policy issues of concern to faculty. Deep budget cuts, the assault on public sector employees organizing rights and pensions, and political demands for greater accountability and for the production of more degrees are changing the higher education landscape. Learn how you can advance AAUP principles as we engage in policy discussions and lobbying at the state and national levels. We will discuss how to work effectively with colleagues in your state to shape the lawmaking process and how to network with colleagues in other states facing similar challenges. Find out what the AAUP is doing and what more can be done.
(D) Crash Course in Institutional Financial Analysis – Part 1
For all attendees.
This is a three-part series with the option to attend Part 1 as a stand-alone workshop. Parts 2 and 3 are hands-on, conducted in a computer classroom, and have a maximum capacity of 20 registrants on Friday, and 20 registrants on Saturday. We ask that you do not register for all three sessions unless you will attend all three sessions or register for Part 2 unless you plan to attend Part 3 on the same day. In this hands-on workshop, you will learn to analyze your institution’s audited financial statements in order to understand its fiscal priorities and overall financial health. Part 1, primarily lecture and discussion, will teach participants to read financial statements properly by looking at actual expenses and revenues, assets and liabilities, and cash flow. In Parts 2 and 3, participants will learn to conduct their own detailed institutional financial analysis using their respective institution’s financial statements. Participants will present their findings to the class—great preparation for sharing your new skills with campus colleagues at the next chapter meeting!
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Session I Workshops - 8:30am – 11:30am
(1A) Negotiations 101–Part 1
For attendees from CB chapters.
This workshop is a four-part series. Do not register for this session unless you will attend the entire series.
Designed for present and future bargaining team members, this series provides training for those starting to learn about the bargaining process. Participants will learn basic negotiating skills and deal with current issues, while engaging in simulated negotiations. Determine how to select a negotiating team and a chief negotiator. Learn about the relationship between the negotiating team and the chapter, table techniques, and how to build support throughout the process. We will discuss political considerations, alternative bargaining styles, nuts-and-bolts issues of contract language, and proposal language. This workshop is most appropriate to those individuals who are new to the bargaining process.
(1B) Contract and Grievance Administration–Part 1
For attendees from CB chapters.
This workshop is a four-part series. Do not register for this session unless you will attend the entire series.
Effective contract administration and grievance processing help ensure that the protection and benefits provided by your collective bargaining agreement are properly enjoyed by your members. What are the strategic and legal considerations involved in processing grievances and working with grievants? This series will explore the basic principles of contract enforcement, the counseling and representation of grievants, and analyses of case studies through role-playing. This workshop is invaluable for present and prospective members of grievance committees, grievance officers, and contract administrators.
(1C) Higher Education Data and Research I: Trends in Faculty Status
For all attendees. This workshop will be conducted in a computer classroom.
This hands-on workshop explores issues related to faculty status and the composition of the professoriate. The AAUP has been at the forefront of efforts to document the increasing use of contingent academic labor. Learn how to assess the overall status of the faculty at your institution.
(1D) Crash Course in Institutional Financial Analysis – Part 2
See description under Thursday Opening Seminars
(1E) Faculty Advocacy: Understanding and Strengthening Faculty Handbooks–Part 1
Primarily for attendees from advocacy chapters.
This workshop is a two-part series. Do not register for this session unless you will attend both. Academic due process and faculty participation in collegial governance are not just abstract concepts; they are incorporated in concrete ways in the official policies and procedures of each institution. The key document in this regard is the faculty handbook, and its contents are an important indicator of the institutional protections of faculty rights and the health of faculty governance. Learn how to evaluate a faculty handbook, how handbooks are typically structured, and what legal status they may have. This two-session workshop will examine the incorporation of AAUP principles into faculty handbooks as well as the role of the faculty in implementing the policies set forth in the document.
(1F) Strength Training for State Conferences
For attendees from advocacy or CB chapters.
This session is designed to strengthen state conferences of all ages, preparing them to promote AAUP’s principles and fend off the host of threats to higher education in the 21st century. We’ll begin with “Stretching Out,” discussing the preparation required to build a state conference; move on to “Reaching Major Muscle Groups,” which examines the state conference's role in chapter development and maintenance; “Building Muscle,” which considers how state conferences can enhance their efficacy by building coalitions between collective bargaining and advocacy, working with faculty senates, and fostering good government relations; “Achieving Fiscal Fitness,” which provides guidelines for managing conference funds; “Increasing Stamina,” which gives tips for maintaining a viable conference; and finally, “Avoiding Burnout,” which suggests activities to increase membership and keep members involved.
