AAUP Minutes, April 15, 2014
Attendance: Marc Rice, Marc Becker, Wolfgang Hoeschele
Marc Becker reported that he has worked on the new website (https://aaup.truman.edu/), copying old materials on the new website; he’s now cleaning it up. More work is yet to be done on the website, such as creating links to relevant documents on the national website.
There was discussion about how to increase our membership. Marc Rice will be attending a training workshop organized by the national AAUP in the summer, and hopes to bring ideas from that back to our campus. Reaching out to new faculty at the orientation activities, as well as reaching out to young faculty, both through letters addressed directly to their concerns, was discussed as a way to get started in the fall semester. For a fall membership drive, Marc Rice will ask David Robinson to help in drafting a newsletter to distribute.
Marc Rice also brought up a proposal he had at the beginning of last semester but that did not gain much enthusiasm at the time – to do Panopto recordings of our meetings so that faculty who could not make it because of scheduling conflicts would be able to see the videos later. One objection had been that people might not feel comfortable saying things that are going to be recorded; we could address that by providing the option of turning off the recording at any time to allow things to be said off the record.
Troy Paino’s plan to raise faculty salaries, which he presented to the Faculty Senate, will be going to the Board of Governors this summer. Marc Rice hopes to use this issue to mobilize and energize faculty – either as a positive point (it is possible to raise salaries), or as one to protest against (if the plan is denied).
Meeting times for fall – Marc Rice will prepare a Doodle poll to send out to all faculty to find out what would be a good time.
Electing new officers: Marc Rice is ready to serve a second term as president. Wolfgang Hoeschele is leaving this university so will no longer be able to serve as secretary. Marc Becker will be on sabbatical and will not be able to act as an AAUP officer during that time. Several people were discussed as possible candidates for positions and will be contacted as to whether they will be available.