President’s Message

Last April 2017, Columbia College Chicago hosted our Spring AAUP Conference. The keynote speaker, Brian Turner, Chair of the Assembly of State Conferences, outlined the role of the ASC and the importance of state conferences. Brian stressed the role state conferences play in maintaining and strengthening academic freedom, shared governance and tenure in a very active manner. Rima Kapitan of Kapitan Law Offices presented a session outlining the role faculty handbooks play in protecting academic freedom and due process. Diana Vallera of Columbia College led a panel discussion focusing on resistance within academia ¬ to protect faculty rights. These sessions highlighted the continued need for our members to protect our profession through actively participating in local AAUP chapters, state conferences and with the national office. Engaged chapters are critical to the principles of AAUP.

Over the past two years board members Leo Welch and Linda Brookhart have followed the State of Illinois budget crisis and its impact on higher education. In future issues they will report on the impact of this crisis on faculty, students and higher education institutions. The State Conference received numerous phone calls, emails, and letters from our colleagues who vividly explained the impact and damage this state crisis caused in Illinois higher education. In early 2018, a series of workshops will be presented by the State Conference to help faculty as a result of this crisis. Alan Iliff, Conference Treasurer and board member, will post time and locations of the workshops on our website. The topics for the workshop will include faculty workload, faculty evaluations, Title IX changes, free speech on campus, Pathways in Higher Education and protecting faculty rights. The State Conference is committed to supporting faculty with meaningful professional development workshops.

Our Spring 2018 Illinois AAUP Conference will be held on Saturday, April 21, 2018 at the Robert M. Healey Conference Center in Westmont, Illinois. The Center is located at 500 Oakmont Lane in Westmont. The Conference theme for Spring 2018 is “Protecting our Faculty Rights: Academic Freedom, Shared Governance and Tenure.” Faculty planning to attend should register (for free) with the Conference Secretary Diana Vallera (diana@studioera2.com), no later than April 16, 2018.

Coffee and rolls will be available at 8 am. The Conference starts at 9 am. The Illinois Conference AAUP website will post the details of the topics and presenters early in 2018. Questions can be directed to the Conference officers at their home institutions. In closing, I encourage faculty members in Illinois who do not have a chapter of AAUP to start one. Existing Chapters need to be active. Contact the State Conference and National to help with starting a Chapter or enhancing an existing one. Together we must stay active and vigilant to not only maintain but improve faculty rights for all of us.