Ernst Benjamin Steps Down From Full-time Position on AAUP Staff

By Paul H. L. Walter

The AAUP will miss Ernst Benjamin after he retires this spring. Explaining why requires giving a little background information.

The AAUP has always been an organization destined to struggle, and success has by no means been assured. From the founding of the Association by the call to meeting of 1915 to today, there have been those who have felt we were too idealistic, exclusive, inclusive, reactionary, revolutionary, or naïve. The historian Charles A. Beard, before 1920, refused an invitation to join. He wrote the admissions committee, "I regarded the AAUP as a futile enterprise when it was begun, and the results to date have confirmed my suspicion."

Yet despite the naysayers, succeed we did. The 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure provided the constitution of the professoriate, and a generation of faculty looked to the AAUP for leadership. Beginning with the 1970s, however, a crisis was to occur that would threaten to totally destroy the AAUP.

It was almost thirty years ago that the Council adopted the collective bargaining resolution. This action, which was made AAUP policy by a vote of 373 to 54 at the annual meeting in May 1972, committed the Association to "pursue collective bargaining as a major additional way of realizing the Association's goals in higher education," and it required us to "allocate such resources and staff as are necessary for the vigorous selective development of this activity." For many traditionalists within the AAUP, this resolution opened the question: can the AAUP maintain its role as the conscience of academe when it has joined with the AFL-CIO and the National Education Association as a union, or even as collective bargaining supporters would have it, when it exists as a professional association, which acknowledges unionism as legitimate to its ends?

The creation of two separate task forces on Association structure within little over a year, and the revolving door which then defined the position of general secretary, proved that there were serious problems within our body. Divisiveness threatened to rend the AAUP asunder. Some AAUP chapters serving as faculty unions complained that national staff and certain leaders of the AAUP had been insensitive to the legitimate interests of collective bargaining. Additionally, there were union objections to disparate dues among various chapters.

On the other side, there were some traditionalists already looking into the possibility of founding a new association, which would be, as they saw it, true to the principles of the Redbook, the AAUP's compendium of policy statements.

It was out of such an unpromising maelstrom that a search committee, representative of the various factions, was appointed to find a new general secretary for the Association. I was chair of the committee. There were surprisingly many candidates both internal and external, and their knowledge of the AAUP ranged from minimal to extensive. One name stood out among the rest, that of Ernst Benjamin. Ernie was then a dean at Wayne State University. His experience with the Association was extensive. He had served as a member of the Executive Committee and the Council, as chair of the Collective Bargaining Congress, and as a member of several other committees. He knew what he was getting into. There were objections to his appointment from some who were leery of his collective bargaining background. Yet, in the end, the Council strongly supported the search committee and named Ernst Benjamin general secretary.

I do not exaggerate when I say that the appointment of Ernst Benjamin explains why there is an AAUP today. The first years of his work were not easy, and there were attempts to undercut his leadership. His perseverance, his absolute commitment to academic freedom, faculty governance, and tenure, coupled with his understanding that different institutions needed to deal with these issues in different ways, eventually brought us together. He taught us that we had to live together or we would surely die together. Those of us who were deeply involved in the AAUP at that time recognize that without Ernie the AAUP either would be a very different organization or would not exist.

On becoming general secretary, he immediately opened lines of communication with the other academic associations in Washington, D.C. During his ten years as general secretary, he served the Washington Higher Education Secretariat, working particularly on such issues as pensions and minority participation in postsecondary education. While many feared the elimination of mandatory, age-based retirement, Ernie saw it as an opportunity to improve pension and other retirement benefits and so provide still more openings for younger faculty. A sabbatical in 1994-95 as a visiting scholar at the Association of Governing Boards helped him further strengthen the links that bind all segments of academe together.

Ernie has always shown concern for the underdog. Injustice is to be fought and never tolerated. His concern for minorities and women in academe dates back before his appointment. He served on the Association's Committee on Historically Black Institutions and the Status of Minorities in the Profession from 1977 to 1980, and he chaired the Council Committee on Affirmative Action Guidelines from 1978 to 1981. His work on the AAUP's annual salary survey led to further research and ultimately to the report titled "Disparities in the Salaries and Appointments of Academic Women and Men."

Another exploited group is the part-time faculty member. Ernie saw the overuse and misuse of so-called part-time faculty as harmful both to the professoriate and to the quality of higher education. He staffed the newly created Committee on Part-Time and Non-Tenure-Track Appointments and helped develop the interdisciplinary council, Coalition on the Academic Workforce, that monitors reliance on such appointments.

On leaving the office of general secretary in 1994, he was able to turn over to his successor a strong, vital, and unified AAUP, which remains faithful to its mission. For the past six years, he has served as the AAUP's director of research and assumed responsibilities for the salary survey. This issue of Academe is an example of his success in that area.

We on the search committee were right to bring forth Ernie's name to the Council. The Council was right to appoint him general secretary. Thank you, Ernie, for your sixteen years of service on the professional staff and best wishes as you move to another phase of your life!

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