Minutes of Meeting October 24, 2020 – AAUP Louisiana Conference

Meeting: LA State Conference, AAUP

October 24, 2020

Present:
Elected Board

Leslie Bary (President) (UL Lafayette)
Sudhir Trivedi (Vice President) (SU-BR)
Thomas Miller (Secretary) (SU-BR)

Kevin Cope (Treasurer) (LSU-BR)

General Membership: Katheryn LaBorde (Xavier), Michelle Glaros (Centenary), Angie Gwee (SU-BR), Michelle Massé (LSU-BR), Judith Miranti (Xavier), Biljana Obradovic (Xavier), Jim Robinson (LSU-E), Brian Salvatore (LSU-S), Peter Siska (LSU-S), Christof Stumpf (LSU-A), Carola Wenk (Tulane), Hugh Wilson (Grambling), John Worsencroft (LaTech), Jana Giles (ULM).

Meeting begins: 10:12 am

AGENDA:

Item I: Implementation/use of resolution on HE boards – The resolution in support of faculty representation on all Boards of Higher Education adopted in the August 8 meeting (see approved draft) will be reviewed by a committee the week of October 26^th and presented to the Executive Committee of the State Conference (SC) shortly thereafter. It will be presented to the Governor and/or Lieutenant Governor with media attention brought to bear.

Committee members: Kevin Cope, Jana Giles, Richmond Eustis (the committee who wrote the resolution itself was Kevin Cope, Michelle Massé, Judith Miranti, Christof Stumpf).

Item II: applications for dues subsidy program – At the August 8^th meeting of the SC it was decided that dues subsidies would be awarded to up to 10 faculty members. Preference would be given to new faculty who were non-members. The subsidy would be in full for faculty whose annual dues are $100 or less and at 50% for those faculty whose dues exceed $100 per year. Awards would be determined by the Executive Committee (EC).

Result – 6 nominations were received: Tulane (4), LSUBR (1), ULL (1). It was recommended that the newly elected President of the SUBR Faculty Senate be added to the list. Hugh Wilson suggested that the FS Presidents of two key HBCUs, SU-BR and Grambling, be included, thereby encouraging greater participation of minority faculty.[1] The EC will review the nominees and make recommendations for the award.[2]

Item III: Report from COVID-19 – Given the seriousness of the pandemic, with a potential for death or possible long-lasting injury, the committee is charged with seeking ways to maximize faculty inclusion in all decisions related to the determination and implementation of COVID-19 safety related measures. The committee agreed to act in advance of deliberations concerning possible fall 2020 graduation activities and planning for spring semester, 2021. It will create a questionnaire to survey faculty concerns and elicit recommendations to ensure safety.

Committee members: Tom Miller, Christof Stumpf, Sudhir Trivedi.

Item IV: Report from Summer Institute – All training materials from the Summer Institute, including recordings of all presentations, are available on the website, and are highly recommended.

Item V: Creation of Network of Women Faculty – This was originally proposed by Leslie Bary due to the lack of senior women in science on Committee A, where they are needed. Others are interested in a broader function for the network, possibly aligned with the goals of the AAUP Committee on Gender and Sexuality in Higher Education. Following discussion at this meeting N.G. (Angie) Gwee (Professor of Computer Science, SU-BR) was appointed to Committee A, and more senior women are requested to volunteer (see recruitment information).

The broader network is also forming. Contact person is Judith Miranti (Xavier).[3] Whether the network will be of/focused on women, or women and the LGBTQIA+ community, or underrepresented faculty groups still more broadly; and whether it is to be conceived of as a resource for faculty suffering discrimination or as a study group, or both, are still to be determined.

VI: Membership drive – There is strength in numbers. Chapters should attempt to have spots at new faculty orientation and have AAUP materials included in orientation packets. We should speak with colleagues, distribute brochures, host events, find all possible ways of communicating with faculty about the benefits of joining the AAUP. Materials are available from AAUP national, and people interested in discussing recruitment should contact Leslie Bary who has additional training materials.

VII. Committee A – In 2020 Committee A received inquiries on 3 denials of tenure from institutions in the LSU system, two other grievances in the UL system, and an environmental hazard issue at LSUS. The appeal of one denial of tenure is active, with $350 of Committee A’s budget committed to a legal consultation if required, and one of the UL system grievances has gone forward. LSUS querents received $500 from Committee A to hire an independent environmental hazard expert but are not requesting further AAUP support. We have put effort into making our processes more efficient and there are explanations of new procedures on the website at aaupla.org.

VIII. Activism and Chapter News – Kevin Cope and Elizabeth Gross are in conversation about media strategies, to raise AAUP’s visibility, and also discussion groups on specific issues, perhaps in conjunction with Judith Miranti and the new network on women and gender. There is a new, quickly growing chapter at Louisiana Tech; chapter President is John Worsencroft, Assistant Professor of History. The chapters at SU-BR, Tulane and Xavier also have strong, recent growth, and the Tulane chapter is active on a number of campus issues.

