Conference Spring Meeting Set for Kansas City, March 9
Topic for the meeting:  Corporatization:  Preserving the Profession, the Academy, and the Focus on the Public Good.

• -Meeting to be held at Rockhurst University’s Massman Hall
• -Presentation and Discussion by Rich Moser of the National AAUP
• -Panel on Higher Education Corporatization in Missouri
• -Meeting will update legislative/ budget concerns.

“Corporatization” is a clunky and inelegant word for a nexus of approaches that threaten to redefine higher education and its commitment to the public good.  For faculty committed to the profession, it is an analytical tool that provides an entry to analysis and a catalyst to activism.

In teaching and learning, it is the approach that considers students to be consumers or products rather than reflective, skilled citizens and leaders.  It considers education not the growth of wisdom or even knowledge, but rather the delivery of information; it embraces the model of distance education as a technological end in itself.. It takes the putatively most efficient education as the best.  At best it is indifferent to costs increasing passed on to students; at its worst, it uses the resulting anxiety.

In research, it also uses fiscal dependence to challenge the common public good and the scholarly independence of the profession.  It is about research agenda determined by funding prospects, information and analysis possibly controlled in dissemination, and potential conflicts of interest as the profession might be tempted to lose its critical responsibilities to the public welfare.

In shared governance it is about decisions that are potentially made by the flow of money  rather than by scholarly judgment, decisions that are made with a minimum of public or scholarly scrutiny.

In terms of the profession, it is a “just in time” faculty hired on the margins in structures that work to undercut their ability to ensure successful teaching and scholarship, certainly without the professional security and autonomy necessary to exercise their judgment, even in designing and teaching their courses, much less conducting possibly critical research, or research that it not immediately commercial.  It is decisions made and priorities set by criteria other than the academic and the stewardship of the public trust and the common good that we who are citizens in the University must recover.

Dr. Rich Moser of the national AAUP’s Department of Organizing and Services will explain the emergence and momentum of these trends, the prospects for the profession if we fail to respond, and the tasks that demand our activism. If you’re bewildered by the trends that seem to be blowing the university in directions you don’t understand Rich is the savvy and tough guy who will set you on the right path!  See you in Kansas City.

Calling all part-time and non-tenure track faculty! And allies!

Dr. Moser is also the Association’s lead staff expert and organizer on contingent faculty issues.  He will be meeting with all faculty interested in these issues, toward the prospect of organizing a metro KC movement.  Contact David Gruber to be in touch with Dr. Moser.

9:00 AM	Registration/Networking
10:00 AM	Rich Moser, National AAUP: Corporatization
11:15 AM	Panel on the State of the Profession
12:30 PM	Lunch
1:30 PM	Business Meeting
2:30 PM	State of the Conference:  Strategy and Plans

Missouri Publics Face Ten Percent Cut in Core Budgets

The effects of economic slowdown and sharply decreased tax revenues will be felt by Missouri’s public colleges and universities for some time to come.  In addition to the current fiscal year’s deferral of appropriations for capital projects and extensive withholdings from operations appropriations, Governor Holden’s budget recommendations hold no cause for cheerfulness or optimism on our campuses.

The budget proposal calls for colleges and universities to absorb a ten percent reduction in core appropriations as compared to appropriations (before withholdings) for the current fiscal year. Institutions would receive three percent than this year, and even this amount is dependent on the legislature approving several measures that will not be popular, such as using the rainy day fund and increasing gambling revenues.  The governor has emphasized sustaining planned increases in funding for K12.  No funds are recommended for new capital projects on campuses. 

Gov. Holden’s Proposed Higher Education Budget
http://www.oa.state.mo.us/bp/budg2003/

50 States: Relative Support for Higher Education
(information from Illinois State University)
http://coe.ilstu.edu/grapevine/


AAUP Investigation at Maryville University

In October 2001 an investigating team from the Committee on College and University Government visited Maryville University to look into charges of governance violations. The investigation came after the national organization was unable to open a discussion with Maryville's administration.

National AAUP News
http://www.aaup.org

The National Association is closely monitoring the health of academic freedom and reflective discussion following the events of September and responses to them.  In demanding times we are reminded just how important free discourse is to educational understanding and deliberation in a free society.

The Association has approved as policy new recommendations for developing formal arrangements to lengthen the tenure probationary period for individuals facing the demands of new parenthood.

A new issue of Paychecks, which allows campus analysis for gender and racial equity is available.

Second Annual AAUP/MAFS Lobby Day:  Feb. 5, 2002

The second annual AAUP/Missouri Association of Faculty Senates Legislative Training and Lobby Day was held February 4-5, 2002.  Given the economic and budgetary situation we in Missouri's public colleges and universities face in the next few years, there is no more important time to become familiar faces in Jefferson City as we stress the importance of access and affordability, quality, and higher education's central role in economic development.  Just as important as walking the halls was the renewed commitment of individuals who work with MAFS to support the legislative education program of AAUP.

Watch your email and the conference web site for legislative developments and information on next year’s lobby day.

Chapter Development Program

As important as the national and state work of the association is, there is no substitute for an vital chapter on each campus.   An active chapter may respond to the inquiries of an individual, but through its consistent meetings and visibility, it performs more important functions: a presence for academic freedom, shared governance, and the conditions necessary for our professional work.

The profession and the public good need more than your commitment to principle, even more than your own membership and support for local activism: the association needs your assistance in sustaining the Association and the deliberative conversations necessary for higher education.  As hard as our professional staff works, no one can enact our autonomy for us: if we are serious about shared governance, we must be a membership organization.  Fortunately, the Association emphasizes training in chapter effectiveness and membership recruitment. 

The Association is hosting a one day leadership conference in Seattle, WA, March 23.  Contact Linda Pitelka for information on support for covering expenses.  http://www.aaup.org/events/02asccbc.htm

For more general assistance in chapter development, including liaison with the national organizing staff, contact David Gruber, Missouri Conference Membership Chair.

Conference Officers and Executive Committee


From the Keyboard, by David Gruber

To my colleagues in the publics, I hope you were paying more attention than I was: it turns out that those were the fat times. I wouldn’t pretend to understand it all, but it looks like our shared Missouri culture is such that we will not only be passing on greater proportions of the costs to students at the same time that families are taking a hit from tough economic times but that our continuing funding will take a hit from which it will take several years for us to recover.

“Do more with less” rings a bit hollow on my campus: what I see are colleagues who are working hard and don’t have more to “give.”  Off-campus, arguing for higher education budgets to be sustained puts us close to what is distasteful to many of us: competing for dollars with K12 education and social and medical services.  The good news is that I hear some conversation from educational leaders that we need to make the case that we must invest in Missouri’s future, in education and in other ways.  I nag enough: I will simply say that in order to be able to do our work and meet our own civic responsibilities we need to join with this public work.

If you need any more motivation, let me offer an anecdote from an AAUP colleague who slipped into a conference session for “content providers.”  It seems that higher education is perceived as a last arena in need of restructuring: the academy needs to be reworked according to the pattern of recent changes in health care.  See you in Kansas City.