AAUP Executive Board meeting, Wednesday 1 February 2017, 3:30-5:20pm, UW Club, University of Washington, Seattle. Dial in: 206-315-1785 (code 609912#, UW Global Net)

TENTATIVE STRATEGIC PLANNING PLANKS (All under the banner of academic freedom)

1. Investigate and educate our faculty about all the various categories of faculty status (from full professor with tenure to part-time lecturer), with the goal of advancing academic freedom and improving working conditions for all.

2. Strengthen our watchdog function on academic corporatization and privatization.

3. Advocate for sufficient and sustainable public funding for higher education.

Attendance: Dan Jacoby/president, Amy Hagopian/secretary, Bert Stover/treasurer, Abraham Flaxman/List server VP, Hwasook Nam, Diane Morrison, Jay Johnson, Max Lieblich, Eva Cherniavsky, Bruce Kochis, Duane Storti,

Absent: Rob Wood/past-president, Christoph Giebel, Jim Gregory, Ann Mescher, Charlie Collins, Michael Honey Libi Sundermann, Jim Liner

Minutes approved for posting to website.

Treasurer’s report: We collected $21,300 in dues last year, of which we sent $14,800 to national. We keep 11%. We spent $1,098 outreach, $4620 on travel (for our annual meeting speakers from Rutgers, David Hughes, Ann Gould, and Karen Stubens; and Michael Honey, who attended the AAUP annual meeting), and $494 for meeting expenses. We have $5,150 in our Committee A fund.

Amy and Eva’s AAUP annual meeting abstract on the Clery crime reporting problem was accepted for presentation at the national AAUP conference. [World’s shortest abstract: In the wake of the 2016 election, reports suggest a wave of hate crimes. The 1990 Clery Act requires colleges to report crime on campus. An assault on a young Muslim woman at the Univ of WA was reported by local news, but UW admin did not notify the community. As colleges face incentives to minimize crime reports, such incidents maybe mischaracterized or undercounted.] The conference is June 14 to 18 in Washington DC. Bruce may want to accompany Amy. ACTION: Amy will go to present in DC.

The January 20 (inauguration day) teach-ins went well. Some AAUP board members participated in Undergraduate Library teach-ins (Charlie, Eva, Amy, Bert, Diane, Hwasook). Abie reported the Faculty Senate promised to compile a comprehensive set of J20 events to announce in advance, but it never happened. Abie resisted list server posting of events that AAUP wasn’t sponsoring or didn’t approve as a board.

The board wrote a letter to Ana Mari Cauce requesting a meeting to express alarm that the Nov. 15 assault on a Muslim student was not reported by the UW under the Clery Act. Similarly, we have concerns about the Jan. 20 shooting of a protestor in Red Square. Further, Alan-Michael Weatherford has been harassed since the Jan. 20 events; Dan asked the national AAUP if they’d like to start tracking these kinds of stalking/harassing events. ACTION: Dan will organize the meeting with President Cauce.

Dan and Amy had a conference call January 30 with two faculty in the Dental School to discuss the deficit plan in their school. We advised their own Faculty Council take the lead, but we stand by to support.

A hearing on the Faculty Regent bill (HB 1437) seems to be scheduled. Who would like to testify on 2/8 @1:30? ACTION: Bruce will look into this, and is willing to testify.

We discussed the strategic priorities that emerged from our January 17 planning meeting.

How will we launch and sustain a membership campaign? How will we communicate more effectively? How shall we organize ourselves—working committees?

Bruce said he’s talking with his colleagues about the need for faculty solidarity. He’s convinced the new Administration will go after the Academy to eliminate hotbeds of anti-fascism. He carries around paper membership forms, hands them to people when issues arise. Dan distributed a membership query to the Bothell campus. There’s an obvious link to the need for AAUP and the present political emergency. We can function as a site where important issues can be actively debated. Hosting a live forum could supplement our on-line forum. Blessedly, our list server is now more civilized and well-moderated than it was. ACLU could be a partner on the campus forum.

Possible topics for live forum: hate speech v. academic freedom. We can invite people who know the law and the Constitution, and how these issues play out in the classroom and in our lecture halls. Jay attended a Jan 20 forum sponsored by the Philosophy Dept. A take-away: Hate speech is “talk that leads to an act of violence.” It’s not just about the legality, but also about how it plays out and how it looks.

Immigration debate enters here too.

Faculty Senate is sponsoring a series of discussions. This Friday 2/3, the speakers on higher ed funding include Sarah Castro, Director, Federal Relations / External Affairs & Randy Hodgins, Vice President of External Affairs, Dean’s Forum, 3:30 pm, Room 309, Parrington.

