INTRODUCTION
Colleagues and sometimes administrators consult AAUP chapter and conference leaders frequently as authorities on correct academic policies and procedures. At times they are asked to serve as informal ombudsmen. When speaking to faculty, administrative or legislative bodies, they encounter questions about AAUP standards and principles. They may also be expected to supply the knowledge necessary to cope with practical problems on campus.
This handbook is designed to assist AAUP representatives to meet the expectations and satisfy the demands depicted above. Based upon Association documents, it delineates not only faculty rights, privileges and responsibilities, but also many of the typical limitations and pitfalls of academic life. It describes both ideals and the realities that often circumscribe and obstruct the realization of those ideals.
A word of caution: although most of the statements contained in these pages reflect AAUP policies at the time of writing, some merely reflect the personal opinions of their authors, including the writer of this handbook. It is therefore highly recommended, before any decisive action is taken in the name of any AAUP unit, based on the content of this handbook, that an inquiry be made of the Association's Washington office, to confirm or clarify particular policies.
Much of information and advice provided in this handbook may appear unnecessary to AAUP veterans, but it was not written for them. Not infrequently recently enrolled members of the Association, possessing little knowledge of its traditions, practices and policies, assume leadership roles in chapters or conferences. Such novices, as this writer knows from personal experience, need a handbook such as this one. And the spectrum of issues and activities which are AAUP-related is so broad that the suggestions (if not always definitive answers) supplied in this volume may furnish enlightenment.
Among it many roles the American Association of University Professors is a vehicle for a body of academic traditions. The Association has developed its precepts and policies through a methodical process of deliberate fact-gathering analysis, debate and refinement. After three quarters of a century, the precedents of the past evolved into the precepts of the present. To understand them and adequately interpret them to others requires some understanding of how they were developed. In elucidating Association policies, therefore, this handbook attempts to convey something of their background, including discussions which preceded their enactment, to illuminate their rationale.
Most of the sources used in producing this handbook are AAUP publications and internal documents. (Readers wishing to pursue topics into the scholarly and general literature may find aids to further investigation in the citations which have been, wherever feasible, inserted directly into the text for ease of use.) Leading AAUP publications are cited as follows: the volume of AAUP Policy Documents and Reports is universally known as the Redbook. Page references are from the 1990 edition. The AAUP Bulletin, published through 1978, is cited as "B." And Academe, the journal of the Association since 1978, is cited as "A." Hence the citation of (B, 2-77, p. 35-36) would refer to pages 35 and 36 of the February 1977 issue of the AAUP Bulletin. Also cited frequently is The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is designated in these pages as "C."
This volume should be employed as a reference work. When a question is asked or a problem arises, a chapter or conference leader should first consult the index to see whether a key word points the way to an elucidation or a solution. Many of the issues treated herein are dealt with in the context of a discussion of the responsibilities of particular AAUP standing committee having jurisdiction over the matter.
The looseleaf format is employed so that alterations or additions to AAUP policy, or discussions of additional topics, can be conveniently added in a timely manner. A peculiar numbering system is employed for the various sections for the same reason. Chapter and conference leaders may remove and photocopy individual pages in order to supply them to AAUP members making inquires. And users who do not have ready access to back copies of Academe or the AAUP Bulletin cited in this work may obtain for study or follow up purposes the appropriate pages from those journals by requesting photocopies from AAUP sources which have them.
The composition of this handbook has taken hundreds of hours extended over several years. Although prominent members of the AAUP, both professors and Washington staff personnel, have been consulted as the writing proceeded, the author assumes the responsibility for all inanities, inaccuracies, redundancies, and homilies that may have crept into the text. In the hope that revisions may produce considerable improvement in future years, the writer solicits constructive criticism and suggestions for coverage of additional topics.
