AAUP-UC will be hosting a SUDS and SOLIDARITY! There will be free drinks, a taco bar, live entertainment, and more! Attend and bring a UC faculty member with you! The event will be at the Fermentorium at Nine Giants (6111 Ridge Avenue, 45213 in Pleasant Ridge) from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on April 27th!
Click here to RSVP: https://form.jotform.com/230745497990066
Our colleagues at Miami University are deep into the process of organizing their faculty and librarians with the goal of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). They currently have a very active advocacy Chapter, but this a CBA would be an important step for them and for higher education collective bargaining in general.
The Miami administration is opposed to their efforts and is using unscrupulous tactics to block their organizing campaign. Their latest effort is to argue that librarians should not be part of the bargaining unit. Librarians would not be able to vote for a CBA or enjoy its benefits. This is a feeble argument. Note that the Librarians at UC have always been part of the bargaining unit.
Here is a request from the Faculty Alliance at Miami. Please take a moment to read and participate:
Dear AAUP-UC,
I hope this finds you well! I am writing with an update on Faculty Alliance of Miami’s efforts and a request. We are grateful for your ongoing support and solidarity. We are now in the run-up to a hearing that will determine our bargaining unit. Although a supermajority of workers signed union cards, Miami University leadership has decided to delay the election and contest who should be in the unit, excluding NTT faculty and librarians. Ally support could make a big difference right now. We are asking local and national allies to sign this petition calling on Miami University leadership to let us vote and to listen to Miami’s faculty, librarians and teaching/research staff on who should be in the union.
Right now we are hoping to collect some preliminary signatures before making a big push on social media the week of December 5th. We would love to have your individual signature as an ally, and we’d also welcome your help in seeking signatures from the UC AAUP chapter and any other networks you are able to reach out to. If you have a moment to sign now and share internally, we would really appreciate it. And, if you are willing to help us share the petition on social media on December 5th, please let us know and we will be sure to send you a reminder and some sample language to use.
In solidarity, Cathy
Faculty Alliance of Miami
Lessons from UC Students about the Impact of Hate on a Campus Community
At Monday’s Executive Council meeting, we had a long and meaningful conversation about the November 4 News Record article titled “Racist letter sparks conversations about hate crimes at UC,” where Logan Johnson, the graduate student trustee for the UC Board of Trustees, spoke out through her social media about the anonymous letter her doctoral advisor received in early October—ostensibly in response to an article he had published in Inside Higher Ed about how “discourses and policies around academic integrity are not race-neutral” (para. 10). The anonymous letter he received months later expressed “vehemently racist and genocidal views” (TNR, para. 1), which is putting it mildly.
Logan’s is an honest and rightfully upsetting account. She posted: “I’ve struggled with what it means to be a Black scholar. The pursuit of knowledge is valuable,” she writes, “yet Black scholars and thus their scholarly work are rarely protected. […] Now, I watch as my advisor endures the same treatment with the same type of follow-through from the institution. […] Institutions send emails condemning the behavior,” Logan observes, “which does nothing for Black scholars” (para. 3).
It is not lost on the readers of this News Record article that as of November 4, the date of its publication, the only group to respond with a public statement about this incident was UC’s Student Government … on Instagram.
I’ve heard that President Pinto addressed this issue at the last Faculty Senate meeting, and I know that both Provost Ferme and VP Marshall have posted letters on the Office of the Provost’s webpage and the Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Community Impact’s webpage, respectively, on or about November 5. I know, too, that the Provost’s letter ended with an invitation: “We are in the process,” he writes, “of developing a guide for dealing with hate mail. If you would like to contribute to its creation, please sign up by November 14 and we will notify you of the meeting date.”
I signed up.
My point here is not to bash. The words, either written or spoken, from the President, from the Provost, from VP of Equity, Inclusion, and Community Impact matter. And I appreciate their words quite sincerely, as I’m betting others in our campus community do as well.
They hit all the right notes—condemning the racist actions of the anonymous letter-writer; affirming the values of our campus community: inclusion, tolerance, mutual respect; and expressing support for all those affected by this outrageous hateful incident.
Again, my point here is not to bash.
My point here is to notice. Which is, in part, what I think Logan is asking me to do. To stand alongside her watching while she watches, disappointedly and again, how not to support Black scholars.
As I was piecing together information about what happened, I came across this clip from WLWT news. I’d like to take a few minutes to show it here if the technology cooperates.
What I noticed after watching this news clip, which aired on November 10—and what I’m sure you all noticed, too—was the stark contrast between the administration’s response to this racist letter and the impact it’s having on our UC community and the students’ response to this same incident, and this same impact.
Plainly put, while the administration is talking, students are organizing.
They’re rallying.
They’re acting.
And, of course, they’re watching. They’re watching to see what we do.
The Executive Council is holding a retreat on December 2 and this issue will be on our agenda. Colleges and universities across this country have been experiencing an uptick in hate crimes for at least the past 5 years. No campus is immune. All institutions of higher education need leaders who will protect faculty, protect students, protect staff from racist, sexist, xenophobic or any manner of other hate-driven attacks. The AAUP has long encouraged administrators to support, in concrete ways, all those who use their voices and their talents to speak out against injustice, exclusion, and inequity, especially those who are harassed as a result of their efforts to address these problems.
Be watchful, be present, be active. These are the lessons I take from those UC students who rallied last week and from Logan who spoke out the week before.
As the students have shown us, we have work to do.
In solidarity,
Connie Kendall Theado
President, AAUP-UC
Works Cited
Pope, Z. (November 4, 2022). Racist letter sparks conversations about hate crimes at UC.
Tichavakunda, A. (June 30, 2022). Let’s talk about race and academic integrity.
As you know from earlier reports, American Federation of Teachers and AAUP convention delegates voted this past summer to approve an affiliate agreement – a formal partnership that will help secure new organizing on campuses across the United States. It also means that individual AAUP members now have access to many AFT benefits!
Click here to view the brochure which provides easy-to-read overviews of many of the available services and discounts.
In order to review the details and access these new benefits, you need your AFT affiliate member number and the Chapter’s affiliate local number, both of which are printed on your new affiliate ID card.
By now you should have received a packet at home via U.S.P.S. from the AFT that includes a flyer and that new AFT affiliate member ID card. The numbers will look like this:
Local # 6796
Member ID: AAUPXXXXXXX
This Labor Day we celebrate the historic alliance between the AAUP and the AFT. Together, we represent more faculty in higher education than any other union. This partnership brings together AAUP’s academic expertise and AFT’s power and reach. Below is an excerpt from the AFT 2022 convention, which our President, Connie Kendall Theado attended. Click here for pictures of the event.