(1G) Professing Solidarity: Is There a Role for Faculty in the Graduate-Student Labor Movement?
For all attendees.
Graduate-student employee unions have been around for 40 years, but their numbers surged in the 1990s and 2000s, as graduate student assistantships increasingly came to be viewed by universities as a cheap, flexible academic labor supply. With the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board expected to overturn the prohibition on graduate student organizing at private institutions, the trend may well continue. Meanwhile, existing grad unions are rallying against the massive cuts to assistantship lines, academic programs, and hard-won stipends and benefits that university administrations are trying to force through in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse. Where are the graduate-student organizing “hotspots” right now? What kinds of concerns can collective bargaining help graduate assistants to address? How can faculty help graduate students who want to organize? What rights do faculty members have if they want to support their students’ unionization efforts or respect their picket lines? Does graduate student organizing have any implications for faculty members on campus or the professoriate in general? Get more information on the current state of graduate organizing, find answers to your questions, and learn practical ways to support and advocate for the graduate-student labor movement.
(1H) Invasion of the Union Snatchers: A Toolkit for Defending Public Sector Collective Bargaining from Anti-Union Legislation
For all attendees.
Public sector employee unions are being attacked by state legislatures across the country. This workshop led by union faculty members and staff from Ohio and Michigan will give you tools and tips on how to prepare and respond to these attacks. You will receive key communication, legal, legislative, and relationship-building strategies for protecting your union rights.
Session II Workshops - 1:00pm – 4:00pm
(2A) Negotiations 101 – Part 2
See description under Session I Workshops.
(2B) Contract and Grievance Administration–Part 2
See description under Session I workshops.
(2C) Higher Education Data and Research II: Faculty Compensation
For all attendees. This workshop will be conducted in a computer classroom.
This hands-on workshop explores issues related to faculty compensation. Participants will have access to data from the AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey and the US Department of Education. We will also look at sources for data on administrative compensation. This session will be especially valuable for members of compensation committees or bargaining teams.
(2D) A Crash Course in Analyzing Your Institution’s Financial Health–Part 3
See description under Thursday Opening Seminars.
(2E) Faculty Advocacy: Understanding and Strengthening Faculty Handbooks–Part 2
See description under Session I workshops.
(2F) Bridging the Gap between Tenure- and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty
For all attendees.
In higher education, continuous employment—or ‘tenure’—was designed to secure for the faculty reasonable compensation and the full protection of academic freedom. However, with the majority of the faculty in all segments of higher education hired off the tenure track, a more complex dynamic has developed than the old battles between administration and faculty. Participants at this workshop will learn how full-time and part-time non-tenure-track faculty can organize for themselves through field-tested tactics, explore models and strategies of converting faculty on contingent appointments to tenured or tenure-eligible, and models and strategies that can bridge the gap between the two tracks. The AAUP principles articulated in the following policy statements will inform our discussion: “Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession,” Regulation 13 in “Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure,” and “Report on Conversion of Appointments.” Tenure may not be everyone's primary goal, but coalitions can form behind the principles of dignity, security and intellectual autonomy that form the basis of tenure.
(2G) Collective Bargaining Compliance – Important Basics for Chapters and Conferences
For attendees from CB chapters and state conferences with private institution CB chapters who are seeking to better understand how to operate in compliance with CB enabling laws.
As the pressure mounts against the broader labor movement it has become increasingly important to ensure that your chapter and conference is operating in an efficient and legal manner. This workshop offers some specific guidance by Department of Labor trainers on such issues as running officer and delegate elections, the necessity of bonding and how to keep adequate records and accurately file reports regarding chapter and conference business. The intent of this workshop is to provide you with the information and tools necessary to make your chapter run efficiently and to be legally compliant whether you represent a chapter at a public institution, a chapter at a private institution or a state conference with CB chapters from private institutions.
(2H) Government Relations: The Nuts and Bolts of Lobbying
For all attendees.
This session describes specific ways to develop a legislative advocacy program in your state. Participants will learn how to run a “lobby day,” establish and maintain productive relationships with policymakers, and track legislation and respond to policy initiatives. We will also practice the art of effective office visits and consider how building networks can strengthen our position. Participants will learn about the assistance the national office can provide. This session will be useful for those involved in or responsible for government relations programs at the chapter or conference level.