IX. Unions and Allied Organizations – United Campus Workers is organizing at LSU and around the state, and some of the union-minded among us have joined. There was discussion on union efforts, the fact that some faculty are not willing to join unions that include staff and manual workers,[4] and the question of whether unionization (which in Louisiana, due to the structure of our labor laws, would be without collective bargaining) means the loss of shared governance, or not. There is also a new National Council of Faculty Senates forming, initiated by the Texas Council of Faculty Senates; some of us are also participating in this initiative and will report as it moves ahead.

X. New business – The winter Zoom meeting is foreseen for late January (23d or 30^th), information forthcoming. The spring meeting is still scheduled for April 24^th at ULL, though much will depend on that state of the pandemic.

Meeting concludes: 11:43 am.

Respectfully submitted,

THOMAS MILLER
Secretary

[1] Xavier and Dillard have no Faculty Senate, SUSLA Senate officers are already AAUP members, and Leslie Bary is suggesting we contact the Senate President at SUNO.

[2] We increased the ceiling to $109, because $109 is the dues amount for faculty in the $40,000-$50,000 salary band. We subsidized new members and one member whose work had been cut to part-time under COVID-19.

[3] For Judith: people who have expressed interest are Jana Giles (ULM), Angie Gwee (SUBR), and Hugh Wilson (Grambling), although they’re not bound.

[4] A point of view reflecting the ethos of craft, not industrial unions (viz. AFL vs. CIO in the 20^th century US).

Addendum from Leslie Bary

Highlights of Zoom Chat

On advocacy, activism

Everything that is sent to the Governor should also be sent to the Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser. The “bandwidth” of the Governor on issues outside of the pandemic and storm relief is very limited right now.

On COVID-19

Centenary tests about half of the residential student population (high contact students: athletes, theatre, choir, etc.) every 3 weeks. They have a contact tracing system operating that averages 3 hours.

Louisiana Tech is doing testing and contact tracing, but the entire system is voluntary.

Admin was very reluctant to allow going remote at LSUA.

XULA students are in single rooms, and some classes are on campus, but most are online or Zoom. There is also random testing of everyone at XULA. Faculty were asked to document if they have health issues before being allowed to teach online (or if they have someone at home who was older, or more susceptible to get sick).

XULA has allowed tenure-track faculty to choose to postpone tenure for a year during Covid as most are having a hard time publishing and there are no conferences. It’s their choice. The R & T committee now has 3 men and 3 women (important to have women since women’s work suffers a great impact from Covid).

For the COVID survey—a problem is reliable internet of faculty and students. Faculty are required to have their own internet, printers, etc. We are working at home, using our space, our electricity, and more. LESLIE: HEAR, HEAR! Also, having a ton of workshops on how to teach online thrown at you is different from having the time to acquire all equipment, test all software, and fully retrain yourself as an online faculty member.

What about getting athletics involved (in COVID efforts)? They are key stake holders and their performance on the field is tied to physical well-being.

Although several had concerns that their administrations were downplaying the seriousness of the virus, one comment was that “The virus is real, but the numbers are grossly inflated. We should support taking precautions and opening our campuses.”

On faculty senates

XULA and Dillard do not have Senates. XULA would like to form one, and suggests we hold a workshop on how. Response: ALFS (the Association of Louisiana Faculty Senates) can do this, or do it jointly with us. Kevin Cope and Biljana Obradovic will collaborate on that.

Important: SACSCOC requires that an administration publish its policies regarding the faculty role in governance. Perhaps SACSCOC should be advised that Dillard and Xavier are apparently not complying, having no meaningful faculty governance or guidance appertaining thereto.

On shared governance

At XULA hiring committees are picked by the administration as of recently, not created within a particular department which is hiring—and the administration adds a member from a different department. The Administration decides what we can do and cannot do in the search. Before, each department picked the committee and had only members from the department on it. The change to this process has caused a lot of problems.

At Southern BR the Admin plans to conduct an external search for Chair of our Department, completely contravening the Faculty Handbook. It would be interesting to see what the search committee will comprise, if it came to that. We are, of course, fighting against this absurd decision. The AAUP and Faculty Senate are up in arms about this, as several campuses are affected.

At other institutions both search and tenure committees are composed in obscure ways, such that a hire is made in your department without your knowledge or participation at any stage, or someone is tenured, or not, by a committee unknown. This is at institutions that, in the past, conducted matters openly, discussed hiring and tenure, and promotion together from the point of designing the job description forward.

Leslie: These are heavy issues and they are what the AAUP should be working on, in my view.

On women faculty

Article So Few Women Leaders
https://www.aaup.org/article/so-few-women-leaders

Resources for the Network http://www.ccas.net/files/ADVANCE/Supporting%20Women%20and%20Minority%20Faculty.pdf

Upon denial of tenure/promotion, women do not go through appeal. They need to be strongly encouraged to do that.

Volunteering to join women’s network in chat, Hugh Wilson (Grambling). Angie Gwee (SUBR) had volunteered by voice, and Jana Giles (ULM) following our last meeting. Judith Miranti (XULA) will convene.