Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, Levinson, Rachel. Martin Gruberg. American Association of University Professors [electronic resource]. Other articles in Groups and Organizations. Want to support the Free Speech Center? Donate Now. American Association of University Professors. Nevertheless, shared governance, established by the bylaws of the University — and however onerous we may find it in practice — is fundamental to our academic lives, and to the reputation and Research I status of MSU.
Committees are in place that have the responsibility and indeed the right to evaluate plans and advise on proposals such as major, cross-college reorganization, or the shifting of significant resources and facilities. We are faced with two matters of immediate concern, both of which will be addressed at the Academic Senate meeting:. Faculty in the Colleges of Arts and Letters, Human Ecology, and Communication Arts and Sciences were given restricted time-frames in which to respond to complex reorganization proposals that were formulated without appropriate faculty consultation, and without the opportunity for researching alternatives that might be better for the future of liberal arts education.
Faculty in the College of Human Medicine discovered only through newspaper reports that the MSU administration was contemplating a move of substantial parts of the College to Grand Rapids. Such a move could have great significance fir faculty of the College, and for the future of community-based medical education as well as for the University as a whole. We believe that in such matters a careful consideration of a range of proposals generated as well as evaluated through proper governance channels is needed.
Further, recently enacted and impending budget-driven adjustments to the funding of research and graduate education, distributed across all colleges, reveal tensions between economic and intellectual needs. Fir instance, a recent proposal by the administration would have raised the fringe costs for postdoctoral temporary positions in the sciences significantly above those of peer institutions, thereby effectively reducing the number of such positions any unit can maintain.
Another pertinent issue involves recently enacted and impending budget-driven adjustments to the funding of research and graduate education, distributed across all colleges, which reveal tensions between economic and intellectual needs. For instance, as a result of recent cuts to graduate student support and the redistribution of funding toward new initiatives rather than toward established and successful programs, most of the well-respected, strong, stable graduate programs in the College of Arts and Letters are in danger of becoming non-viable.
Support for graduate education in the College of Arts and Letters has generally come in the form of teaching assistantships, not fellowships. The erosion of graduate student support, coupled with difficulties in obtaining funding for replacement and new faculty lines, undermines the ability of departments to meet the needs of undergraduate as well as graduate education.
We seek your help in ensuring that the faculty and the administration will work together to find better solutions for the University. We also urge an active commitment to participation in academic governance, which has been allowed to languish in recent decades through the faculty autonomy.
Identify and contact your faculty representatives on the Faculty Council, and ask that they address these important issues in their meetings. Finally, we ask again that you consider joining the American Association of University Professors. In conjunction with other efforts such as those outlined above, the AAUP can help represent concerns of the faculty as well as those of individual units to the administration and step in to bring these matters to the attention of the Board of Trustees.
All of us — students, faculty, staff, and administrators — need to help one another to find the best way to move forward in the best interests of our University. Unified, organized efforts will help ensure that our various but closely linked concerns will be given a serious hearing.
Grover Hudson Professor of Linguistics President. Order the book from the national AAUP site. A selection of policy statements from the Redbook is available online. Do you desire to have a voice in faculty governance? Are you interested in issues in higher education? The Threats In the s research universities became the targets of financial downsizing, political attacks, and general public skepticism about their enterprise.
Defending Faculty Despite declining membership the AAUP has actively and effectively protected the interests of faculty at research universities. Join AAUP Faculty at IU and at other research universities cannot possibly resist or prevent the erosion of academic freedom and faculty autonomy on their own, department by department, school by school, or campus by campus. Gray, Mary W.
Knight, Jonathan. Metzger, Walter P. Schrecker, Ellen. Search this site. About the AAUP. Report abuse. A set of guidelines and recommendations for applying the principles of shared governance to the process of institutional accreditation.
You can access a treasure trove of additional resources on governance on the AAUP web site. Wright St. Champaign, IL Opinions expressed by individual contributors to the site represent their personal views and are not necessarily positions of the chapter or any other entity.
Opinions expressed by the chapter do not necessarily represent the views of the national AAUP or any other entity.
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