(2I) Organizing 101
For all attendees seeking to increase chapter membership engagement, although this introductory workshop is especially designed for newer activists and activists who don’t have chapters or are short on chapter resources. Whether advocacy or collective bargaining, effective chapters know that “many hands make light work.” This workshop offers methods for starting a new chapter, building your chapter, recruiting new members, training current members to be activists, and having organizing conversations. Participants will learn effective strategies, complete with detailed examples, for developing and implementing a long-term organizing plan based on a careful balance of AAUP policy statements and . . . fun!
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011
Session III Workshops - 8:30am – 11:30am
(3A) Negotiations 101–Part 3
See description under Session I workshops.
(3B) Contract and Grievance Administration–Part 3
See description under Session I workshops.
(3C) Higher Education Data and Research III: Faculty Gender Equity
For all attendees.
This workshop will be conducted in a computer classroom. Despite years of progress, the academy has a long way to go before it will arrive at true gender equity. This session will examine the condition of women faculty in terms of status, rank, tenure, and compensation. We will discuss methods for analyzing gender equity and potential remedies for inequities that are discovered.
(3D) A Crash Course in Analyzing Your Institution’s Financial Health–Part 2 Repeated
See description under Thursday Opening Seminars.
(3E) Social Media as an Organizing Tool
For all attendees.
As news reports from around the world attest, social media tools like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs are powerful resources for twenty-first century activists. In this workshop, learn how you – yes, you! – can use technology to aid your organizing agenda. We will discuss how social media can be used to get your message out, mobilize volunteers, shape debate, and build membership and community support. Your new skills might not start a revolution on campus, but they can play a vital role in strengthening your chapter and developing its political and structural effectiveness.
(3F) Developing Shared Governance: Increasing Faculty Participation in Academic Decision-Making
For all attendees.
Faculty governance is the crucial support of faculty professionalism. It is the means by which the faculty carries out its primary responsibility for curriculum, subject matter, and methods of instruction, research, and faculty status. The effectiveness of faculty governance depends upon clear, orderly organization of the faculty through either a faculty senate (or comparable body) with appropriate standing committees or some other structure that affords faculty the means to participate in developing and implementing policies that are central to the profession. This workshop will examine the constitutions, bylaws, and respective components of a sound system of academic governance that are needed to keep the faculty deliberative body operating smoothly and effectively. Further, the workshop will explore the real-life politics of establishing and modifying faculty governance.
(3G) African American Faculty, Academic Freedom and Union Organizing
For all attendees.
This workshop will examine issues affecting academic freedom for African American faculty in higher education. With state budget cuts and the restructuring of higher education, it is imperative that African American faculty seek to increase and maintain their presence in higher education, along with the academic freedom inherent in their profession. Issues covered in the workshop will include: shared governance in academic senates; retention and promotion of African American faulty; African American content within core classes; and, the overall presence of African American faculty in a time of state budget cuts. The workshop will begin with a panel discussion and end with hands-on activities identifying scenarios and strategies generated from real life academic experiences.
(3H) Winning by Design—Creating Effective Contract Campaigns
Primarily for attendees from CB chapters, although strategies discussed are applicable to advocacy campaigns as well.
This workshop will provide an overview of how to design and implement an effective collective bargaining contract campaign. Drawing on specific examples fresh from this year’s contract campaigns and others, this session will cover such topics as communicating with the faculty and with the press, using collective action to strategically augment what’s going on at the bargaining table, turning out members for public events, building effective coalitions with campus organizations and community groups, and flirting with the “S” word—the effective use of work actions.
(3I) Effective Faculty Governance: Action-Oriented Meetings and Parliamentary Procedure
For all attendees.
This workshop will be a combination of strategies for efficient, effective, structured meetings and an introduction to basic parliamentary procedures, covering motions, order of business, nominations and elections, methods of voting, and bylaws. As time permits, we will discuss the relationship of parliamentary procedure to faculty handbooks. Questions from your specific campus are very welcome.
Session IV Workshops 1:00pm – 4:00pm
(4A) Negotiations 101–Part 4
See description under Session I workshops.
(4B) Contract and Grievance Administration–Part 4
See description under Session I workshops.
(4C) Practical Information for Building, Strengthening and Maintaining an Effective Advocacy Chapter
For all attendees.
For anyone interested in starting a chapter, revitalizing a dormant chapter, or strengthening an existing chapter, this workshop will focus on the essentials: recruiting and retaining members, developing leaders and sharing leadership duties, effective political communication strategies, getting the membership educated, keeping the membership engaged, financial matters including running a chapter on the available budget—all the foundations for building and maintaining a strong chapter while staying grounded in fundamental AAUP principles on academic freedom and genuine shared governance.
