AAUP General Chapter Meeting: 10/29/21, 4:30 pm
Present in BH100: Marc Becker, Yuna Ferguson, Andy Kauffmann, Laura Bigger;
Present on Zoom: Anton Daughters, David Robinson, Enrique Pareja, Stacy Davis, Carlo Annelli, Taner Edis, Jennifer Jesse, Joey Hubbard, Christine Harker, Matthew Tornatore, Stephanie Russell
Town Hall discussion
Anton conveyed that we were disappointed by the in-person turn out but glad that a number of administrators were there.
- Next Steps: We’ve been planning to do a faculty survey of the issue because the Provost is demanding this. We discussed that a shorter survey will likely get a higher response rate. But as a complicated issue it’s hard to make sure everyone understands the situation. AAUP has done some department visits and tried to convey the issue already.
- David said that Anton’s presentation of the issue was good and the video could be referred to for information. We later decided to make a short video summarizing the key information for those who might want to watch it before casting a vote.
- Both the Provost and General Counsel said that they see no problem with putting non tt- folks on the same deadlines, so we hope that can be implemented. We should include this issue on the survey as well as the issue about the dates.
- The AAUP Executive Committee will come up with questions and make the survey with the embedded video, and present it to Scott Alberts for his feedback. Then we can provide the survey link to the Provost for them to send out from her office.
- We will move forward on this quickly.
Parental Leave
Laura summarized the efforts on the part of PPC, AAUP, and others in regard to achieving paid parental leave at TSU. The General Counsel has written a new draft of BOG Ch. 10, which states leave benefits and FMLA, and is ready to input new numbers if a committee comes up with them and the administration approves them. GC Amy Clendennen will present our current policies as they stand to a group of faculty and staff (including PPC members, Scott Alberts, and AAUP exec members) on 11/5/21. At that meeting we will discuss the formation of a committee with faculty and staff constituents who will draft the leave policy.
- Various members of AAUP expressed a desire for the policy to be broader and to include time off for taking care of sick parents and our own severe illness, etc. It was decided that AAUP would prefer to move forward on all of these types of leave at the same time.
- General Counsel was in favor of a policy that covered all things under FMLA rather than a specific parental leave policy.
- We considered whether a parental leave policy might be more likely to pass because it is more narrow, but AAUP still wants to push for broader paid leave.
- Anton, Laura, Elizabeth and Cassidy will meet in advance of the 5th so we’re on the same page before the meeting with General Counsel.
Executive Committee Election
Congratulations to Andy Kauffman! He has been elected our new executive member in this October special election!
Faculty Compensation
Payment for teaching summer classes is variable based on a percentage of salary. If tenure-track faculty make approximately 10,000 more in salary than non-tenure track faculty in a given area, then the pay for teaching a summer class is about $1,000 less for the non-tt faculty. It is also strange that the percentage is based on a contract that isn’t even active for the non-tt faculty. Meanwhile, the workload in the summer is the exact same given there is no service or other load. Additionally, in the scale for adjunct summer pay, an adjunct professor is paid more for teaching consecutive years, making it possible for an adjunct to earn more than a non-tt professor who has been at the institution for multiple years and is teaching the exact same summer course or the equivalent.
A discussion of the former summer pay committee ensued. This committee was tasked to figure out how there could be less spending in the summer. They sent forth a doc that shows how it’s done at different universities but made no recommendations.
- Some people teach two classes in May, June and July – and make a lot in the summer.
- Apparently the university profits minimally in the summer.
- Do we even ever hire adjuncts in the summer? Sometimes ed folks are hired.
AAUP would like for a non-tt person to at least be paid as much as an adjunct and to ask that the pay structure is equitable. The group decided to write a letter to the admin explaining our concern over the issue (as opposed to engaging the entire faculty at this time to minimize any confusion with the Ch. 6 issue and survey). The Executive Committee will draft an open letter, copy it to AAUP when we send it, and put it on the AAUP website.
Vaccination Mandate & Masks?
We should get vaccination rate updates right after Nov.1. but it seems like the administration won’t remove the mask mandate before the end of the semester. There’s a strong possibility that classrooms will be masked still if they drop the mandate.