Norman Ferris
Middle Tennessee State University
March 17, 1990
GENESIS OF THIS HANDBOOK
The American Association of University Professors exists to promote cooperation among and to advance the standards, values, and welfare of professors and research scholars in higher education in the United States. Chapters of the AAUP are found on many campuses, and state conferences harmonize the work of the chapters and promote the interests of members in states where such organizations are active. Because both varieties of faculty groups frequently elect officers who are relatively inexperienced in the work of the Association, the publication of a "leadership handbook" to assist them in understanding and carrying out their duties has long been considered a virtual necessity. A fiftieth anniversary self-study report, for example, recommended in 1965 that the Association publish such a guide. And a report from a special committee on non-tenured faculty, distributed at the 58th Annual Meeting, recommended "that chapter officers be provided with...a handbook...written in dignified journalistic prose,...containing abstracts of basic AAUP policy statements for ready reference. Such a handbook would...supply essential information which now has to be gleaned from texts of other Association documents." (AAUP Bulletin, Summer 1972, p. 159.)
By 1973 a draft of a handbook circulated for comment, but work on it afterwards languished. In 1985, however, the Assembly of State Conferences urged that a high priority be given to the task of completing the desired volume. With the approval of the Council and the officers of the Association, the writer, who was then serving as Chair of the ASC, undertook to produce such a manual.
THE ASSOCIATION: HISTORY AND ROLE
The American Association of University Professors was founded in 1915 by a coterie of distinguished scholars who were concerned about threats to academic freedom amid the repressive chauvinism of the World War I era. Charter members numbering 867 adopted a statement of principles and formed committees to promulgate standards of academic freedom and professional ethics. For almost two decades faculty participation in the AAUP grew steadily until 1934. After two years of slight decline, as academia felt the impact of the great depression, membership in the AAUP once more increased annually (the only exception being the war year of 1943) until 1956. In that year a leadership crisis culminated in the loss of over six thousand members, a deficiency which was not overcome until the year 1962, when membership exceeded 49,000.
Climbing steadily to 88,000 in 1967, membership peaked at 91,000 in 1972, and then fell to the 75,000-72,000 range during the period 1978-1984, and near 50,000 thereafter. Factors that contributed to membership loss included the advent of collective bargaining in higher education, the growing tendency of professors to narrow their activities and limit their loyalties to their own scholarly specialties, and the emergence of faculty governance bodies such as faculty senates.
From its beginning, the AAUP vigorously defended academic freedom, and the major accomplishment of the Association has been the formulation of a body of "academic common law" which forms the principal bulwark of that special status for professors. The idea of a university as an inviolable refuge for free inquiry, as propounded by the framers of the 1915 AAUP Declaration of Principles, as well as the concept of tenure to secure freedom from unwarranted external interference in teaching and research, and the principle of collective faculty responsibility for educational decisions, particularly those relating to curriculum and personnel matters, all owe their existence largely to more than seventy years of vigilant and determined labor by the Association. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the survival in practice of these concepts at many institutions should the salubrious influence of the AAUP ever weaken or disappear.
Although support for the Association is evident everywhere within the professorate, it is unfortunate that only a small proportion of the total number of higher education faculty members remain dedicated to the preservation of AAUP principles, continue to pay Association dues, and keep the local chapters, state conferences, and the national components of the Association functioning.
THE ASSOCIATION: STRUCTURE
Constitution
The foundation of the AAUP is its Constitution. That document is printed on pages 185-189 of the Redbook. (Amendments passed at the 1985 Annual Meeting of the Association regarding the service on the Council of past presidents may be found on page 5a of the September-October 1985 issue of Academe.)
That document state the purpose of the organization, specifies classes of and requirements for membership, delineates the duties of national officers and the Council, sets forth rules for the election of these leaders, provides for the conduct of meetings thereto, regulates the formation and work of local chapters, state conferences, and the Collective Bargaining Congress, and declares how amendments may be achieved.
Officers and Council
The national officers of the AAUP, elected every two years by its active members, are the President, first and second Vice Presidents, and a Secretary-Treasurer. An Executive Committee of the Council, composed of these four officers, the immediate past President of the Association, the Chairs of the Assembly of State Conferences and the Collective Bargaining Congress, and (in current practice) four other members of the Council, meets four times a year to discuss and formulate proposals, such as budget priorities and expenditures, for action by the Council.
The Council is the governing board of the Association. It ordinarily has thirty-nine members--the four national officers, the ASC Chair, the CBC Chair, the immediate past presidents of the CBC and ASC, three past Presidents of the Association, and thirty representatives elected for three-year terms from ten districts. Redistricting takes place not less frequently than every ten years.
