Wright State University professor Rudy Fichtenbaum has been elected president of the AAUP. Fichtenbaum, a long time AAUP leader and faculty unionist, will take office in June. Below, he is pictured at the AAUP Governance Conference.
Other newly elected officers of the AAUP are Hank Reichman (California State University-East Bay), first vice president; Susan Michalczyk (Boston College), second vice president; and Michele Ganon (Western Connecticut State University), secretary-treasurer.
Donna Potts of Kansas State University was elected chair of the Assembly of State Conferences.
A number of Council positions were also elected in this month's election. See the complete results in a Word document.
Fichtenbaum made this statement in response to his election:
It is a great honor to have been elected to be the 50th President of the American Association of University Professors. I ran as part of a slate of candidates Organizing for Change.
We believe that higher education in general and the AAUP in particular stand at a critical crossroads. Everywhere our profession and its values are under assault. Attacks on collective bargaining rights and shared governance, the abuse of non-tenure track faculty (both full-time and part-time) and consequent erosion of tenure, the misplaced priorities of politicians and many university leaders, and assaults on the free expression rights of both faculty and students are increasing. To meet these challenges faculty in general and the AAUP in particular must move beyond our traditional modes of defense, invaluable as these are.
The current crisis calls on us to shift our focus and place our highest priority on organizing to defend our profession and genuinely reform higher education. The AAUP needs to become a more powerful, articulate, and energetic force committed to organizing and mobilizing faculty in a broad variety of ways to fight for our profession.
I am looking forward to working with all members of the National Council, the leadership of the Collective Bargaining Congress, the leadership of the Assembly of State Conferences, chapter leaders, and our staff to build a more inclusive and more active organization. We also need to develop alliances and strengthen our ties with other organizations like the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education and the New Faculty Majority. In addition, we must build stronger alliances with unions, community organizations and student organizations on a national, state and local level. The AAUP needs to do more to support the work of all of its chapters, both advocacy chapters and collective bargaining chapters. We have to show faculty that we have the experience, as well as the knowledge, to help them organize and fight for their common interests.
— Rudy Fichtenbaum