A strong chapter (advocacy or CB) gives the faculty a legitimate voice with which to speak to administrations and trustees. An organized faculty, with a unified legitimate faculty voice based on AAUP policies, is the best way to keep our institutions true to our core educational mission. We hope to help you help your faculty to find this powerful voice. We will provide specific strategies and tools for organizing faculty into a strong chapter and for maintaining that organization for the long term. About a week before the workshop, we will email participants so you can tell us the major issues on your campus and your particular concerns. We intend to make the workshop practical, interactive, and specific to your needs. You will leave with resources (local, state, and national) to support you once you get home.
(4D) A Crash Course in Analyzing Your Institution’s Financial Health–Part 3 Repeated
See description under Thursday Opening Seminars.
(4E) Can You Hear Us Now?: Earned Media and Other Communications Strategies
For all attendees.
The fast pace and sheer volume of news today means your chapter or conference media communications strategy needs to be both smart and realistic. This hands-on workshop will train you to be a media “organizer” and effective spokesperson. Learn how to evaluate your message’s news potential and craft a media outreach program that attracts attention. Participants will discuss tactics for feeding stories to local media markets and generating “media availability” opportunities. It’s not enough to get noticed, though—before grabbing the media’s attention, you need to plan what to do once you’ve got it! In small teams, participants will practice the “nine-second sound bite” and other techniques for making the most of your media moment. Playback and constructive critique will be part of the drill.
(4F) Team Building: From Organizing to Bargaining Teams and Beyond
Whether you are building an advocacy chapter or preparing to bargain a contract, the “collective” may be one of the biggest challenges on your plate. We all know the jokes about herding academics, so what tactics and strategies can we use to make this part of our organizing more prolific and productive? Each of the session leaders will share on some cycle of their team building experience to specifically address some of the toughest challenges of team building in the collective bargaining / chapter forming process: building / bargaining / stage coaches – negotiating conflict & moving forward.
(4G) Committee A Procedures—A Primer for Chapters and Conferences
For all attendees.
The successful implementation of AAUP policies is largely dependent upon faculty working toward and insisting upon sound policies at their own institutions. Historically, state conferences and campus chapters have played an active role in this advocacy, providing information, advice, and assistance to faculty who are experiencing difficulties. More often than not, the relevant issue does not involve a violation of academic freedom or a breach of academic due process. But if and when an issue does implicate basic AAUP policies, a state conference or chapter Committee A chair (sometimes called a grievance officer) must work in tandem with AAUP national Committee A staff to ensure consistent and well-grounded positions and responses. This session, which builds on the two-part faculty handbook workshop, will describe AAUP procedures and protocols for handling complaints and cases and how these relate to the work of state conferences and chapters in identifying and dealing with Committee A issues. Many of the documents for the workshop are posted on the State Committee A Resources page of the AAUP’s website: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/asc/comares/default.htm.
(4H) Advanced Topics in Bargaining: Interest-Based Bargaining
For attendees from CB chapters.
Interest-based bargaining (sometimes referred to as “win-win bargaining” or “mutual gains bargaining”) is a model that starts from some very different assumptions than those that form the basis for traditional “adversarial” bargaining. And it utilizes a very different set of procedures to enable the parties to reach agreement. This workshop will examine the basics of interest-based bargaining, including guiding you through the process of evaluating its suitability on your campus and exploring ways to avoid pitfalls commonly associated with it. We also will present the thesis that the adversarial and interest-based bargaining models are not, as most assume, mutually exclusive, and that combining elements of both can lead to the greatest success at the bargaining table.
(4I) Recruiting Diverse Leadership in Unions and Other Faculty Organizations
For all attendees.
The California Faculty Association (CFA) recruited several faculty union activists from underrepresented ethnic, gender and sexual orientation groups, by incorporating issues of concern for these groups and their students into the work of the union. This union work has attracted faculty activists committed to social justice for students and faculty in public higher education. This workshop will focus on organizing work based on three issues and how AAUP members can use similar techniques to recruit and empower their own activists: 1) A union survey about effects of race, gender, and course content on student evaluations; 2) statewide union organizing in opposition to mandated programs that have disparate impact on low-income students of color and the threat of eliminating faculty and staff positions; and 3) data gathering and policy recommendations regarding hate crimes policies and training.