The Council ordinarily meets for two or three days in June at the time of the Annual Meeting of the Association and for two more days in November. Its principal responsibilities are to manage the Association's funds and property and set membership dues; to employ and supervise a General Secretary, General Counsel, Assistant Treasurer, professional staff, and other national AAUP employees; to determine time and place and publish records of Association meetings; to establish committees and regional offices as needed; to arrange periodically to redistrict itself; and to construe the Constitution.
Council members are non-voting ex officio members of the governing boards of all state conferences with their districts and must be informed in a timely manner of conference business. They act as intermediaries between conferences, chapters, and individual members on the one hand, and the Council on the other.
Council meetings vary structurally but in general they follow a pattern that appears at least partly set by precedent and is to some degree governed by the sequence of decisions made at preceding executive committee meetings. The Council will also deliberate on measures referred to it by Annual Meeting and will act on committee reports that it has commissioned. A typical Council agenda features reports by the President, General Secretary, Secretary-Treasurer, General Counsel, and Committees A, R, F, and T. It also normally includes reports on the subject of professional negotiations by Committee N, the Chair of the CBC, and sometimes the Director of Collective Bargaining, as well as reports by the chair of the ASC and the editor of Academe. Matters that members have requested brought to Council for action are usually treated under "Other Business."
Reports of Committees W, Z, O, I, B, C, H, V, advisory boards and panels, the Grievance and Litigation Committees, the AAUP Foundation, special task forces, and ad hoc committees are received periodically and action taken on them as seems advisable. Narrative minutes of Council meetings appear in a following issue of Academe. Prior to the June Council meeting it is customary to have a brief orientation session for new officers and Council members, and at the session following the Annual Meeting of the Association any proposals emanating from that body are considered.
Elections
The procedures for the elections of national officers and Council members are set forth in Article V of the Constitution. Although there is no requirement for the national nominating committee to present slates reflecting a variety of types of institutions and professional fields, or to offer candidates of varying ages and both sexes, it has long been the custom to give attention to these considerations, to insure that the Council and national officers represent the diversity of membership in the AAUP. A discussion of the nominating committee functions, as well as comments on Council activities, is in the May 1965 issue of the AAUP Bulletin, pages 125-28. The reader will note one important change has since occurred: Council members are no longer elected by the Association membership at large but only by members in their respective districts.
Current nominating procedures are as follows. In June the President obtains Council approval of a nominating committee. The committee meets in September (in odd-numbered years) to prepare slates of prospective officers and Council members, and publishes its report in the first issue of Academe for the following year. Petitions are accepted until March 15. Ballots are distributed by mail between April 1 and May 31, must returned with a postmark of May 31 or earlier, and are counted on June 10. (See Academe of May-June 1983, page 64.)
Elections of national officers, including the Chairs of the ASC and the CBC, and of Council members, are governed not only by Article V of the Constitution but also by-laws. These by-laws must be followed by those persons conducting or participating in such elections.
The Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting of the Association is the final authority for both amendments to the Constitution (as set forth in Article X of that document) and actions that either it or the Council may propose, which shall become official Association policy upon the concurrence of the other party to the transaction, or (irrespective of adverse Council action) upon approval by two successive Annual Meetings of the Association. Moreover, the Annual Meeting has the power to instruct the Council to report to the next meeting of the larger body "on subjects within the province of the Association," and unilaterally "to express its views on professional matters."
The President of the Association or a designated representative presides over Annual Meetings of the Association. Roberts' Rules of Order, Newly Revised govern proceedings. Each state conference may elect two delegates and the active members of each chapter may elect one delegate for each twenty-five members or fraction thereof to the institution. Only delegates may vote at Annual Meetings, although all Association members are welcome to attend. The rules for proportional voting by chapter delegates only, under certain circumstances, are set forth in Article VI, section 3, of the Constitution.
Annual meeting attendance has dropped considerably since travel subsidies for delegates, offered during the 1960s and 1970s, ceased. Stronger efforts should be made by chapters and conferences to achieve representation at these meetings by partial funding of delegate travel expenses. Members of the Council and official participants in authorized committee meetings have their expenses paid in part or wholly by the Association, and some delegates who are officers of the ASC and the CBC or participants in their meetings have expenses defrayed by those organizations. But members willing and able to represent chapters if they were not required to pay their entire expense should be supported financially by their colleagues to the largest degree possible. Benefits of participation in an Annual Meeting, including personal contact with Association officers and staff members, first-hand observation of its essential business being conducted, and camaraderie and exchanges of information with members from other parts of the nation, are important in maintaining continuity of participation in the organization's affairs and in heightening understanding at the chapter level of its goals and principles.
