Executive Committee Minutes 12/2/11

To read the minutes from the chapters's executive committee meeting held on December 2, click here.

Top Ten Reasons to Join JCU's AAUP Chapter!

the top ten reasons to join jcu's aaup chapter (actually, a few more than ten, because there are just so many...)
10. it's more affordable than you thought, it might be tax deductible, and a membership for that special someone makes a great Christmas gift
9. it might help save your job and that of your friends
8. it's the only organization that represents all faculty in all disciplines in all phases of our work
7. cookies at brownbags, beer at friday afternoon meetings, and first thursday club
6.you know you should, and you know it feels good to be part of a common effort to support academic excellence
5  because you are an Academic who is Against Unilaterally enacted Policy
4. it reminds us that we're not alone, and that we have the support of a 47,000 member national organization instrumental in defining and maintaining academic quality
3. it increases the likelihood that everyone will be a member one day (beat fairfield!)
2. academic freedom, academic integrity, and the protections of tenure aren't free
1. they don't expect it
join here! http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/involved/join/

JCU AAUP General Meeting for Faculty on Compensation Issues, Monday, Nov. 28, 11-1

On Monday, November 28 John Carroll's chapter of the American Association of University Professors will hold a brown-bag discussion on faculty compensation issues from 11:00-1:00 in the Faculty Lounge.  Our guest will be Rick DeWitt, president of the Fairfield University chapter of the AAUP.  Fairfield, which has a very robust AAUP chapter, has made considerable progress on faculty compensation issues in recent years.

Speaker and Discussion, "Fall of the Faculty," at Case, Thursday Nov. 3

Benjamin Ginsberg. David Bernstein Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, will be talking on "The Fall Of The Faculty: Governing Universities in the 21st Century," at 4:30 in Clark Hall 309 (full details are attached),  In his new book The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters, Ben Ginsberg argues that new patterns of governance threaten universities’ missions.  He traces and explains the pursuit of power that, he argues, has led to ever-increasing administrative staff creating make-work that raises costs and impedes the real work of the university.  It’s a controversial argument in the best of ways: it raises important questions and offers ideas that require discussion. 



http://policy.case.edu

Chapter General Meeting, Tuesday, October 23

JCU's AAUP chapter is sponsoring an open conversation about First Year Seminar  on Tuesday, October 18, from 11:30-1:30 in the Faculty Lounge. We'll be discussing how well FYS is meeting the criteria set by faculty in the Core Curriculum document, as revised in 2007.  We're especially concerned about the staffing of sections, the numbers of students in each section, and the level of administrative support given to FYS.  Ernie Dezolt, current director of the First-Year Seminar, will join us.  The lunch is brownbag, but we'll have some snacks and beverages available.  The meeting is open to all, so please encourage colleagues to attend.

The relevant sections of the Core Curriculum document can be read at http://www.jcu.edu/fc/proposals/FYSRevision_2007_04_19.pdf

JCU Chapter General Meeting, Friday, 9/23, 3:30 pm

We'll be holding our first general meeting of the academic year on Friday, September 23, at 3:30 in the Faculty Lounge.  Our guest will be Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of the Ohio Conference of the AAUP.  We'll be talking about the role of local AAUP advocacy chapters, as well as current state issues.  
Refreshments (of the adult variety) will be served!!  JCU faculty are welcome to attend. 

Academe: Focus on the Humanities in Trouble

Academe: Magazine of the AAUP

The road to dystopia is paved with both small cuts and big budget holes. Some of the cuts seem tiny, almost invisible; some of the budget holes so big, you could drive whole programs into them.

The September–October issue is the second of a triptych of Academe issues devoted to universities in trouble. Our July–August issueaddressed organizing in hard times. This issueis devoted to the humanities. In November–December, guest editor Christopher Newfield will take on the escalating troubles at public universities.

Note that I’m not using the word “crisis.” Nonetheless, as historian Ellen Schrecker notes in her trenchant review essay, “The Humanities on Life Support,” the future of the humanities “looks grim indeed.”

And it’s not just in the United States. English art historian, novelist, and journalist Iain Pears writes, in “A Price above Rubrics,” that the humanities and arts are particularly vulnerable in Britain, where universities made a “Mephistophelian bargain” about their abilities to create and deliver quick economic solutions and are now paying a terrible price.