FAM Updates
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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…
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Committee on faculty composition begins its work
As at many universities these days, the majority of classes at Miami are taught by non-tenure track faculty (TCPL, visiting faculty, and part-timers). These instructors lack the economic security and academic freedom that tenure-line faculty enjoy. Miami’s teacher-scholar model is threatened when the majority of faculty are precarious employees. So AAUP has been arguing for…
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Free speech and the university
A couple of important items related to academic freedom: 1) “Over the weekend, during a speech to activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference, President Trump pledged to issue an executive order that would deny federal research funds to colleges and universities that do not ‘support free speech.’ AAUP’s position on this is clear. We…
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A successful resolution to the Wright State strike!
Miami AAUP congratulates our tough colleagues down the road at Wright State on a successful resolution to their three-week strike. Read more about the negotiations and resolution here.
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Update on Important Senate Academic Freedom Actions
Last year, University Senate passed two important resolutions supported by AAUP. We have news for you on both fronts. One (18.11) was to update Miami Policy to protect tenure and ensure academic freedom and due process rights for non-tenure-line faculty. The other (18.12) requested the formation of an ad-hoc committee to make recommendations on faculty composition and to…
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How to support non-tenure-track faculty at department level
We’ve just shared an important document with all chairs and program directors at Miami: Supporting NTT Faculty: Considerations for Departments and Programs. Please talk to your departmental leadership and ask that it be discussed. Non-tenure-track faculty across all divisions and ranks were involved in the development of “Supporting NTT Faculty.” It addresses essential issues affecting non-tenure…
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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…