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NYS AAUP Meeting - Fall 2002 |
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Conference’s Fall 2002 Business MeetingThe business
part of the Conference’s Fall 2002 Meeting was held at the
Campus Conference Center of the SUNY-Albany campus on the afternoon
of Friday, October 25. Seventeen AAUP members from thirteen campuses
across the state took part. In his written report for Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, Prof. Irwin Yellowitz (City College/CUNY emeritus) briefly characterized recent work done by the Committee on behalf of helping faculty members around the state defend their academic freedom: “We have advised individuals on how to proceed, and this often has helped prevent actions by their institutions that would violate AAUP principles. In several instances we also have made strong efforts to influence institutional practices to bring them into line with the principles and procedures found in the ‘Redbook’ [AAUP Policy Documents and Reports, ninth ed., 2001]. “In all these matters, our work is done behind the scenes, and we cannot trumpet our successes.... We can help in many situations; we can unilaterally resolve very few. We always work with the faculty member to use the procedures available at the institution most effectively. Although most of our work does not come to public notice, in a few situations, such as that at Medaille College, where existing procedures are both defective and ignored, and where private approaches have proven to be fruitless, we do act publicly. In this instance we cooperated with the President of the New York State Conference, Frank Higman, and Committee A of national AAUP.” In the discussion of Professor Yellowitz’s report, which mentioned that Conference Committee A had received relatively few inquiries, as compared with Committee A’s in other states, it was suggested that one way of publicizing the sort of thing that a Conference Committee A could do without violating confidentiality would be to reprint material published by other State Conferences, e.g., Ohio On behalf of the New York State Conference, President Higman said he would write to the President of Medaille College expressing his dismay at the current situation in that College. Eileen Burchell
(Marymount College Tarrytown) reported for the Committee on Chapter
and Membership Development that a new membership-reporting
service recommended by the Assembly of State Conferences (ASC)
was recently initiated. It will provide a roster of new members
in electronic format. The Conference’s database was last revised
in 1996, and does not reflect current chapter or campus membership.
Three times a year (November 1, February 1, and April 1, the national
office’s Membership Department will provide the most recent
rosters of new members to the Conference. The Committee been asked
to assist in the evaluation of this service at the end of the year
in the interest of improving timely communication between the national
office and the State Conferences. She said that the ASC is interested in holding a regional training workshop in New York state in 2003. Possibly one of the Conference’s semiannual meetings could be held in conjunction with this workshop. The Committee would welcome suggestions on appropriate candidates from developing chapters to attend the national AAUP meeting in June, 2003, the Summer 2003 institute, and regional leadership training institutes. Leonard Nissim
(Fordham University) reported briefly on “The Art of Collaboration,” the
Third Annual Faculty-Administrator Governance Conference
sponsored by the AAUP. It was held in Atlanta, Georgia on October
17-20. Among the attendees from New York state were two members
of the Conference’s Committee on College and University Government:
Nissim, who chairs it, and Maritta Cullinan (Molloy College). Patricia W. Bentley
(SUNY-Plattsburgh), Chair of the Conference’s Committee on
the Status of Women in the Profession, who attended the
annual meeting of the national Status of Women Committee, said
that the national Committee was focusing on: New York
Academe Editor John Diehl (Syracuse University emeritus)
noted that there had been dislocations and delays incident
to the changing of Executive Director, printer, postal handling,
etc., in the production and distribution of New York Academe;
but that the fall issue was in the hands of the postal system
and people should get their copies soon. President Higman announced the need for nominations for Treasurer, Secretary, and two At-Large Members of NYSC, and will appoint a Nominating Committee in the near future. He shared some of his concerns about the health of Conference activists Don Peters and Sylvia Aron, and of Jim Perley, the former AAUP President who had visited New York so often, and suggested that letters from Conference members would be welcomed. Eileen Burchell volunteered to write letters from the Conference. In their reports, committee chairs expressed gratitude for the efforts of their fellow committee members, thanked former Executive Director Jerry Grayson for his help in times past, and looked forward to working with the nex Executive Director, Jeanine Plottel. (The next morning, Saturday, October 26, there were two workshops, one on “Perspectives on Issues Concerning Part-Time Faculty Members” and the other on “The Changing Health Market: Costs and Negotiations of Benefits.” The workshops will be reported on in the winter 2003 issue of New York Academe.) |