Minutes of the AAUP Chapter Meeting
November 16, 2005
Attending: Liza Davis, Tom Doleys, Dot Graham, George
Hess, Hugh Hunt, Tom Keene,
Dr. Keene called the
meeting to order at
The next item of
discussion was the search for a new dean of Humanities and Social
Sciences. Dr. Ziegler, a member of the
HSS Dean search committee, reported that the search was going well, in part
because of successful airport interviews with the short list of
candidates. She said that two of these
candidates had moved immediately to the top of the list, making it easier for
the committee to choose who would be invited for a campus visit. Dr. Ziegler also urged AAUP members in HSS to
proved prompt e-mail feedback on the candidates after these visits, and Dr. Keene
urged all members to use the AAUP network to monitor the search process.
A discussion of the
presidential search followed. Dr.
Ziegler—a member, too, of the presidential search committee—explained that 50
applications had been submitted She also assured those present that although
the firm hired to expedite the search was screening the candidates’ resumes,
the search committee was also reviewing them.
The firm would provide a list of its top fifteen candidates, and the
search committee would construct its own separate list of the top ten. The two would be compared in what Dr. Ziegler
described as a “fair and honest process.”
When the ten candidates both parties agreed on were interviewed, the
search committee would narrow the list to five finalists, who would make their
campus visits in January of 2006.
Next on the agenda
was the upcoming legislative session.
Having attended a state-wide AAUP meeting in October, Dr. Keene reported
that Eric Johnson, a protégé of Jack Kingston, was prepared to revive the
Academic Bill of Rights in the state legislature. However, he had learned from AAUP lobbyist
Steve Anthony that many moderate Republican legislators, including several in
Dr. Keene also
reported that salary issues would be a major issue at the next legislative
session, especially since the current administration was “not eager” to
increase wages for higher education. Dr.
Lands asked whether KSU’s AAUP chapter was affiliated with the National
Education Association that lobbies so successfully for K-12 teachers in the
legislature, and Dr. Keene offered to bring this issue up to Hugh Hudson during
his January visit to campus.
Dr. Rouse then took
the floor to report on the persistent issue of salary compression at KSU. She explained that the issue was prevalent
statewide, and compounded itself each year as new faculty were hired at higher
and higher salaries, without those already in place receiving comparable
compensation. She urged AAUP members to
stay on top of this issue by checking faculty rankings and salaries within
their individual departments and arguing for equity adjustment when there were
major discrepancies. After more
discussion, Dr. Keene suggested that the chapter construct a clear proposal
addressing several points of view on the issue.
Subsequently, Dr.
Graham pointed out that KSU faculty had lost 1% of their summer salary two
years ago—a move inconsistent with the actions of other state
institutions. Dr. Ziegler urged AAUP
members to attend the Budget Committee meeting in early December to address
both issues directly with Earle Holley.
This led to more
discussion about the importance of AAUP members serving in high places within
the university governance structure. One
member observed that the Board of Regents is not interested in hearing from faculty
unless they are part of that structure.
Another suggested that a statewide web blog for AAUP members would also
be a good way to begin addressing governance issues—an idea Dr. Keene promised
to take to Hugh Hudson.
As the meeting began
to draw to a close, three main topics emerged:
the creation of a new Administrative Faculty Council; the outcome of the
AAUP survey; and the White Paper that would soon emerge from the Senate’s
discussion of shared governance .
Dr. Keene observed
that Dr. Siegel’s recent announcement regarding the creation of an
Administrative Faculty Council was inconvenient in light of AAUP’s interest in
a thorough reconsideration of the entire faculty governance structure. To address this apparent conflict, Dr.
Ziegler had met with Bob Mattox and Randy Hinds in her role as the Chair of the
University Senate. She had learned that
the new council was NOT looking for complete autonomy, but was created simply
to give professional administrators a voice—and would move very slowly, in part
because the Senate Executive Committee would be unable to look at the Council
proposal during the fall semester.
Dr. Ziegler
subsequently summarized the results of the AAUP survey, remarking that it has
provided her with a stronger sense of faculty demographics. She discussed the survey’s variables and
noted that the answers to certain questions reflected significant differences
in the attitudes of tenured and untenured faculty. More specifically, brand-new, untenured faculty were much more likely to assume that President Siegel
supported the concept of shared governance than their more seasoned
colleagues.
As the meeting came
to a close, the discussion turned to the faculty representation on the Athletic
Committee. Dr. Keene observed that
standing committees need to be revitalized, with more faculty involvement,
especially when budget considerations are paramount. He then addressed the larger (but related)
issue of AAUP’s role in spearheading a change in the
university governance structure and, after some discussion, agreed to make a
list of discussion points for future meetings.
The meeting was
adjourned at 1:55 p.m.