Holiday Greetings From Akron-AAUP President Jennifer Holz: 

As another year comes to a close, and the holiday season approaches,  it is a good time to reflect on our experiences as a faculty, as a union, and as members of the larger University of Akron community.  As a community, we have much to be thankful for.  As a member of your Akron AAUP executive committee, I am especially thankful for the overwhelming faculty support of our collective efforts.
 
It has been a year of growth for our collective bargaining unit, both in terms of memberships and learning.  Our membership numbers continue on an uphill path, thanks in large part to the current membership drive steered by Steve Aby, David Witt, and all of the dedicated faculty serving as departmental liaisons. Additionally, several faculty members who were not included in the first collective bargaining unit list are now identified as bargaining unit faculty.  Having a strong and vital membership is essential for a productive and successful union.   As our membership in Akron AAUP grows, so too will our ability to work with and negotiate with the University of Akron administration.  In short, the larger our membership, the better contract we will be able to secure at the next round of negotiations.
 
There have also been challenges for our collective bargaining unit this past year.  Most notable and problematic for many departments on campus was the delay in securing faculty and administrative approved merit guidelines.  As you know all too well, the delay in approval of guidelines meant a delay in receiving well deserved merit pay increases and market compression increases.  Akron AAUP has filed a grievance on this delay, and has offered many reasonable solutions to the administration, all of which they have rejected.  It appears that the University prefers to spend more tax payer’s money on legal counsel than it would cost to pay the interest on our collective faculty  delayed merit pay.  Legal briefs on this grievance will be presented to the arbitrator in early 2008.    
 
Throughout the year, Akron AAUP has served as a faculty advocate on a diverse array of individual faculty concerns and rights that are protected by our collective bargaining agreement.  Our reason for being is to advance the welfare of the University and of its faculty and students.  In so doing, we strive to empower and enrich the professional lives of the faculty at the University of Akron so that we are also able to contribute to our families and our many communities in more meaningful ways.
 
I wish for you all a joyous holiday season.  Be safe on your travels, be wise in your decision making, and be loving toward one another.  Live as if the end of the year were near. 

Jennifer Holz , President
Akron AAUP

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Fall Membership Growth:

This Fall, the Akron-AAUP welcomed 27 faculty as new chapter members. As such, they have full rights and privileges in the local, state, and national AAUP and will start receiving Academe, the AAUP's bimonthly magazine on faculty and higher education. For those of you who are interested, but have yet to join, remember that moving from your agency fee payment to full membership costs only about $13 more a month. With this modest increase in support, you will be directly contributing to the health and vitality of the only national level organization in the world that has as its purpose the unwavering defense of academic freedom.



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Market Adjustment for Interim Chairs:

As a result of the Akron-AAUP’s involvement, the University is going to make whole those interim chairs who have returned to the faculty but, because of the timing of their time in administration, were excluded from market adjustments.  A memorandum of understanding on this matter is in the works.  This is in everyone’s interest, since both the departmental faculty and the administration benefit by the willingness of faculty colleagues to undertake these temporary but important responsibilities.  For the future, faculty who are considering becoming interim chairs should be mindful of contract provisions regarding merit and market salary implementation that might exclude them.  As we recommended in our last newsletter, faculty should consider these factors when agreeing to undertake those roles.

 

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Newly Tenured Faculty: 

The Akron-AAUP is also in the process of finalizing another memorandum of understanding with the administration that would allow newly tenured faculty to begin some of their tenured faculty functions prior to the start of the following Fall semester’s term.  This would include preparatory work on departmental RTP committees.



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RTP Guidelines:

Departmental faculty across campus are in the process of finalizing RTP guideline changes, in order to match up with the contract language.  We remind faculty again that, according to the contract, RTP guidelines are supposed to be faculty-driven, as they should be.  Furthermore, we encourage faculty to be vigilant against demands from administration for substantive changes in your RTP guidelines that are not mandated by the contract.  If such demands are made, as a condition for approval of more pedestrian and required changes, we would suggest your resist.  We would also ask that you notify officers of the Akron-AAUP.  The university administration has every right to suggest changes in RTP guidelines, but it is up to the faculty to evaluate the appropriateness of those suggestions on their merits.  Once you have RTP guidelines that are approved by the Provost’s office, we would appreciate your forwarding them to the Akron-AAUP for posting on our web site.

 

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National AAUP Restructuring:

As AAUP members may already have seen, the national AAUP is in the process of restructuring.  Currently, all of its units and functions are part of the organization’s 501c(3) designation as a charitable organization.  To better reflect its various activities, the national has proposed to create three organizations under one umbrella.  First, there will be a 501c(6), or professional organization/association, that will be the traditional AAUP.  All individual members, whether on collective bargaining or non-collective bargaining campuses, will be members of this organization.  Second, the AAUP will create a 501c(3), which will be the AAUP foundation or charitable organization.  Third, the AAUP will create a 501c(5) for all of its collective bargaining chapters, of which there are about 70 nationwide.  This new structure will look much like the old structure, functionally.  But it will free up each of the component parts of the AAUP to fulfill its missions better than before, when all of the structures were limited to the constraints imposed by being a 501c(3), a charitable organization.  For further information on this restructuring, go to description on the AAUP’s web site, www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/bus/restruct.htm,  and a further discussion of the restructuring by AAUP President Cary Nelson, here: www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2007/SO/rep/nelcom.htm and here: www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2007/ND/Col/ftp.htm

Both Steve Aby, as the chapter's representative on the National AAUP Council and at the Ohio Conference AAUP, and Dave Witt, who serves on the Collective Bargaining Congress Executive Committee are following these developments closely, and welcome any questions.

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"Faculty interests are Akron-AAUP interests, so Ask Us Anything"

Akron-AAUP
Communications Committee

See the new and improved National AAUP website at www.aaup.org.
 

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