American Association of University Professors @ Colorado State University

Please join AAUP-CSU and partner organizations for the annual May Day Picnic on Sunday, May 3 from 12pm – 2pm. this family-friendly celebration of unions and labor will include food, games and activities, pro-labor speakers and more. Please come join us to celebrate spring and the end of the semester, while working to support workers in the Northern Colorado Community.

Register at: https://www.mobilize.us/coloradoea/event/941671/

Get the NoKingsAAUP to join the QR-based scavenger hunt.

In January, President Parsons asked all units at Colorado State University to submit budget cut proposals of at least 8.75% of expenses. On Monday, CFO Brendan Hanlon announced his committee’s recommendation to cut 178 full-time equivalent positions at CSU. Yesterday, many of our colleagues were given notice that their positions will be terminated.

Even as our friends and coworkers are being laid off, CSU’s administration is not providing any information about what jobs will be eliminated until after the Board of Governors finalizes its proposal. Many of us are frustrated and confused by the opaqueness of the entire process.

The American Association of University Professors CSU Chapter believes that transparency is necessary for accountability. The campus community requires information about these cuts as soon as possible. 

Towards that end, we are surveying faculty for information you may have about budget cuts in your unit. We would appreciate any information you can share via this short confidential survey. We also want to hear from you about your thoughts and concerns about the process by which these cuts are being decided.

Please join AAUP-CSU at 1:00-1:50pm on Wednesday, March 11 in 386 LSC to learn about our colleagues’ “Forbidden Knowledge.” 

Many of our colleagues here at CSU are facing bans and funding cuts due to their research topics. This Teach-In sponsored by the American Association of University Professors as part of The Democracy Summit at CSU will shine a spotlight on these topics. 

Read about faculty concerns about the Colorado State System Chancellor search in the Rocky Mountain Collegian.

“(This) suggests that Dr. Frank is, in fact, naming a successor rather than conducting an objective search for a new chancellor to lead the CSU system,” the AAUP’s letter reads. “It is part of a broader pattern of administrative behavior that includes the presidential ‘searches’ for CSU-Fort Collins and CSU-Pueblo, both of which resulted in the appointment of people close to the current chancellor with little to no input from stakeholders in the broader university communities. The latter, it should be noted, ultimately resulted in major embarrassment to the system. The current situation cannot be attributed to ignorance of national precedents or the best practices outlined by AAUP; Dr. Frank and the BOG have been informed in the past about the problematic nature of this course of action by local AAUP chapters and, in the case of Pueblo, also by the national AAUP Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance.”

“This is the second time in half a year that I’ve been compelled to attend the Board of Governors meeting to voice my concerns about blatant disregard for the principles of shared governance and egregious disrespect shown to the faculty staff and students of CSU,” Munsky said in public comment. “Last September, it was about illegal and draconian changes in the free speech policy, and today it is about an embarrassing and shamefully inappropriate search for the next chancellor of the CSU System. There needs to be a full external search. The Colorado State System is a public institution that serves almost 50,000 students and employs over 7,500 faculty and staff. We deserve a chancellor who has undergone a rigorous selection process that is based on nationally recognized best practices.”

Colorado Public Radio covers the concerns that AAUP faculty have about the “closed door” process to select the next Chancellor of the Colorado State system.

“This begs the question of who, exactly, is making the selection,” wrote Mary Van Buren, president of the Fort Collins chapter of the American Association of University Professors in a strongly worded letter to the board. “All of the above suggests that Dr. Frank is, in fact, naming a successor rather than conducting an objective search.”

Read the full article here.