AAUP LA State Conference Newsletter – January 2019

Louisiana Conference of the AAUP

December 1 Meeting

The Conference met Saturday, December 1 at LSU-Alexandria. Six of the eight Executive Committee members were present: Leslie Bary, President (UL Lafayette), Hugh F. Wilson, Vice President (Grambling State U), Sudhir Trivedi, Secretary and Chair, Committee A (Southern U-Baton Rouge), Kevin Cope, At-Large (LSU-Baton Rouge), Ravi Rau, Past President (LSU-Baton Rouge), and Brian Salvatore (LSU-Shreveport). Also attending were Brooks Ellwood, First Vice President of AAUP at the national level (LSU-Baton Rouge) and additional representatives from Grambling State U, LSU-Alexandria, LSU-Baton Rouge, LSU-Eunice, LSU-Shreveport, Southern U-Baton Rouge, Southern U-Shreveport, Tulane U of Louisiana, UL Lafayette, and Xavier U of Louisiana.

The President’s Report included a discussion of donations and finances; the AAUP Summer Institute; the website of the Louisiana Conference; a report/discussion on the visit of Christopher Newfield; a discussion of updated plans for speakers; and the suggestion to designate liaisons to the state conference Committee A at campuses without chapters.

Following consultation with Monica Owens, Political Organizer for AAUP National, it was decided to draft a resolution both ALFS (Association of Louisiana Faculty Senates) and AAUP as well as other entities could support, that could be used to organize for AAUP and also to work toward changing the conversation on higher education in Louisiana. We decided the issue should be restoration of state funding of higher education for the public good. Work on wording will take place at the February 2 meeting.

February 2 Meeting

We will meet at LSU-Alexandria Saturday, February 2. On the agenda is:

Work on the resolution.
Preparation for the March ASC meeting and National Council meeting: what is the reaction from regular Conference members to the proposed changes to the governance structure of AAUP? Louisiana AAUP members on ASC and National Council (Bary, Carroll, Ellwood) would like to hear any thoughts others may have, including but not limited to:

– the new districts, are they drawn well, or would you suggest adjustments?
– delegate voting and its implications; are there alternatives?
– the new “national” chapter (for members without chapters) – how will it interface with the state conferences, in activities such as voting for national council, Committee A work, etc.?

Committee A liaisons.
Plans for upcoming speakers and events.

News and Upcoming

Congratulations are extended to Xavier University members, who formed an AAUP chapter in Fall, 2018, and to the LSU-Alexandria membership who will be doing the same this spring. Organizing takes work and we are grateful to our colleagues on both campuses. We are pleased as well to be in closer touch with our colleagues at Tulane who are doing good work at both the uptown and downtown campuses.

Leslie Bary and Brooks Ellwood will attend the Assembly of State Conferences meeting in Atlanta March 2, and will report back to this body. Along with Linda Carroll, they will attend the National Council meeting in late March. Both of these meetings are on changes in the AAUP governance structure, and will have implications for us.

We have applied to the Academic Freedom Fund of the AAUP Foundation for monies to cover some of the costs to the Conference of the Christopher Newfield visit.

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 February 14-15 at UL Lafayette.

We will be sending a representative to the AAUP Summer Institute in 2019 (Leslie Bary attended in 2015 and Brian Salvatore in 2018); it should be someone who has not attended before. Discussion will begin as soon as we have news of the location and dates of this summer’s Institute.

The state conference Committee A was consulted on tenure and academic freedom issues by two tenured and one tenure-track faculty member at Louisiana universities in 2018. The national Committee A gave assistance on one of these cases and on another case in the Community College system.

We look forward to seeing you February 2.

Leslie Bary
2018-2020 President
Louisiana Conference AAUP

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