Thread by @JWTorg

#LaborDay thread on #academic labor.
Renewed @AAUP chapter at #Wesleyan @WesleyanAAUP has compelling hist of fac/admin relations & negotiations ca 1916-2000
TL;DR
--AAUP key but not strongest tool for labor
--instead Junior fac self-org & info sharing
1/
static1.squarespace.com/static/62d6fa6…

2/
Acc. to this hist, key contexts for #Wesleyan’s AAUP:
-- a rich lib arts college into #highered “experimentation”
-- a “Little Uni” w/ PhD progs in sciences
-- square circle: low tenure density & high contingency
-- longstanding Junior Faculty Org (JFO) addressed contradiction

3/
@WesleyanAAUP hist notes contradictions in 1915-17 statements of @AAUP prez John #Dewey & co-found Arthur Lovejoy:
profs + trusteees collab on everything to do w/ education (curriculum to budget to donations);
admin there to "implement".
Nonetheless: profs salaried employees.

4/
Know your #academic #LaborHistory
In 1913 Wesleyan Prez Shanklin fired econ prof. Willard Fisher for publicly suggesting (off campus) churches close Sundays permit other outlets for religious impulse.
This "extramural" free speech galvanized @AAUP on Academic Freedom & Tenure

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Sidenote: The @AAUP report on Willard Fisher's case is available #openaccess on jstor.org:
jstor.org/stable/40216758
and here is a short writeup with links from CThistory:
todayincthistory.com/2022/01/27/jan…

6/
The @WesleyanAAUP history next turns to local organizing of professors at Wes from 1920s-60s.
This builds to an account of Prez Victor Butterfield's education innovations
(marked by creating "colleges" w/in lib arts college)
coming at the expense of a tenured professoriate.

7/
@WesleyanAAUP account of this period explicitly connects this history as a trajectory continued into the present where it reports that
"a third of all #Wesleyan faculty in 2022
are explicitly excluded from eligibility for tenure,
no matter the length of their employment."

8/
From this same period, the @WesleyanAAUP history connects local work by Wesleyan professors on #AcademicFreedom during the McCarthy era to the @AAUP presidency of Wes prof. Fred B. Millett in 1952-3, bemoaning "wave of suppression that has swept over this free land of ours."

9/
A riveting section, "Reforming the 'Homogenized University'" @WesleyanAAUP recounts junior faculty work to address Wesleyan's then-present discriminatory hiring.
In 1960s Junior fac gained representation in hiring & promotion decisions, normalized criteria for promotion.

10/
In this same section, the @WesleyanAAUP history includes a quote from famous English prof. Richard Ohmann echoing a typical #Wesleyan sentiment:
"Reforms" were about calling the university to uphold its own professed values.
(on Prof. Ohmann, see: politico.com/news/magazine/…)

11/
Concluding section of @WesleyanAAUP history is 8pp outlining efforts to organize faculty to negotiate collectively for fair compensation in eras (70s-90s) of institutional & national economic downturns.
Key issue: faculty input on university budget and salary structures.

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A highlight of this era is the effective establishing between Pres. Campbell and the (then) re-newed Wes @AAUP chapter on terms of discussion on compensation.
Essential was agreement about the sharing of information, and adequate time for all parties.

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Into the 80s the renewed Wesleyan AAUP chapter fizzled to a "discussion group" and its work on collective bargaining was handed over to a new standing faculty committee:
"Compensation and Benefits Committee" ...which lacks the negotiation conditions of the 1970s.

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The @WesleyanAAUP chapter history concludes its account with a call for simple changes / restitutions in the building of trust:
--fixed rules
--open communication
--timely sharing of all relevant data

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Lessons @WesleyanAAUP chapter history draws are at the top of this thread.
To wit:
While Wesleyan faculty and the @AAUP have had a long relationship most campus work on labor led by unprotected Junior faculty #solidarity organizing & sharing information.
Happy #LaborDay
/fin