Communication. How do we get the word out? If people aren’t on the list server we can’t reach them that way. How about an AAUP poster campaign? We could hire an hourly student to poster all over the campuses. Bert has a box of buttons, flyers, small red books. Current members could be asked to please ask their colleagues to join AAUP at a faculty meeting. “New improved list server!” Jim Gregory was willing to revive the annual “state of the faculty” report, which always gets interest.

The marches in the 1960s and 1970s got large over time. The protests this time around got big right away. AAUP is not prepared to organize a mass mobilization campaign, we are simply a way to connect faculty to issues that particularly affect the academy. How do we maintain a climate to protect higher education? How do we protect shared governance?

Resolved:

1) We should each distribute a message to our faculty that they are invited to join our AAUP list server. [Example Message: Dear Math Faculty, You may know I was elected to serve on the board of the UW’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. In this extraordinary moment in American history, higher education may be at particular risk. It’s confusing to know how to talk to students about this new reality. The institution of tenure and public funding sources are threatened. Since the election, AAUP national has seen a resurgence of politically motivated witch hunts against academic scientists working in fields such as climate change and fetal tissue research, where the implications of scientific findings are perceived as threats by entrenched interests and partisan ideologues. In addition to the “danger zones” for academic freedom enumerated in 2011, issues related to racial justice have also come to the forefront in the course of the last two years and played a prominent role in the most recent election. AAUP has been on this campus for 99 years (we were founded in 1918, another interesting moment in history). If you’re concerned about the future of the academy in this moment, and important next step might be for you to consider JOINING the AAUP. We make it easy. You can go to the UW’s chapter website and arrange for payroll deduction here. With your dues, we can build an organization that is prepared to develop a positive campaign for our values, while also defending each other from attacks.)

2) We should identify all the departments we have covered, and those where we need to find friends.

3) Jim was working on developing a mailing list; we need a report.

4) Amy could do a generic poster inviting people to join the list server and the organization; JOIN to create a capacity to defend our faculty. Tap into national resources. We are not employees of the university, we ARE the university.

But WHY should people join? What would we do with more dues money?

The way to grow membership is to have people care about what we’re doing. If we represent a substantial proportion of the faculty, then our weight and influence is enhanced. There is a large constituency on campus of people opposing normalization of the coming repression. The administration seems content to keep current policies and procedures unchanged, no sense of emergency. What draws people in is to present ourselves as a place to have conversations and develop a presence on campus to come together. There is clearly an important debate to be had on how to navigate free speech (versus hate speech), in both the classroom and on the campus generally. The standard answers to the questions need to be revisited now. How do we even teach in this moment? We have to have something to offer people for membership. Michael Moore made a pitch at the Women’s march for people to JOIN organizations. Membership builds resources to defend each other in case of attack.

Could a group from the business school take this on as a marketing challenge?

Our unique role could be to generate a conversation about “How do we teach in this moment?” That includes conversation about corporatization and privatization, composition of the faculty, and certainly academic freedom. It’s a galvanizing topic, that incorporates all the items in our strategic plan. Whatever topic we address has to link to the “handbasket” (emergency) we’re in.

To start, let’s introduce this theme to the list server to see how it resonates and what kinds of conversations and speakers might emerge. A series of meetings for members and prospective members to explore the dimensions of the questions. Dan will craft some words inviting the conversation. We’ll have a communication team will rapidly edit this (and future, similar) communication: Dan, Eva, Jay, Diane, Amy, Bruce.

Our framing message for the whole strategic plan is always academic freedom. AAUP has a remarkable history that is remarkably relevant to our roots 100 years ago.

Other topics we could sponsor or co-sponsor: 1) UW is coming up on the 70^th anniversary of its Red scare shamefulness, 1948-59. The play, “All Powers Necessary and Convenient,” might be a good thing to revive. 2) Duane’s law school friends are looking into how Washington State law (as opposed to the university handbook) does or does not protect academic free speech.

Our IRS status is 501(c)6, which gives us more lobbying capacity.

We could move our annual meeting to the fall.

Lingering Faculty Senate issues (remaining 2017 meetings: 3/2, 4/20, 5/18): Aaron Katz for Faculty Senate chair; Progress on draft executive order 64 (to supersede the last one) about the salary policy; Research Misconduct policy: what are the federal regulations that required us to eliminate adjudication from UW policy? (Duane): FCFA Work on Lecturers; ABB survey?

*Board membership in 2016/2017 includes: Christoph Giebel, Michael Honey, Jay Johnson, Bruce Kochis, Max Lieblich, Ann Mescher, Diane Morrison, Duane Storti, and Libi Sundermann. Five new board members join us: Hwasook Nam, Charlie Collins, James Liner, Eva Cherniavsky, and Jim Gregory. Officers are Dan Jacoby/president, Amy Hagopian/secretary, Bert Stover/treasurer, Abraham Flaxman/VP for mailing list, and Rob Wood/past-president.

AAUP Meeting schedule 2016/2017 (3:30 pm to 5 pm)