AAUP LA State Conference Newsletter – February 2019

Louisiana Conference of the AAUP

The Conference met Saturday, February 2 at LSU-Alexandria. Three of the eight Executive Committee members were present: Leslie Bary, President, Hugh F. Wilson, Vice President, and Ravi Rau, Past President. Also attending were Brooks Ellwood, First Vice President of AAUP at the national level, and representatives from multiple state chapters and institutions. Kevin Cope, At-Large member of the Executive Committee, participated via e-mail.

News

The Academic Freedom Fund of the AAUP Foundation has funded us in the amount of $2057 to cover the costs to the Conference of the Christopher Newfield visit. We therefore decided to fund not one but two members of the Conference to attend the summer Institute this year. Details are forthcoming still, as the location of the Institute has not yet been revealed; information on the 2018 Institute is at https://www.aaup.org/event/2018-summer-institute.

LSU-Alexandria has formed an AAUP chapter, that currently stands at 13 members. Bernard Gallagher (Professor of English) is President. We congratulate him, the officers, and the members, and look forward to working with them. UL Lafayette’s chapter has a new President, Sun-A Lee (Associate Professor of Child and Family Studies).

Michael Homan is stepping down as Treasurer and will be replaced by Kevin Cope. This leaves the At-Large position on the Executive Committee open. I have asked the new LSU-Alexandria chapter if they would like to propose a replacement from their ranks to complete Kevin’s term, and will confer with the Executive Committee on this matter (per our Constitution).

Work

We spent considerable time discussing formulation of our AAUP-ALFS resolution (directed to the Legislature but also the general public) on the restoration of state funding of higher education for the public good. Additional work on the text will take place by e-mail, so that we can present a final draft at the April meeting.

Discussion of the March ASC meeting and National Council meeting, of Committee A liaisons at institutions without chapters, and of 2019-2020 speakers and events was deferred to April.

Upcoming

February 14: Five members of AAUP and/or ALFS (Leslie Bary, UL Lafayette, Matthew Butkus, McNeese State U, Jana Giles, UL Monroe, Dayne Sherman, Southeastern Louisiana U, and Hugh F. Wilson, Grambling State U) will present on “Higher Education as Public Good” at the University of Louisiana System Conference, to be held at UL Lafayette.

March 2: Leslie Bary and Brooks Ellwood will attend the Assembly of State Conferences meeting in Atlanta, and will report back to this body.

March 29-30: Leslie Bary, Linda Carroll and Brooks Ellwood will attend the National Council meeting in late March.

Next Meeting

We will next meet in Alexandria in April, on a Saturday yet to be determined. We will be in touch in the meantime.

Leslie Bary
2018-2020 President
Louisiana Conference AAUP