Welcome: AAUP at The University of Akron
"To investigate truth; critically verify fact; to reach conclusions by means of the best methods at command, untrammeled by external fear or favor, to communicate this truth to the student: this is precisely the aim and object of the university. To aim a blow at any one of these operations is to deal a vital wound to the university itself"
John Dewey, Co-founder AAUP
January 8, 2010: Classes will not be affected
The Administration of The University of Akron and the Akron Chapter of the American Association of University Professors reached tentative agreements on all issues pertaining to contract negotiations. The tentative agreements now must be ratified by the University’s Board of Trustees and by the membership of the Akron-AAUP. The timetable for ratification is being established.
For the Akron-AAUP, the chapter membership will vote shortly after informational meetings held on January 13th and 14th for the chapter membership.
Both parties recommend ratification to their respective constituents.
Student Q&A on Faculty negotiations
Question: What is so important about academic freedom, tenure, and shared decision-making? Why don't faculty just do their jobs?
Answer: Exercising these three concepts IS our job. Like all important fundamental principles, these are the basic rights and responsibilities faculty have to guarantee the very idea of a university... MORE HERE.
To Prospective Students and Parents: New Buildings are great, but....
We the faculty in the University of Akron Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AkronAAUP) genuinely hope you’ll join us at The University of Akron. We are committed to offering you a firstrate education and a degree backed by the solid reputation of our university’s faculty. We urge you to join us in making sure that this commitment to your quality education is not compromised in the future. While you are evaluating our campus, please take the opportunity to ask questions of those showing you around. All of us were students at one time, and many of us are parents as well. These are some of the questions we’d be asking if we were considering UA.
From INSIDE HIGHER ED: "Second Opinion"
By Jack Stripling, December 23, 2009
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"I think that administrators simply are not telling the truth. It’s that simple."
” ...students and faculty all over the country should be rising up against administrators who are using the economic crisis to make cuts.”
Read the Article HERE.
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What Students are saying
A Note addressed to Dr Russell Davis, Akron-AAUP Executive Director
Dear Dr. Davis,
I am writing to let you know that as a member of the student body, I support you and your organization during this difficult time during the contract proceedings. While I can only speak for myself, I think it is important for the union to know that students support them wholeheartedly. I know that the union is acting in the best interests of the faculty and the students. If the situation necessitates a strike, I, and I believe many other students, understand that this is a last resort measure that all parties hoped to avoid.
I have composed a letter of concern to Dr. Proenza which I am planning to mail tomorrow. Do you have any suggestions of who else in administration I should contact? What else, other than writing such letters, can I as an undergraduate student do to express my support of the faculty union?
I look forward to your response.
(We've withheld the student's name)
Overheard Tuesday, October 20 at the Bierce Library coffee shop:
She: "The classes I need for my program were cancelled next semester. They don't have a professor and they can't find a part-time teacher. We're just S.O.L...again."
He: "Yeah, they won't pay for teachers for our classes, but they sure have all the vice-presidents they want, don't they?"
She: "It's business as usual."
Think you have no Voice? What Do students elsewhere do About Rising tuition, increased fees, Cuts in services?
University of California Berkeley students and faculty protest against fee increases and budget cuts. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty. Story HERE.
To our students
The American Association of University Professors in 1967 endorsed a joint statement on the rights and freedoms of students.
"Students and student organizations should be free to examine and discuss all questions of interest to them and to express opinions publicly and privately."
"As constituents of the academic community, students should be free, individually and collectively, to express their views on issues of institutional policy and on matters of general interest to the student body."
"The student press should be free of censorship and advance approval of copy, and its editors and managers should be free to develop their own editorial policies and news coverage."
Read the entire statement here.
Click here for a printable copy.
To our Graduate Students
"Graduate students are important members of the community of scholars. By defending their right to unionize and their rights to academic freedom, we defend the entire academy."
Michael Livingston, Past-President Minnesota State Conference
From the AAUP's Statement on Graduate Students
"Graduate students should have a voice in institutional governance at the program, department, college, graduate school, and university levels."
"In order to assist graduate students in making steady progress toward their degrees, the time they spend in teaching or research assistantships or other graduate employment at the institution should be limited in amount—a common maximum is twenty hours per week—and should afford sufficient compensation so as not to compel the student to obtain substantial additional employment elsewhere."
"Graduate-student assistants, though they work only part time, should receive essential fringe benefits, and especially health benefits."
"...because of their advanced education, graduate students should be encouraged by their professors to exercise their freedom of “discussion, inquiry, and expression.”3 Further, they should be able to express their opinions freely about matters of institutional policy, and they should have the same freedom of action in the public political domain as faculty members should have."
Read the Entire Statement on Graduate Students here.
For a printable copy of the AAUP's statement click here.
The national Council of the AAUP in 2005 reaffirmed the right of graduate students to organize for collective bargaining. Find out more here.