Traditionally, Annual Meetings have lasted two days. Certain committee meetings, especially those of Committee A, generally occur early in the week. When an Annual Meeting is held in Washington, a "government relations" day involves Capitol Hill visits, workshops, panels and seminars. The ASC and CBC generally hold their meetings during the two days before the Annual Meeting, while Executive Committee and Council meetings are also held beforehand. Panel discussions and other special programs for AAUP members not involved in the aforementioned preliminary meetings are usually provided. A CBC-sponsored dinner, a Committee W-sponsored luncheon, and a banquet with a preceding reception and a distinguished speaker have become customary events during Annual Meeting week. Care is now being taken to insure that members of the Council and its Executive Committee who also desire to participate in the business of the ASC and/or CBC are not prevented by scheduling conflicts.
An AAUP self-survey committee observed in 1965 that Annual Meetings had lately been giving "relatively little attention to matters of general professional, educational, and intellectual character," but had instead "been almost entirely occupied with the business of the Association," dealing with "reports, resolutions, and other matters of business." These meetings were quite different from those "of the various learned societies, which are primarily for the purpose of intellectual and scholarly interchange." But the current format, the self-survey concluded, was probably unavoidable, since significant attendance at a more prolonged meeting was difficult to imagine, and the Association's business usually consumed most of the time allocated to the Annual Meeting. The quality of that business, and the manner of conducting it, would reveal the intellectual if not the scholarly resources of the Association.
Agendas of Annual Meetings typically include the following matters of business. The chair of the agenda committee (composed of a vice president, the Chair of the ASC, and one additional Council member) recommends adoption of the printed agenda and the standing rules for the meeting. (Thereafter the Agenda committee decides, acting as final authority, whether any proposed resolutions rejected by the Resolutions Committee, and then appealed by their proponents to the Annual Meeting, shall be brought before the latter body. It also has the duty to "facilitate the orderly consideration" of proposals relating to the internal organization of the Association or the conduct of its activities, and to "make an equitable apportionment of available time for discussion and a vote on proposals." There is a May 1 deadline for the receipt of proposals.)
As with Council meetings, the Annual Meetings continue with reports by the President, the General Secretary, the Secretary-Treasurer, the General Counsel, the major standing committees (with votes on Committee A recommendations for the imposition or removal of censure), the Chairs of the ASC and the CBC and the resolutions committee. Additionally, various awards are presented, distinguished visitors are recognized, and every two years the retiring President gives an address.
The President of the AAUP appoints a committee to receive and prepare resolutions to be presented to the Annual Meeting for action. Following ratification of their appointments at the November Council meeting, the (usually three) members of the Resolutions Committee meet immediately prior to the Annual Meeting to consider all proposed resolutions and to submit those they deem suitable (with or without modifications) to the plenary body. They may also submit resolutions of their own. Resolutions in this context are defined as "expressions of opinion..., not constituting legislative action of the Association," and relate to "subjects of general interest to the academic profession and the public." Members, chapters and conferences may initiate resolutions, but they must reach the Resolutions Committee by May 1, unless in rare cases they concern topics which have arisen subsequent to that date, when they may be moved to the floor. As indicated above, the Agenda Committee acts upon appeals from Resolutions Committee decisions.
The President of the AAUP also appoints a Grievance Committee of the Annual Meeting, consisting of three Council members, to hear and investigate complaints against the Association and to report its findings either to the President and General Secretary, or to the Executive Committee. Finally, a credentials committee is chosen by the President to referee disputes about delegates' credentials, and a parliamentarian is selected to perform the usual function of that office.
The Washington Office
The national AAUP headquarters is located at 1012 Fourteenth Street, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005. Members may reach it by using a toll-free telephone number: (800) 424-2973.
