2016 AAUP Updates

Over the Labor Day weekend, the administration of Long Island University (LIU) announced an unprecedented lockout of all 400 members of its Brooklyn campus faculty union in the midst of ongoing contract negotiations. The AAUP deplores this action and supports the right of the LIU Brooklyn faculty to collectively bargain in good faith with its administration.

The National Labor Relations Board found today that student assistants working at private institutions are statutory employees with the right to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act. The  AAUP had filed an amicus brief in this case. "Graduate employees deserve a seat at the table and a voice in higher education. Collective bargaining can provide that," says Howard Bunsis, chair of the AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress.

The AAUP Foundation Board has approved funds to cover registration fees for up to six faculty members to attend the AAUP Shared Governance Conference and Workshops, with preference given to candidates who are likely to broaden the diversity of shared governance on their campuses. The conference will be held in Washington, DC, September 30-October 2, and applications for funding are due by September 15.

The AAUP celebrates the University of Northern Iowa's faculty union and administration accord on salary equity.

Four hundred U.S. academics, including top AAUP leadership, members of the AAUP Council, and leaders of local AAUP chapters, sent a letter sent to President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter condemning the current situation in Turkey and calling for their action. "While we disapprove of the attempt to subvert the democratic process in Turkey through the military coup of July 15, 2016, President Erdogan’s response has gone beyond measures compatible with the rule of law and human rights, using the occasion to undertake a massive dismissal or suspension from duty of judges, military personnel, civil servants, university deans, and teachers. As of the most recent news this number has reached nearly 60,000. ... The political independence and the academic freedom of the educational profession is essential for free societies." 

In Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (Fisher II) the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the University of Texas at Austin’s affirmative action program. The AAUP had joined an amicus brief in this case, supporting affirmative action.

AAUP Assembly of State Conferences (ASC) elections were conducted on Saturday, June 18th, 2016 at the AAUP annual meeting in Washington, DC. State conference delegates elected the new ASC officers, who will serve two- or three-year terms ending in June 2018 or 2019.

Deepa Kumar, associate professor of media studies at Rutgers University, and Deanna Wood, associate professor of the University of New Hampshire library faculty, were selected as recipients of AAUP’s 2016 Georgina M. Smith Award. Professor Kumar has championed greater participation of junior faculty, and especially women of color, in union membership, and made gender and race issues central to bargaining. Professor Wood has advanced the art of collective bargaining, improved procedures for grievances, worked for gender equity and anti-discrimination in contract language, and gained a strong paid parental leave policy for faculty at her institution.