AAUP-UW Chapter Award winners

It is a great pleasure to announce the 2014 AAUP-UW Chapter award winners:

Academic Freedom Award: To the 2013/2014 Faculty Senate
For passing new legislation to safeguard academic freedom at the University of Washington.
The award will be presented at the May 15th, 2014 Senate Meeting.

Excellence in shared governance: Professor Jack Lee (Mathematics)
For strong and collegial leadership as Faculty Senate chair.
As Faculty Senate chair, Jack has worked tirelessly to introduce new faculty salary legislation, helped bring new
legislation safeguarding academic freedom, and has worked to repair the lecturer track at the UW. 

Leadership Award: Professor Emeriti Raya Fidel (The Information School)
For long-term service to the AAUP-UW chapter and the state conference.
Raya continues to serve the chapter by frequently posting news items to the AAUP Faculty Issues and Concerns
listserver that are of interest to faculty.

Leadership Award: Professor Emeriti Jane Koenig (Environmental and Occupational Health)
For long-term service to the AAUP-UW chapter.
Jane is the longest serving active member of the chapter, has served as treasurer, and still attends most meetings.

Defender of higher education Award: John Burbank (The Economic Opportunity Institute, Seattle)
For creatively seeking pathways to reducing student debt and funding higher education.
John Burbank is executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, a public policy think tank and has worked
extensively on Pay-It-Forward, a concept for reducing student debt and financing higher education. He has an MPA
from the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the UW. John is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI)

 

National AAUP's biannual elections for officers will be taking place in March.

Two years ago the current officers ran as the Organizing for Change slate on a platform to make organizing and providing services to chapters and conferences a priority. Here is a report written last month by the Organizing for Change team. These individuals include Rudy Fichtenbaum (AAUP national President), Hank Reichman (First Vice-President), Susan Michalcyzk (Second Vice President) and Michele Ganon (Secretary-Treasurer). This is posted for information purposes only, not to promote these candidates.

 

New School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Hiring Policies Declared. See here.

AAUP endorsed (at its Nov. 20, 2013 meeting) the Faculty Senate Class C Resolution on International and English Language Programs Extension Lecturers. The text concludes:

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Faculty Senate of the University of Washington supports the efforts of American Federation of Teachers-University of Washington English Language Faculty, Local #6486 in their efforts to obtain a fair contract, and supports an agreement that rewards both the performance and long-term commitment of I&ELP Extension Lecturers by providing competitive salaries, multi-year appointments, an evaluation system that promotes collaboration and recognizes professional competence, and a system for career advancement in keeping with the reputation and standing of the UW as a world class educational institution. See full text here.

 

New Faculty Senate Orientation Materials Released

The Faculty Senate is an important voice for shared governance at the University. For a primer on the Senate see these recently released orientation materials.

AAUP Testifies at Board of Regents Open Meeting on the UW Budget

Rob Wood and Amy Hagopian represented AAUP yesterday (21 May 2013) by providing testimony at a special meeting of the Board of Regents to hear comments about the UW budget. The full text of our remarks is here. Rob emphasized the importance of salary restorations after four years of erosion and wage freezes. Amy spoke about the importance of academic freedom and the erosion of status for contingent faculty.

Five of the nine board members were present: Harrell (chair), Blake, Jaech, Jordan and Simon (one position is vacant).
There was only one other faculty member present to provide testimony, among the 30 or so who spoke. (That was Peter Messinger, vice president of the AFT Local 6486, representing faculty who teach in the "extension" program.) Others providing testimony included a number of very articulate students, and a group of long-time staff at the UW Medical Center who are being let go (perhaps in violation of their contract) while their jobs are outsourced.

Paul Jenny, the Vice Provost for planning and budgeting, provided an overview of the budget. His slides are posted at the Regents website. Some highlights, in round numbers: We have 50,000 students, and 6900 faculty and staff FTE funded by state money. The state is now funding only 30% of the cost of education when it used to cover 82% (in 1990). State funds have been cut from $400 million in 2009 to $200 million in 2013. UW full professors are second to the last among our peers at the top 10 public research universities with medical schools, placing us only ahead of University of Wisconsin (and you know what's happening there).

UW Chapter Hosts Lecturer Forum with Joe Berry

The UW AAUP chapter sponsored a three-campus forum on the status of lecturers on Friday, May 10, on the UW Seattle campus. We were pleased to have over 80 participants, mostly faculty, at various stages of the forum. The AAUP made this issue its top priority for the current academic year, and assigned its executive board vice president (me) to focus on it. This forum was held to further that priority. Notes from the meeting are available here.

