Special committees are appointed on rare occasions, often for limited time periods, to deal with specific issues that are either outside the scope of the AAUP's standing committees or require sustained special attention.
The Status of Librarians in the Academy
In 2009, the AAUP established a special committee to examine the status of academic librarians. Chaired by Patricia Bentley, a librarian at the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh and member of the AAUP’s Council, the committee will survey the treatment of college and university librarians, focusing particularly on the practices of institutions that grant faculty status to librarians. Through reports and articles, the committee will also seek to raise awareness of the important role librarians play in the academic enterprise and to highlight the connections between intellectual freedom, which librarians have traditionally defended, and academic freedom.
Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Universities
A special committee was created in 2006 and charged with reviewing and analyzing post-Katrina developments in New Orleans that impinge on colleges and universities in the city, on their faculty, and on their academic programs. The committee visited New Orleans and interviewed scores of administrators and faculty members at affected institutions before issuing its report in May 2007.
Academic Freedom and National Security in a Time of Crisis
In 2002, the AAUP created a special committee to review and analyze post-September 11 developments which impinge on academic freedom. The horrific events of September 11 brought in their wake renewed conflicts between the imperatives of national security and the imperatives of free research and teaching. The committee in 2003 issued a detailed and widely circulated report describing, among other matters, how the U.S. government’s response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, has resulted in barriers to international scholarly exchange.
Since publication of the report, the special committee has continued to monitor and comment on the climate for international scholarly exchange. Most recently, the committee’s chair, Robert M. O’Neil of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, testified before a special panel convened by the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, which heard testimony in Washington, D.C., in September 2006 from prominent lawyers, judges, human rights defenders, and academics.
Distance Education and Intellectual Property Issues
In the 1990s, this committee was appointed to study the then-new field of online education and to issue recommendations. It drafted two policy statements, the Statement on Copyright (1999) and the Statement on Distance Education (1999). Both are available by request from Nanette Crisologo.The special committee also published suggestions and guidelines for chapters and individual faculty members as they negotiate instutitional policies and contract language in the areas of distance education and intellectual property.