Meeting of the Truman State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
February 25, 2019, 4:30-5:30 PM, BH100
Present: Marc Rice (president), Marc Becker (secretary), Mark Hatala (vice-president), Bill Alexander, Anton Daughters
- March 28: Anton Daughters will present on AAUP to new faculty seminar. We should present to new faculty orientation at the beginning of the fall semester. Most important is just to put out a few reminders, and explain how the university works and what we can do for faculty. We need to set this up with Dana Vazzana.
- On Saturday, February 23, Marc Rice & Marc Becker attended the state AAUP conference at Drury University in Springfield. Some other chapters are going dormant, so relatively speaking we’re doing ok. Fear that now that scandal with Grietens is past that the Republicans under Parsons will follow the same policies. Governor is currently calling for the status quo which is probably the best we can hope for. Marc Rice is going to the AAUP national conference in Washington, DC in June.
Questions of why it is so hard to organize faculty: political shifts, individualism, etc. It’s the people who are most vulnerable, including adjuncts, who need AAUP protection. Maybe we need to do a study of non-tenure track labor at Truman. Maybe include a survey of the non-tenure track to see what their interests are.
- President Sue Thomas’s state of the university address. Happy presentation on dour topic. Was there anything new or solutions to the problems? It’s good at least to have the numbers—informative. But it’s sandwiched between pep talks. Everything is bad, it’s getting worse, and this time it’s different. We’ve known this is coming; why wasn’t it prepared for? Why did they build West Campus dorms and now are closing down Dobson Hall. Demographic shifts are all against us, and no plans to address them.
- Kevin Minch sent an email about taking a class to judge on-line classes. 45-hour commitment to do more uncompensated labor.