Joe Berry with Libi Sundermann from UW Tacoma, Amy Hagopian, AAUP Chapter Secretary and Rob Wood, AAUP Chapter President

 

The University of Washington Chapter of the AAUP urges President Young to tell Haggard Nelson Childcare Resources to respect childcare worker rights

It is our understanding that there is significant support among child care teachers and
staff employed by Haggard Nelson Childcare Resources, who provide child care for UW
students, faculty, staff, and our own children, in forming a union. We urge you to protect the
fundamental right of these employees, many of whom have devoted years of service to the
University community, to make their own decision on forming a union, free from coercion or
intimidation. Some of us also are, or have been, parents of children in these childcare centers,
and know firsthand that having professional, secure workers and consistent staffing is important
to our children’s welfare, too.
We are asking President Young to inform Haggard Nelson management, through a public statement,
that the UW expects Haggard Nelson to remain neutral, guarantee a fair process, and allow child
care teachers and staff to make their own decision about unionization, just as many groups of
UW employees have done. We are aware that Suzanne Haggard has officially addressed HNCR
employees through a letter (enclosed) and discouraged them from forming a union. Making your
support for a fair and neutral process public will help to ensure that Haggard Nelson treats these
members of the UW family with the same care and respect that we treat staff who are directly
employed.

The University of Washington Chapter of the AAUP expresses support for the Faculty Freedom to Innovate Bill

Passed March 9th 2013 by vote of the Executive Board

An essential element of the “AAUP Recommended Principles & Practices to Guide Academy-Industry Relationships” (a draft report headed toward final form and publication later this year) states, as follows, that the right of faculty to control their intellectual property extends beyond invention:

“Faculty Inventor Rights and IP Management: Faculty members’ fundamental rights to direct and control their own research do not terminate when they make a new invention or other research discovery; these rights properly extend to decisions involving invention management, intellectual property (IP), licensing, commercialization, dissemination, and public use. As such, faculty inventor “assignment” of an invention to a management agent,* including the university that hosted the underlying research, should be voluntary and negotiated, rather than mandatory, unless federal statutes or previous sponsored research agreements dictate otherwise. Faculty inventors and investigators retain a vital interest in the disposition of their research inventions and discoveries and should, therefore, retain rights to negotiate the terms of their disposition. The university, or its management agents, should not undertake intellectual property or legal actions directly or indirectly affecting a faculty member’s research, inventions, instruction, or public service without the faculty member’s and/or the inventor’s express consent.”

Whereas Senate Bill 5247 proposes to fully embrace this principle by establishing a legal prohibition against involuntary assignment of intellectual property produced at Washington’s state universities, be it resolved that:

The UW Chapter of AAUP applauds the efforts of Senators Chase and Shin in proposing SB5247. We strongly support the essential principle that underlies the bill, and we encourage the legislature and the governor to approve SB5247.

 

University of Washingtin AAUP Chapter Motion for Amicus Brief

Passed March 1st 2013 by vote of the Executive Board:

 AAUP has a long-term interest in working conditions of university faculty including a strong commitment to the contractual nature of university handbooks. The contractual nature of the UW Handbook became a hot issue back in 2002 when the administration sought to suspend the 2% merit salary allocation promised in the Handbook. A lawsuit was filed by Duane Storti, arguing that the Faculty Code was an enforceable contract and cannot be ignored just because the administration found it to be inconvenient.  In a summary judgment in 2005, the court agreed and concluded "that the plain language [of the Faculty Code] creates a mandatory duty that requires the University to provide meritorious faculty an annual merit increase of at least 2%.  The court cannot find any language that makes the merit salary increase contingent on funding."

In 2009, the administration decided to once again suspend the 2% merit salary increase in 2009. Thus arose Storti v. University of Washington II which addresses merit salary increases due in 2009-2010, not as a one-time issue, but as another example of the ongoing issue of the contractual nature of the UW handbook.  This time, however, the position of upholding the contractual nature of the handbook ended up as the dissent opinion (68343-8) issued by Division 1 of the Court of Appeals, whereas the majority opinion suggested that faculty cannot count on any provision currently contained in the Handbook because the administration and/or regents can change the handbook at any time.

It is certainly an issue of significant and persistent importance to faculty at both UW and WSU (the remaining State Universities in Washington where faculty lack collective bargaining agreements) to know whether they can actually rely on the language contained in the Handbook that constitutes their employment contract.

Therefore, be it resolved that the University of Washington Chapter of the American Association of University Professors:

1) Finds Justice Appelwick's dissent opinion of such significance to core faculty interests to merit further judicial review.

2) Emphatically requests review of this case by the Washington State Supreme Court.

3) Authorizes preparation and submission of an amicus brief in support of Supreme Court review.

 

Hank Reichman lecture on Academic Freedom

It is a great pleasure to announce that Hank Reichman, First Vice-President of the AAUP and Chair of Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure and Professor Emeritus of History, California State University, East Bay will be visiting the University of Washington and will give a lecture entitled: "Current Challenges to Academic Freedom: A Report from AAUP"   

TIME: 2:00pm, FRIDAY 25th JANUARY 2013
PLACE: Dempsey (DEM) 104.