On Dec. 17, a group of faculty met via Zoom and voted to begin the process of establishing an American Association of University Professors (AAUP) advocacy chapter here at IC. The purpose of the chapter would be to enable the faculty to advocate for itself (and, ideally, for and in concert with staff and students) as a collective body, on institutional issues that its members consider significant.
The reasons individual faculty members expressed interest in forming a chapter were varied, but much of the discussion was animated by concerns about the forthcoming APPIC recommendations and by the status of shared governance at Ithaca College more generally. Shared governance—“meaningful faculty participation in institutional governance”— is one of AAUP’s major issues, and part of the idea behind establishing a chapter here is to create an affiliation with a national organization that can advise and provide resources for all IC faculty collectively (contingent, NTEN, tenured, and tenure-eligible) as the College faces institutional challenges. Such challenges are, of course, not unique to IC, and AAUP has been actively involved in responding to the developing culture of institutional austerity nationwide. Ideally, an AAUP chapter will enable us both to benefit from AAUP's experience and resources and to contribute to the work they're doing with other institutions.
The chapter itself is not yet formally established. I invite all faculty who are interested in founding, joining, and participating in a campus chapter of AAUP to attend the upcoming meeting, scheduled for Thursday, January 14, from 4-5pm via Zoom. The goals of this meeting will be to establish a process for electing officers; to consider bylaws; to set an agenda for the upcoming semester; and to identify a list of institutional priorities to pursue beyond this spring.
My name is Dan Breen, and I'm in the English Dept. here. Please get in touch with me directly (dbreen@ithaca.edu) for the Zoom link, and feel free to send along any questions or concerns you might have.