The General Secretary is accountable to the Council and its Executive Committee for the efficiency and the morale of the professional staff. The General Secretary is in charge of the Washington office and currently is assisted by two Associate General Secretaries, veterans of the AAUP staff, one of whom works primarily on academic freedom and tenure controversies, and the other of whom handles government relations, elections, and liaison with the state conferences. Nine Associate Secretaries (including two Associate Counsels, a Director of Collective Bargaining, and a Director of Membership and Public Information) complete the professional staff in the Washington office.
Administrative officers include a Business Manager and two or three people who work primarily with membership services or on Academe. There are approximately seventeen AAUP administrative staff members who handle secretarial, receptionist, research, and other office duties. Each one reports to a particular professional staff member, who supervises one of the following areas of activity: (1) Government Relations, (4) Collective Bargaining, (5) Legal Counsel, (6) Academe, (7) Membership, and (8) the Business Office.
Professional staff officers must be fully acquainted with academic traditions and able to maintain numerous close contacts within the academic community. While most people with academic backgrounds prefer to live and labor in a college community an extended commitment to full time AAUP work tends to prevent a subject matter specialist from teaching or researching in his or her field. There is an analogy with becoming a full-time academic administrator; the alteration is frequently one of occupation, not merely of jobs.
Fortunately, the Association offers professional staff members salaries and periodic raises comparable to those received by professors with the same academic experience at leading universities, as well as generous retirement, medical, vacation, and sabbatical benefits, and the same academic freedom, tenure, and grievance procedure protections that the AAUP recommends for college and university faculty members. The turnover in AAUP professional staff is consequently low, even though other Washington organizations occasionally outbid the AAUP for the services of an employee.
The non-professional staff works in one of the most competitive markets in the nation for secretarial and other office services. In recent years an increasing level of technical skill has been required of such employees, as office machinery, including computer equipment, has been introduced. An understanding of how the Washington office is organized, information about who is in charge of what, and an appreciation for the financial and other constraints under which the AAUP staff members labor should be a concern of every chapter and conference leader, and every member of the national Council. They should respond promptly to requests by the Association's elected leaders and/or its Washington office staff, in order to help resolve members' problems in a timely manner.
The Budget Process
Membership dues finance most of the Association's activities. The balance comes largely from contributions, subscriptions to Academe, advertising in AAUP publications, and investments.
Staff salaries and benefits, staff travel, office rent, equipment and supplies, contracted services, and mail and telephone expense account for approximately ninety percent of the Association's expenditures, while membership, collective bargaining, and conference grants plus Council and committee travel and the expense of holding the Annual Meeting use up most of the remaining ten percent.
The Secretary-Treasurer of the Association manages its investments, handles its bills and deposits, arranges for an annual audit, sees that appropriate records are kept of all financial transactions, and reports periodically to the Council and its Executive Committee on all of these endeavors. In exercising these responsibilities he or she works closely with the General Secretary and the Business Manager. In recent years the return on investments has been high and audit reports have been favorable.
During the summer months the Washington office prepares a proposed budget for the following calendar year. The President, the General Secretary, and the Secretary-Treasurer estimate income and discuss expenditures. Senior staff members confer with the General Secretary about funding their particular areas of responsibility. The Business Manager, under the supervision of the General Secretary, then prepares a formal draft budget which is mailed to the Executive Committee of the Council in advance of its September meeting.
Having examined the proposed budget, the members of the Executive Committee discuss it line by line before approving it, usually with revisions and attached contingencies. At the same time, the current budget, which is about to enter its final quarter, receives close attention, so that necessary adjustments may be made. These actions provide a basis for planning, in advance of definitive action by the Council two months later.
In November the Executive Committee reconvenes. One task is to review the draft budget for the year before submission to the Council with the Executive Committee's recommendations attached. Usually this process has produced a consensus, but it is possible that the Association's President, Secretary-Treasurer, General Secretary, or a member or members of the Executive Committee and/or the professional staff might wish to recommend revisions to the Council, a step which can be taken as well by individual members of that body. Following such discussions a vote of the Council will establish a budget for the year beginning on January 1.
Meetings of the Executive Committee in February and June, and of the Council during the latter month, usually concentrate on other matters, but small adjustments to the budget are common. If, however, the June Annual Meeting re-orders the priorities of the Association or imposes some additional responsibilities, such decisions might well have a substantial impact on the Association's budget and require an adjustment when the council convenes following the Annual Meeting.
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