2012 AAUP Bulletin

On its way to you by mail is the 2012 issue of the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, published now in place of the July–August issue of Academe. As the AAUP’s journal of record, the Bulletin contains the academic year’s official publications, such as reports of investigating, standing, and ad hoc committees; minutes of the biannual Council meetings; selected annual reports; and lists of officers and committees. Since it is being published in lieu of the July–August Academe, it also contains a report on June’s annual meeting and corrections to the 2011–12 AAUP salary survey.

Highlights of this third issue of the Bulletin include two reports previously published online: a brief supplementary report on the Savannah College of Art and Design, an institution placed on the Association’s list of censured administrations in 1993, and the report of an investigation of the University of Louisiana System that resulted in the annual meeting’s imposing censure in June on the administrations of two of its constituent institutions, Northwestern State University and Southeastern Louisiana University.

The supplementary report on SCAD, written by the AAUP’s staff, tells the story of the swift degeneration of initially promising negotiations between the AAUP’s Washington office and members of SCAD’s administration regarding censure removal. “Abundant evidence” was found “that the current climate at SCAD for academic freedom is sorely deficient.” The investigating committee’s report on the UL System, with focus on two of its institutions, provides an account of an increasingly common phenomenon in these recessionary times—an administration’s discontinuing academic programs in core disciplines in a purported response to a decline in state funding. As has happened in many of these cases, the program closures at Northwestern State and Southeastern resulted in the termination of tenured appointments. Another highlight of this issue is Accommodating Faculty Members Who Have Disabilities. This subcommittee report responds to the obsolescence of Regulation 4e (“Termination because of Physical or Mental Disability”) of the Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure brought about by developments in state and federal law. A blend of practical and legal advice, the report provides useful up-to-date guidance to faculty members and administrators on this important topic.

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http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/bulletin/vol98

For questions or comments about this issue of the Bulletin or Academe, please send an e-mail to academe@aaup.org.