Open Letter to Ian Wilson about the Role of the AAUP at UVU
18 October 2011
An Open Letter to Ian Wilson, Vice President for Academic
Affairs, UVU
Dear Ian,
I’ve been
thinking a lot about our meeting last week. In several ways it was an important
event, certainly for those of us in the AAUP, perhaps for you as well and for
the University in general. In two decades of work with the AAUP, first at BYU
and then at UVSC/UVU, I have often spoken with administrators about matters of
concern, but only when we pushed a specific issue and then in an adversarial
role.
Your
invitation, then, with no current issue at stake, was unprecedented and even
generous. It extends a pattern you have set over the years and especially since
becoming VPAA, a pattern of openness to competing ideas and of concern for the
opinions of all of us who work together at the University. Your speech in
August to the CHSS faculty in which you noted that the University must be a
place that fosters the best interests of its faculty as well as its students
was a good example of your sense that we’re all at our best as we support one
another. Your asking about faculty concerns in our meeting last week further
demonstrated that sensibility. And finally, your questions about the AAUP and
our perceived role at UVU were an important gesture toward future work together.
In response
to the questions about the AAUP, I gave you the current issue of the AAUP’s Academe, an issue that includes Cary
Nelson’s essay titled “An AAUP Chapter Can Transform Your Campus.” You’ll
remember that Cary visited our campus a couple of years ago and raised
questions related to academic freedom and to teaching most of our classes with
adjunct faculty who receive no benefits and have no voice in University
governance. You have the article, but because this is an open letter meant for
anyone at UVU, I’ll include a couple of Cary’s points here with my comments
interspersed:
A chapter can help institutionalize AAUP
policies.
Many campuses already incorporate the AAUP’s principles and recommended
standards—including explicit AAUP language—in their faculty personnel policies.
But many more AAUP principles should be built into your faculty handbooks and
campus regulations, from the joint statement on student rights to guidelines on
maintaining academic freedom in electronic communications and on college and
university websites.
[We have good and improving policies at UVU. The ones relating to the
faculty and to academic freedom and to shared governance, especially, include
many AAUP-recommended standards. Faculty Senate President Chuck Alison used the
AAUP Redbook almost like a Bible as he worked on various policies with the
Senate.]
A chapter can speak truth to power. The most immediate
difference an AAUP chapter can make is to be a source of frank, honest, and
forthright commentary on nearly every aspect of campus life. . . . An AAUP
chapter provides the faculty with a voice that can shed sunlight on cant,
self-interest, and deception and applaud good practices. Then, of course, the
chapter needs to promote solutions to problems.
[As I suggested in the meeting, we see our communications with you (and
President Holland and the Faculty Senate President), most recently about the
announced Center for Constitutional Studies, about the proposed “White Paper,”
and most often about perceived breakdowns in due process related to tenure, as
positive contributions to the University. We’re not always right, we don’t
always have all the facts, but the questions we raise are always meant to
protect and strengthen the principles we share. Because we stand outside the
budgeted and appointed structures of the University, we’re uniquely able to
raise such questions. Although it must be irritating, at times, to have to respond
to our questions and complaints, in the long run we’re all better off for
having frank discussions about important issues. Finally, as I promised in our
meeting, we do our very best to “applaud good practices and to promote
solutions to problems.” This letter, in fact, is largely an attempt to applaud
the good practices that have, in the past couple of years, moved us forward in
many positive ways.]
A chapter can promote sound governance. An AAUP chapter
should be an ally, partner, and political advocate of faculty governance and
its processes and products. When necessary, it can remind the senate, campus
committees, and the administration of good governance principles. It can sound
a warning when people—whether administration, faculty, or governing
board—deviate from those principles.
[Our conversation last week led to a discussion of our chapter’s role
vis-à-vis the Faculty Senate. They make policy, I noted, they have
institutional standing, they represent the faculty in a wide range of
governance issues. The AAUP chapter does none of that, nor do we want to. We’re
focused on the principles of academic freedom and shared governance that make a
University a University in the best sense of the word. Our authority is based
only on good arguments and appeals to shared principles. When we argued, for
instance, that Professor Hyunmee Lee was denied tenure without due process, it
was the Faculty Senate that appointed a committee to look into the matter and
that finally required that the tenure decision be revisited, with an ultimate
reversal of the decision. Our role was simply to raise the question and to make
good arguments. See Cary Nelson’s next point for more about this.]
A chapter can pursue grievances. Your AAUP chapter can
form a grievance committee to assemble evidence, pursue cases, and obtain
justice for aggrieved faculty members. It can negotiate informally but
effectively with the administration. It can seek assistance from the AAUP’s
national office and pursue some cases jointly with the national staff.
A chapter can educate the entire
community. A chapter should aim to reach not only faculty members and
administrators but also students, board members, community members,
legislators, and all employee groups.
[To this end, we have sponsored, sometimes in conjunction with other
campus organizations, a series of lectures and conversations on academic
freedom and shared governance. In 1999 or 2000 we participated in discussions
organized by Brian Birch that included the Provost of Baylor University and
UVSC President Kerry Romesburg. Several years later we helped with the
discussions on shared governance led by Jack Newell. Cary Nelson’s visit to
campus was a highlight. And our offer to help sponsor a visit to campus by
former U of U and University of California President David Gardner was another
gesture toward education and discussion.]
So, Ian, we’ll continue to do our best to contribute to the wellbeing
of Utah Valley University. Thank you again for your willingness to engage us in
conversation and to consider our questions and concerns.
Sincerely,
Scott Abbott
President of the UVU Chapter of the AAUP
p.s. I’ll post this at our UVU AAUP blog, where you will also find
earlier work we have done.
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