Two End-of-Semester Wins

AAUP members and friends,

A couple of important successes yesterday we need to tell you about—we’ve won a victory against precarity at Miami through the new TCPL* policy Senate passed yesterday, plus a victory for shared governance by challenging and halting the overweening Arrest Reporting Policy passed last session.

Success #1: 
Yesterday, Senate passed a policy supporting job security in the form of longer contracts for non-tenure-track faculty at Miami. This is a big deal. As part of our campaign to reduce faculty precarity at Miami, AAUP has advocated for years for longer contracts. Now, TCPL faculty, after promotion, will be on 3-year or 5-year contracts. Credit goes to the Faculty Welfare Committee for all its hard work developing the policy and to the Provost and University Counsel for supporting it.

The new policy still needs work, and we’ll continue to work on it this fall. We’ve got to create a fair transition—and ideally an opt-out clause—for current TCPL who were hired under a previous set of expectations and may not wish to apply for promotion. We must also ensure that TCPL, like TT faculty, have very clear and robust opportunities to appeal when they are not promoted. 

A lot is still left to do to reduce precarity at Miami. We need to improve conditions and job security for the visiting faculty and part-timers who teach the majority of credit hours at Miami. 

But there is good reason to celebrate today. When more of us are secure,

• students and our educational mission are better served
• our academic freedom is protected, &
• faculty can have more influence in shared governance and making positive change at Miami. 

Success #2: 
We have halted the Arrest Reporting policy passed at the last Senate meeting. That’s good news because:

• The policy is overweening and could cause negative consequences. Our challenge has suspended it till it can be fully debated in fall.
• The administration now knows that we can and will challenge inappropriate policies and inappropriate procedures when necessary. This is a victory for shared governance, because hopefully now controversial and important matters will not be rammed quickly through Senate (especially not off the regular agenda, as in this case), but instead given plenty of light and air. 

The arrest reporting policy will be debated at the Fall Faculty Assembly. Please do plan to turn out, as we’ll need a quorum — about 200 faculty — to return the policy to Senate for reconsideration.

Thanks to all who signed the challenge, and to all of you for your support. If you are not a member yet, you can be part of positive change by joining AAUP now. 

*TCPL are Teaching Professors, Clinical Professors, and Lecturers.