AAUP – Illinois Grants

$300 Grants for Chapter Development
The State Council of AAUP – IL has approved the availability of grants of up to $300 to registered AAUP- IL chapters.
Click here for the details.

$500 Grants for New Chapters
The State Council of AAUP – IL has approved the availability of grants of up to $500 to AAUP members who wish to develop an AAUP chapter at their academic institution.
Click here for the details.

First Chapter Development Grant Awarded to the St. Xavier University Chapter

The Illinois Conference of AAUP is pleased to announce that the first chapter development grant went to St. Xavier University chapter. This was spent on a social event attended by faculty and administrators. The event became an opportunity to inform faculty of the nature and services provided by both the national and state office of AAUP. Congratulations to all the AAUP members of the St. Xavier chapter and particularly Richard Fritz, the chapter president, who took on a very important leadership role in the last year. The succesful event at St. Xavier is shared with our readers so that to encourage other AAUP chapters to apply for a similar chapter development grant. Visit our web site for more details and look under the sub topic $$ Grants. Up to $300 per year are available to every chapter for development and up to $500 is available to faculty who wish to organize an AAUP chapter at their institution. Please visit our web site for more information on what the applications entail.

Mike McIntyre
President, AAUP-IL

A Report from AAUP- St. Xavier University Chapter

As part of a year-long major membership drive, the Saint Xavier University Chapter of AAUP held a chapter meeting and open house in the university’s spacious and elegant Main Reception Room from 4:30 to 6:00 PM on Wednesday, April 7th, 2004. The meeting/open house was sponsored by a $300.00 grant from the AAUP-IL Conference. The chapter’s Executive Committee vigorously advertised the event through our chapter’s member listserv, the university’s general faculty listserv, hallway posters, two rounds of mailbox flyers, and most important, word of mouth. The threefold purpose of the event was, first, to bring our current members up to date on the chapter’s many activities during the academic year, and second, to solicit feedback and ideas about the chapter’s past and future directions, and third, to foster a relaxed and festive atmosphere in which to invite new members to join. The chapter leaders invested a great deal of time and thought in determining the decorations that would place guests at ease, as well as the refreshments that would most likely attract a goodly number of guests. The key to our plan was to provide free pizza from a local Italian restaurant renowned for its thin crust pizza. A colorful array of other snacks, such as pretzels, jelly beans, nacho chips, M&Ms, and miniature Reese’s cups, were artfully scattered around the beverage table in order to offer an alternative to the surfeit of pizza. The event was attended by 38 faculty members (39 if one includes the Academic Vice-President, who stopped by between back-to-back meetings to grab a slice of pizza and to remind us of his support for AAUP principles regarding academic freedom and due process). The chapter meeting was followed by an hour of spirited conversation about recent AAUP activities on campus and our efforts to invite new members to join.. Many visitors availed themselves of the numerous AAUP brochures and handouts on display.

One of the most satisfying aspects of the April 7th AAUP Open house is that so many of the visitors (12, or 32%) were adjunct faculty. The Saint Xavier AAUP Chapter has actively sought to recognize and support our adjunct faculty over the past year. On March 24th, the Chapter held an earlier Open House for our part-time and non-tenure track colleagues. This prior event was attended by 21 adjuncts and 7 full-time faculty members. In short order, this informal get-together turned into a frank discussion of many of the concerns (including low salary, lack of benefits, and a feeling of invisibility and lack of appreciation) that plague many of our adjunct faculty members. Together, the April 7th and March 24th AAUP-sponsored events have led to a new awareness of the part-time faculty who make such an important contribution to our campus, and opened up a new dialog which hopefully will continue to blossom in upcoming semesters.

Richard Fritz,
Chapter President