The Annual Business Meeting of the UIUC AAUP Chapter was held by Zoom and began at about 3:30 p.m. on May 11, 2021 with President David O’Brien presiding.
- Election of Officers for 2020-2021. President O’Brien reported that he had asked John Prussing, Leslie Struble, and H. F. Williamson to be the nominating committee and that the committee had nominated the following individuals to serve as officers during the 2021-2022 term: President: Robert Parker; Vice President: Richard Laugesen; Secretary and Treasurer: H. F. Williamson. This information was provided to the members along with the procedures for further nominations. No additional nominations were received. The proposed slate for 2021-2022 was approved by acclamation.
- Amendments to AAUP UIUC Chapter By-Laws. O’Brien announced that “Following the procedures outlined in Article XII of the Chapter’s By-Laws, the Policy Committee is proposing amendments to the following Articles:
- Articles V: Including immediate Past President as a member of the Executive Committee.
- Article VII: Changing the number of individuals on the Nominating Committee and adding the provision that nominations may be made from the floor.
- New Article X: Adding an Article to cover Electronic Meetings and Communications. The proposed amendments were approved by acclamation.
- President’s Report. President O’Brien presented a summary of the Chapter’s activities during the past year. These included:
- Meetings with Chancellor Jones and Provost Cangellaris, President Killeen and Executive Vice President Barbara Wilson, and Trustee Don Edwards. The topics covered included the University’s actions in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic; the process by which changes to the University Statutues move forward from the University Senates to the Board of Trustees; and concerns about the threat to academic freedom raised by the company Zoom’s repeated censorship of academic meetings.
- Preparation of our annual “Achieving Tenure and Promotion” Workshop online under the direction of Harry Hilton, for which there was a record attendance.
- Publication of the UIUC AAUP Chapter/Provost’s Shared Governance Report. This was the conclusion of a long-term project of the Chapter under the leadership of Hadi Esfahani with significant help from the Provost’s Office. This report would be the topic of the presentation at this meeting.
He concluded by encouraging everyone attending to join the AAUP. During the pandemic, a number of universities have reacted by violating provisions of their statutes, policies, and procedures by, among other things, firing tenured professors without cause. He noted that though we have enjoyed relatively good administration on this campus, we owe it to our colleagues at other campuses to support the AAUP which is the only organization actively addressing such violations.
The Business Meeting adjourned at about 3:45 p.m. and was followed by the presentation which was a discussion of the results of the UIUC AAUP Chapter/Provost’s Shared Governance Report led by Report author Professor Hadi Esfahani, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs William T. Bernhard, and Professor Harriet Murav.