TALKING POINTS:

In New Mexico we the intellectual workers are experiencing an erosion of benefits including our health care (increasing co-pays & deductibles), use of the activity center, and free classes. The working conditions are overwhelming and studies suggest faculty are doing more than 50 hours a week. There is little mechanism for shared governance that insures agreements with administration will actually be implemented. There is an erosion of faculty profession over the past two decades to the point that intellectual workers are less and less in control over their profession.

For more than 85 years, American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has been the guardian of academic freedom, shared governance, and tenure at universities throughout the United States.

FACTS:

1. Over 300,000 faculty are represented in collective bargaining, in 32 states.
2. Of these, 94% are in public 2-year and 4-year institutions.
3. Over 57,000 graduate student employees have collective bargaining in 14 states.
4. Examples of Public Universities with collective bargaining:
   1. University of Alaska
   2. California State University
   3. UC-Santa Cruz
   4. University of Connecticut
   5. Connecticut State University
   6. University of Delaware
   7. University of Florida
   8. University of Hawaii
   9. Southern Illinois University
   10. Western Michigan University
   11. Wayne State University (including medical school)
   12. University of Montana
   13. University of Cincinnati
   14. Portland State University
   15. Kent State University
   16. Maine State university
   17. Massachusetts, a state university
   18. New Hampshire, a state university
   19. Vermont, a state university
   20. Rhode Island, a state university
   21. State University of New York (including the medical schools)
   22. CIty University of New York
   23. Temple University
   24. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
   25. Rutgers University, New Jersey State Colleges
   26. Pennsylvania State College system
   27. Make NMSU # 27 on the list

NMSU's four community colleges are facing their own challenges of governance, academic freedom, and sustaining professionalism. Tenure is being slowly eliminated, and a corporatized curriculum is being implemented according to David McKay WIlson.

Brief History AAUP was founded in 1915 to address the needs of faculty members in higher education. AAUP promotes academic freedom, professional standards, and shared governance. In 1967 AAUP chapters began to pursue collective bargaining (Benjamin and Mauer, 2006: 32-3). As of June 1972 there were 158 bargaining units (119 in 2-year & 39 in 4-year institutions). In 1997 there were 358 organized 2-year campuses and 158 4-year institutions. As of 1998 there were 1,125 faculty bargaining units that encompassed 76,000 members. "Many faculty bargaining units include large numbers of professional staff members who neither hold faculty appointments nor engage in teaching. .. Overall, about 41% of those full-time faculty or staff members who have primarily instructional responsibilities are in units represented by a bargaining agent" (ibid, p. 34).

John Dewey is one of the co-founders of AAUP

From the 1940 Statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure:
“Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth. Academic freedom in its
teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of
the student to freedom in learning.”

From the Statement on Collective Bargaining:
“The basic purposes of the American Association of University Professors are to protect academic freedom, to establish and strengthen institutions of faculty governance, to provide fair procedures for resolving grievances, to promote the economic well-being of faculty
and other academic professionals, and to advance the interests of higher education. Collective bargaining is an effective instrument for achieving these objectives.” “As a national organization that has historically played a major role in formulating and
implementing the principles that govern relationships in academic life, the Association promotes
collective bargaining to reinforce the best features of higher education.”

From the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities: (I am including this quotation largely because of its pertinence to the economy of the university, which seems to be a nationwide concern)
“The allocation of resources among competing demands is central in the formal responsibility of the governing board, in the administrative authority of the president, and in the educational function of the faculty. Each component should therefore have a voice in the determination of short- and long-range priorities, and each should receive appropriate analyses of past budgetary experience, reports on current budgets and expenditures, and short- and long-range budgetary projections. The function of each component in budgetary matters should be understood by all; the allocation of authority will determine the flow of information and the scope of participation in decisions.”

Stanley N. Katz
(Princeton University; president emeritus, American Council of Learned Societies)
". . . there is only one organization whose primary mission is to promote vigilance in the name of academic freedom. It is the AAUP."

Louis Menand
(Harvard University)
"The AAUP is our only bulwark, outside the courts, against threats to freedom of thought. It has served college teachers and scholars well for almost one hundred years by identifying, publicizing, and working to correct abuses of the principle of academic freedom, and by scrupulously distinguishing between abuses of that principle and cases of simple disagreement or controversy. It is a watchdog, not a lobby, and we are all indebted to it."

Reference cited: Benjamin, Ernst; & Mauer, Michael (2006). Academic Collective Bargaining. Washington D.C.: The American Association of University Professors and NY: The Modern Language Association of America.

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