FAM Updates
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Surviving and Thriving Require Genuine Shared Governance
In this unprecedented crisis, every university in this country will be making painful budgetary decisions. Hard discussions about how to survive and thrive during and after the crisis—examples of generatively difficult shared governance—are underway at many other universities. At Miami, not so, yet. Shared governance is the meaningful participation by faculty in decisions that affect the…
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Over 800 sign petition on contingent faculty cuts
Here is the text of a petition we posted yesterday (now closed for signatures as we have shared it with the administration). Thanks to the over 800 who signed in support. This week, the majority of contingent faculty at Miami University—visiting assistant professors, instructors, and adjuncts—were told that their contracts will not be renewed in…
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Don’t Give Up: Shared Governance and Shared Sacrifice
Over the last ten days, over 300 members of our community signed a petition, “Shared Governance and Shared Sacrifice during the Coronavirus Crisis,” agreeing that “amid the uncertainties generated by this crisis, the need for real shared governance, unfettered academic freedom, and economic security for faculty remains unchanged.” Sadly, AAUP’s advice that “principles of shared…
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Sign Petition: Shared Governance & Shared Sacrifice During the Coronavirus Crisis
Miami colleagues, please sign our petition. Faculty at Miami and across the country have stepped up and made sacrifices to meet our students’ needs in the current crisis, and we will continue to do whatever is necessary. But amid the uncertainties generated by this crisis, the need for real shared governance, unfettered academic freedom, and…
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“Visiting faculty at MU are not just numbers.”
From our colleague Basak Durgun, VAP, in the context of VAP nonrenewals and workload increases for fall. (AAUP has been working on a response to these issues—watch this space.) As faculty, we are often characterized by numbers. Number of students enrolled in our courses and in the university, number of courses that need to be…
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Miami AAUP Stands in Solidarity with Fired UCSC Graduate Students and Laid-off Miami Staff
Miami University AAUP condemns University of California–Santa Cruz’s cruel decision to fire 54 striking graduate students. We salute the brave graduate students at University of California–Santa Cruz, whose strike for fair pay and fair treatment has inspired graduate students all over California to stand up and demand cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to help them survive the…
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Faculty Composition Decisions in Your Division: What to Do
Decisions about faculty composition will now be made at divisional level, according to Senate Resolution 20-08 (January 27, 2020). This means faculty can theoretically play a strong role in deciding the faculty mix. And it is our responsibility and appropriate role to do so. 20-08 is an exciting advance on previous policy because it allows…
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Statement to Board of Trustees: Clarify Faculty Role in Tenure Policy Decisions
Update February 25, 2020: The Board of Trustees has not done as faculty asked. It did not add a clause appropriately delegating tenure policy decisions to faculty in a newly revised regulation that specifies Board power over employment and tenure policies. We are hopeful that the omission will not lead to abuses, but the decision…
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Letter to Board of Trustees: Why Tenure Decisions Are Best Left to the Faculty
This week, our Board of Trustees is set to pass new governance that would put Miami out of step with national norms and national AAUP recommendations. If the changes are approved [sadly, they were: see update], we may be entering a new era in which the Board intervenes on a regular basis in tenure and…