April, 4, 2009

Louisiana State Conference American Association of University Professors Minutes of Annual Meeting April, 4, 2009 The meeting was called to order by President Alvin Burstein at 10:10 AM. The President then introduced Dr. Robert Kreiser, Associate Secretary of AAUP, who presented his scheduled talk, “Whatever Happened to Shared Governance? Academic Freedom and The Faculty’s Role in Planning Change.” A question and discussion period followed Dr. Kreiser’s talk. Among the points emphasized in the talk and ensuing discussion were the importance of having appropriate procedures for responding to financial exigency in place before the fact, as well as alertness to the possibility that some administrations seek to avoid agreed-upon procedures, even when they are embodied in a Faculty Handbook (or its equivalent), by citing new “exigencies.” “Force Majeur exigency” declarations in the post-Katrina period was one example of such avoidance; another more recent one is “enrollment exigency.” Mention was also made of the excellent work of the LSU Chapter in publishing a carefully reasoned and principled letter about how the campus should proceed in the face of any financial exigency, describing in detail the optimal faculty role in decisions. A key point was that furloughs, layoffs, salary reductions or the like…

April 19, 2008

The Annual Meeting of the Louisiana State Conference of the American Association of University Professors occurred on April 19, 2008 on the campus of LouisianaStateUniversity and Agricultural and MechanicalCollege in Baton Rouge . The meeting was called to order at 11:15 by President Al Burstein. Attendees introduced themselves. The next item of business was consideration of a group of proposed changes to the constitution and by-laws of the Conference designed to bring them into line with contemporary practice. The proposed changes had been posted to the conference website prior to the meeting and the membership informed through the listserv of their presence there. After discussion, it was moved and seconded that the changes be adopted. The motion passed unanimously. A slate of candidates for state office was proposed by the Nominating Committee, chaired by Gloria Giarratano. The slate consisted of Al Burstein, President; William Stewart, Vice-President; Paul Bell, Treasurer; Linda Carroll, Secretary; Mike Fontenot, At-Large Member. The membership had been given prior notice of the nominees via posting to the website and e-mail communication. As none of the positions was contested, the slate was adopted by acclamation. The financial report for 2007 was presented by outgoing treasurer Charles Delzell. The…

April 20, 2007

Minutes, Annual Meeting, Louisiana State Conference, American Association of University Professors The meeting took place on April 20, 2007, on the Tulane University campus and was held concurrently with a meeting of the Association of Louisiana Faculty Senates. President Al Burstein called the meeting to order at 12:10 p.m. Attending were thirty-five faculty members. President Burstein then introduced a panel of representatives from several Louisiana universities to give updates on their institutions’ situations. They were Lynn Koplitz, Loyola University; Linda Carroll, Tulane University; William Stewart, Southern University, New Orleans and President of ALFS; Iris Lindberg, LSU Health Sciences Center; Jocelyn Thomas, University of New Orleans; Thomas Bonner, Xavier University; Louise Bostic, Southeastern Louisiana University; Mark Kuss, Our Lady of Holy Cross; Dominique Homberger, LSU A&M (in Baton Rouge). The reports from New Orleans-area institutions, while they varied in detail, shared a common theme of an ongoing deleterious effect of post-Katrina unilateral governance by administrators on current shared governance, with administrators continuing to make either single-handedly or with very little faculty role decisions that normally would have full faculty participation. For the state institutions, the matter of the future of furloughed faculty members will soon reach a critical point, as it…

April 9, 2006

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Louisiana Conference of the American Association of University Professors, April 9, 2006, Tulane University (Stanley Thomas Hall 101). Invited guest: General Secretary Roger Bowen. Approximately 42 faculty members attended; institutions represented included Tulane University, University of New Orleans, Southern University-New Orleans, Louisiana State University (including the Health Sciences Center, LSU A&M Baton Rouge campus and the Agriculture Center), Loyola University, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Southeastern Louisiana University-Hammond, Our Lady of Holy Cross College. N.B. The minutes are a record of statements made at the forum; no further research was undertaken to certify their veracity. The general meeting was preceded at 9:00 a.m. by a meeting between General Secretary Bowen and faculty members from the University of New Orleans to discuss the recent request made by UNO Chancellor Timothy Ryan that the Board declare a state of financial exigency that would enable him to fire a number of faculty members, including tenured ones. The general meeting was called to order at 10:15 by Conference President Manjit Kang. Dr. Bowen’s theme was “A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste”; he opened his talk with the affirmation that this motto, which has been uttered by administrators,…