Category: Uncategorized
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It’s time to update Miami’s commitment to academic freedom
[UPDATE 10pm Thursday 5/17/18: We were informed this afternoon that the Board of Trustees will not be discussing or voting on the academic freedom resolution, SR 18–11, at tomorrow’s meeting. SR 18-11 will appear on a report on the Board’s agenda (a report that also includes the LCPL cap change and LCPL promotion resolutions), but…
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What happened after the last LCPL cap increase?
Miami AAUP appreciates the arguments made in favor of increasing the cap on non-tenure-line continuing faculty from 20% to 25% of the number of tenured/tenure-track faculty. But good decisions are informed by history, so before voting, the community should consider what happened last time and vote to amend the current cap change resolution. In 2010,…
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“Monday’s meeting was nothing short of electrifying”
Here’s a letter to Miami AAUP members from our secretary, Deborah Lyons, on the Senate meeting April 30 at which the chapter passed resolutions on academic freedom and due process with overwhelming support: Dear Colleagues and Friends, I don’t usually use the words “Senate meeting” and “exciting” in the same sentence, but Monday’s meeting was nothing short…
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Tenure-line and non-tenure-line at Miami: the real numbers
Minutes posted this week for the April 23, 2018 meeting of Senate contained a significant correction. A chart on overall full-time faculty distribution that had been handed out at the meeting seemed to show that tenure-line hiring was trending up significantly. The correction in the minutes shows that that is not the case. Tenure-line numbers…
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Temporarily disabled staff member lost pay, is out of sick leave
The below was shared with us by a Miami staff member: Your latest example of “For Love and Honor?” My mom was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in February 2016. Her first chemo treatment was 2/29/2016, and she responded well. Her second chemotherapy treatment was March 21. She was admitted to the hospital on March 28 and…
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“Torn Between Two Worlds”: A VAP’s Story
We are reposting in its entirety this article about Miami Visiting Assistant Professor Karim Ibrahim, which appears in today’s issue of the Miami Student. Warning: it’s a heartbreaker. It’s hard to imagine a story that better illustrates the risks of contingent faculty precarity and how those risks are multiplied for those without citizenship status. As…
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Miami’s “Boldly Creative” Profit Focus: How to Reduce the Risks
Miami’s new “Boldly Creative Initiatives” plan — funded by $50 million that’s just been swept from department and program budgets—is an effort to respond to a difficult situation for higher ed. Moody’s, the bond rating agency, has just revised the bond outlook for higher ed downward. Higher education’s financial outlook is not good. Publics such…
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Upcoming Changes to Faculty Composition: A Conversation
As many faculty have already heard, Miami’s administration is preparing to propose changes to the faculty composition at Miami. While nothing is certain, the proposed changes may involve raising the lecturer cap from 20% to 25% and having MUPIM “go silent” on the 5-year limit for VAPs, among other plans. Our chapter would like to…
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Letter in support of Georgette Fleischer
The leadership of Miami’s AAUP chapter have submitted a letter to Sian Beilock, president of Barnard College, in support of Georgette Fleischer, an adjunct who has taught there for seventeen years and who was abruptly and unfairly terminated on the heels of the formation of a contingent faculty union at Barnard. Fleischer is a leader…