AAUP MINUTES, 9/3/04, RUC 342, 12:20 p.m.

Members Present by rough order of appearance: Baker, Barger, Fernandez, Hinton, Jonakin, Kharif, Laningham, Walker, Reagan, Whitney, and McQuail.

This first meeting was rather informal. There were no last meeting minutes to approve. There was an agenda, consisting of 1) Committee Reports; and 2) Announcements, but it was not formerly approved nor strictly followed.

President Whitney opened the meeting by asking if everyone knew everyone else, and they did.

Next, she asked Katherine Osburn, President of the State Conference to announce and discuss the upcoming afternoon chapter leadership training session in Nashville, featuring leaders from Washington D.C., such as Tom Guild, as guides, which she did. It is likely that this meeting, which occurs in the afternoon on September 25, will take the place of the regular Fall Meeting.

President Whitney then turned to Executive Committee Member Reports, and other Committee Reports, beginning with Wali Kharif, Membership Chair. Dr. Karif said we currently have 58 dues-paying members, and 42-44 who have committed to payroll deduction, the preferred approach. September 17^th is the deadline for payroll deduction purposes. He has ordered several hundred copies of “Footnotes,” a national newsletter designed for informing new members about the organization, which also offers an application for reduced dues to new members. He thinks we will be “lucky” if we gain 2-3 new members. The current ratio of faculty members is down about 20% from years prior to 2002-2003. Dr. Kharif thinks the explanation for this is that the state has temporarily solved its budget crisis, so that taxes, equity pay, and the lottery are no longer hot items of discussion. On the other hand, we still have about 10% of the campus faculty paying dues, which is evaluated to be rather good, and higher than most campuses. Some discussion followed, beginning with Dr. Osburn recollecting that the State Conference agreed to pay the dues of adjuncts. Dr. Fernandez, the State Conference Secretary-Treasurer, concurred with that recollection and added that the dues of graduate students will also be paid for by the State Conference. “Outreach” to new members was seen in general by all as a high priority, and that the “Fall Social,” hosted typically by the Chapter President, is significant for that reason. Dr. Jonakin said that he would invite new faculty in his department or college to that event.

Jon Jonakin, Treasurer, reported that the Chapter has on hand $1272.84. At this time there are no major outstanding debts or any major source of income, other than dues. Dr. Karif suggested that because our local share of dues is only $5, and that it has been that for quite awhile, it would be worth considering raising local dues to $10. Local dues help defray the cost of the Fall and Spring Socials, and help defray the costs of bringing in outside speakers for our Policy Forums, one held each semester. President Whitney decided that this could be an item of new business to be discussed at the next meeting.

Patrick Reagan, Chair of the Website Committee next reported that the Website is currently up-to-date, and that it takes a lot of time to make it so. He also reported that he hand-delivered 50 copies of The New Faculty Handbook to the office of Provost Barker, which had run out of them. Finally, he suggested that this handbook, or at least its on-line version, should be revised and up-dated by a 3 person committee. Dr. Reagan noted that President Whitney could appoint members to this committee without it being moved, seconded, and voted on.

Katherine Osburn spoke next on Committee R (Shared Governance), reporting for Kurt Eisen, who also chairs this committee for the State Conference. Dr. Osburn and Dr. Eisen met with a representative of the state legislature to receive his feedback on how AAUP could better lobby for the interests of higher education. His first question was, “What are your numbers?” In blunt terms, he reported that we do not, as an organization appear even as a blip on the legislative radar screen, because, as a constituency, we are too small to worry about. This is in contrast to other employee organizations, representing elementary and secondary education, and state employees. The moral of the story is that AAUP needs to join in coalitions with these other organizations, before we can have a seat at the table when it comes to bargaining for state budget allocations. On a more hopeful note, it was also reported that Governor Bredesen is interested in developing strategies to beef up the higher education budget, and he is looking at the “Kentucky Model” for insights. Dr. Tony Baker commented that the “Kentucky Model” should not be seen as a model for Tennessee, because, in his opinion, it is too much focused on stressing on-line degrees. One suggestion for coalition strategies was that our chapter AAUP look into working more closely with the campus chapter of Tennessee Education Association, presided over here by Dr. Ray Jordan. President Whitney expressed agreement to following up on that suggestion, because she has communicated along those lines with Dr. Jordan in the past, and it was at least a collegial interaction.

Josie McQuail reported on Committee W (Status of Women). She said that bringing in Art Guttman to speak on Affirmative Action and University Admissions, in line with the U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Michigan cases (Gruter and Gratz), was informative and went off well. She also suggested that despite official reports to the contrary about gender equity and faculty salaries, she still suspects there is inequity, and that a survey analysis project to discover the reality would be a good project for AAUP to undertake. Dr. Reagan added that much depends on how the demographics are broken out in a survey analysis. Again, this is a project that President Whitney could commission other members to voluntarily help with.

Such Other Matters:

1. Dr. Reagan asked to be sent the dates, times, and places of this year’s scheduled meetings, so he can put them on the website.

2. Dr. Baker reported that the full TBR did not approve of an increase in salary for contingency teachers and overload teaching because it did not get put on their agenda in time, although a TBR committee did approve of the request, of an 8% raise—which would cost TTU about $60,000. He reported that he would like to see more campus control of this problem, and that perhaps a survey of contingency workers might be done by each campus, covering per credit hour salaries in each college, and in each department. President Whitney asked if health care benefits are included in the compensation package contingency faculty receive. After some discussion to clarify who gets what, the answer boiled down to the fact that year-to-year full time faculty do receive health care benefits, adjuncts do not, and the most they receive in other benefits is a free parking tag.

3. Dr. Kharif raised the issue that some colleges and departments have received campus administrative and TBR approval to use lab fees to improve faculty salaries, but that so far no such program has been instituted for the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Jonakin confirmed that this system is being used in the College of Business. Several of us remembered that this issue was also discussed in Faculty Senate.

4. Dr. Osburn noted that she is working with Dr. Walker, Vice-President of the campus chapter, in developing some ideas for the Fall Policy Forum. Dr. Kharif identified President Bell volunteered to come speak to us. [N.B.: In the past, he did this as part of our regular business meeting, and most recently that meeting was also shared by STUDENTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION INTERESTED IN THE FUTURE OF TENNESSEE (SHIFT), advised by Dr. Ada Haynes and an outgrowth of one of her Sociology courses on social movements.] Some other ideas for a Policy Forum might include the USA PATRIOT ACT, Taxing and Spending Policy in Tennessee, Inversion Issues, Adjunct Issues, Issues Related to Academic Freedom and the Regents On-Line Degree Program, including student plagiarism.

Adjournment was at about 1 p.m. Members present of the Executive Committee (Barger, Jonakin, Walker, and Whitney) met, and others were invited to participate, which Osburn did. The primary purpose of this was to schedule regular agenda-planning sessions as a committee. Executive Committee meetings were set as the Friday before regular business meetings in Matthews 353, at 2:20 (contingent on room availability). Other members are welcome to attend as well. The Executive Committee includes all elected officers (President, Vice-President, Membership Chair, Treasurer, Secretary) and three appointed others: Barger, Saya, and McCrae. Since McCrae is on Fullbright, President Whitney will be searching for a substitute until he returns.