AAUP MINUTES

January 26, 2006

Members Present: Paula Hinton, Jessica Joy, Paul Semmes, Kristin Walker, Tony Baker, Colleen Hays, Katherine Osburn, Wali Kharif, Andy Smith, Kurt Eisen

Guest Present: Tor Guimaraes, Professor of Decision Sciences and Management

Agenda, and Minutes from previous meeting, were approved.

Old Business:

Kharif—Membership—currently we have 59 members

Jonakin [via email of 1-30-06]—Treasurer’s Report—“…as of today, Monday, January 30, we have $1883.97 in our account and a $716 check that I’ve yet to deposit…so very soon we will have $2,599.97.”

Programs—Walker—Asked for suggestions

Osburn—Could use spring conference as program

Baker—Suggested we consider participating in Campus Equity Week. [See website at www.campusequityweek.org] Purpose is to raise awareness of faculty equity issues and contingent faculty issues. Takes place next Oct./Nov. some time. Maybe we could time our fall forum to coincide with this.

Walker—Committee A—Pat Reagan [History] has recommended we put a committee in place. The TTU AAUP Executive Committee will meet some time during the next couple of weeks to: decide whom to nominate or recommend for the chair of this committee, determine who is currently on the committee, and find out whether or not there are positions that need to be filled.

Eisen—Committee R—The current issue under discussion on the listserv is the Student Bill of Rights. TBR has adopted the AAUP statement on student rights. Eisen emailed the director of THEC, Richard Rhoda, who works pretty closely with the legislature. Rhoda believes we won’t have to worry about this. MLA wasn’t entirely happy with the AAUP document though. The controversy is over the statement in AAUP policy concerning the introduction of controversial material into courses. The MLA is concerned about the definition of “controversial.” They believe that relevance of course material is the key issue. But, basically, we won.

Baker—Some students have alerted him to Students for Academic Freedom. [See their website at www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org] A chilling component of the website is that students can publicly file a complaint, naming the professor, course, etc…Parents can also file complaints. There is no requirement for grounds to do this (to make the complaints).

Eisen—Wasn’t there a hoax involved with this group?

Osburn—They held hearings in Pennsylvania. Wronged students were supposed to show up. Only one student did and this student had not gone through the grievance process. The case that sparked this was a woman in a Political Science class. Students were reading a book about war. They were debating whether or not the current war in Iraq is legal. They were debating whether or not George W. Bush is a war criminal. You could argue it either way. This student wrote a paper arguing that Saddam Hussein is a war criminal. She failed the assignment. Horowitz jumped on this and pointed to this as an example of liberal professors. It turned out that the professor who gave the assignment is a registered Republican who is apparently rather supportive of Republican policy. Horowitz’s hyperbole was illuminated in the hearings. They’re trying to discredit the academy and put professors on the defensive. The other thing that came out was the UCLA group that offered to pay money for students’ notes—they have withdrawn the offer.

Baker—The man who heads up the UCLA group used to work for Horowitz.

Smith—We need to take these people seriously. The UCLA website is very professionally done. [See their website at www.uclaprofs.com] Students brought the site up in class. They were curious about the grounds needed for firing professors.

Eisen—Another issue is ideological affirmative action in university programming and hiring. It’s part of this same movement.

Committee W—no report

Walker—Newsletter—will be discussed at Executive Committee meeting

Walker—Status of Inversion—Any updates?

Semmes—Instances of inversion have been examined and corrected. All instances across campus have been corrected. If anyone thinks they have been omitted, they should see their chair, and then dean.

New Business:

Walker—There’s been concern about our investment opportunities here at TTU and the freedom that we have to choose, so we have invited Dr. Tor Guimaraes to speak about his concerns.

Guimaraes—This is primarily related to “defined benefits.” You have “defined contributions” and “defined benefits.” We aren’t talking about Social Security type of retirement programs in TN. We’re talking about programs like TIAA CREF and others. There are no guarantees. The government isn’t involved. Alternatives are too expensive and choices of what you can and can’t do with the money are restricted. There’s a big percentage difference between what you could be doing and what they allow us to do. It’s very one-sided. He called the Treasury Department in Nashville and asked: “Why do we have the retirement programs that we do?” He found it difficult to find someone who could answer this and other questions. He called 27 different numbers, still doesn’t have an answer. He only talked to one person who actually works for the Treasury Department. Very frustrating. There’s a big problem here. He’d be happy to discuss this with any and all who have concerns. Please feel free to contact him. There are a lot of choices we don’t have. You can’t invest in precious metals, energy, etc… We have very little control over where our funds go.

Semmes—The university contributes to 401A. There are two ways to make tax deferred contributions through the university yourself—403B and 401K—and there are options within those.

Guimaraes—The state has made choices for us. Why do we have some options and not others?

Eisen—Does AAUP have an officer overlooking financial issues?

Osburn—Not certain. Not sure where AAUP fits into this.

Kharif—AAUP could take investment opportunities on as a project.

Semmes—If an individual wants more flexibility, they can always set up their own IRA and it would still be tax advantaged. TBR has contracted with certain companies, but you still can go outside of those companies/plans.

Baker—We could investigate this further. We could see what is possible. So, on one front, we could investigate this, and on the other front, we need to find out what individual faculty members should be doing if he/she wants to protect this money. Proposed we locate/sponsor an expert and have him/her come and speak to us. Someone already on campus would be good since they are familiar with our situation. Could be a topic for the fall program or a dead hour meeting.

Osburn—AAUP Spring Conference—It will be at TTU, in the President’s Conference Room, April 1, 2006. Registration will begin at 9:00 a.m. Lawyer Lewis Laska will discuss case law, classroom issues, etc… Bring questions. May have a reception the night before it. More news later.

Meeting adjourned at 11:54 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Paula Hinton

TTU AAUP Secretary