Expanding the Illinois AAUP’s Membership

By Walter Kendall

President,
AAUP-Illinois

This is my first opportunity to introduce myself to the membership and to outline my agenda for the coming year.

During law school, I was an associate editor of the St. John’s Law Review and The Catholic Lawyer. After graduation, I served as a trial attorney at the Federal Power Commission, as house counsel at Baxter Laboratories, and as Assistant to the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Aid. I am currently an advisor to many community and citizen groups. I’ve served as chair of Access Living, an advocacy group for people with disabilities, and as co-chair of Illinois Peace Action. Currently, he is on the boards of those organizations as well as Illinois Citizen Action. I am a past chair of the ISBA’s Administrative Law Section Council, and have served as an arbitrator for the National Futures Association. I’ve lectured at universities in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Taipei. Way back I was elected to my local school board and as a committeeman of the Cook County Democratic Party. My teaching focus has been public law, teaching courses in Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Economics and the Law, Public International Law, and Regulation of Business. This past summer I was a participant along with 18 other law and history professors in the two week long Silverman Seminar at the Holocaust Museum in DC discussing the impact of the Holocaust on the law.

My major goal for the coming year is to significantly increase the total membership of the Illinois Council, and to increase the number of campuses with active Chapters. I plan to visit campuses this fall and spring to discuss with chapter leaders and members what problems related to academic freedom, tenure, and governance they face; and what we as a State Council can do to help. The State Council can help you in your organizing efforts in a number of ways. We maintain a speakers list of experienced and expert speakers on academic freedom and other AAUP topics. We also can offer grants, up to $300 per year per chapter, and up to $500 to start a chapter.

Please do let me know who your current Chapter leaders are; and for those without active chapters send me an e-mail and we can discuss how we can help get one up and running

I am looking forward to meeting many of you in the next year; and to working with all of you as we strive to protect and enhance academic freedom, tenure, and governance; in order to improve the quality of the education we provide our students.

Walter Kendall
Professor
The John Marshall Law School
315 South Plymouth Court
Chicago, Illinois 60604
(312) 987-2377
E-mail: 7kendall@jmls.edu
B.A., Brooklyn College - 1962
J.D., St. John’s University – 1965