AAUP at Guilford
AAUP at Guilford College
For the past four years, Guilford College has had an active (well, pretty active) chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Founded in 1915 (by Arthur O. Lovejoy and John Dewey), the organization has been fundamental in efforts for the last 95 years to advance academic freedom and shared governance, to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education, and to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good. Most college administrations pay attention to AAUP guidelines, and most colleges very much wish to avoid being included on the list of schools sanctioned by the AAUP.
Many Guilford faculty have been AAUP members over the years, and a chapter emerged and met periodically in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The current incarnation (or, reincarnation if you will) grew out of a faculty reading group in the spring of 2006. After reading and discussing Cary Nelson and Steven Watt’s 2004 book, Office Hours: Activism and Change in the Academy, a group of us decided to look into forming an AAUP chapter. We did so in 2006, and by the 2008-2009 academic year, between 20 and 25 of Guilford’s faculty (full-time and contingent) were dues-paying AAUP members.
For the most part, the Guilford chapter has chosen one primary issue to address in each of the last three years. In 2006-2007, it was “best practices in tenure and promotion.” In 2007-2008, it was the treatment (and mistreatment) of contingent faculty. In 2008-2009, the group paid special attention to faculty salaries, including how they compared with our peer institutions (not very well -- see below). In 2009-2010 we sought to encourage the faculty, administrators and students to discuss gifts to the college that have curricular strings attached. Typically we have met once or twice per semester (sometimes at lunchtime, sometimes on Friday afternoons), and we have brought in a number of off-campus speakers.
I encourage any Guilford faculty members interested in learning more to check out the national website for AAUP (http://www.aaup.org/aaup), the website for the North Carolina AAUP (http://www.nc-aaup.org/) or to contact me at the address below. In addition, I have included some links below to what might be useful information for Guilford faculty members (AAUP members or not).
Richie Zweigenhaft
Psychology Department
President, AAUP, Guilford Chapter
***The AAUP 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure remains a seminal document.
http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/policydocs/contents/1940statement.htm
***In 2008, the AAUP adopted a policy on the treatment of contingent faculty (“Looking the Other Way? Accreditation Standards and Part-Time Faculty”):
http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/comm/rep/accredpt.htm
***Guilford Faculty Salaries (all ranks), compared to peer institutions, 2002-2009, from Academe:
