American Association of University Professors
Fort Hays State University Chapter

TALK TO 2 -- Faculty Members talking with Faculty Members

August 27, 2007

Dear Colleague,

The best way to enhance our ability to represent faculty, maintain competitive compensation, protect the institution of tenure, and strengthen due process is to be active stewards of our institution. This is especially critical in the face of recent trends in higher education such as declining public funding and an emphasis on the bottom line that are slowly eroding the institution of tenure and creating a second class of faculty.

Our Talk to 2 program provides you with a quick and easy way to make a meaningful contribution to FHSU-AAUP and to our university community. We must ensure that our students have access to an excellent education and that FHSU secures the funding our university deserves. We believe that a growing, energetic and representative faculty organization will help FHSU fulfill its mission. To do that well, we need a little help from our members. A few minutes each semester is all it takes to Talk to 2.

I urge you to participate in the Talk to 2 program as the simplest, surest way to help our faculty organization be an effective representative of faculty and to promote the welfare of the entire Fort Hays State community. Contact any officer of our organization to get started.

Please take the time to read more about this program.

Sincerely,

Rich Hughen
President of FHSU-AAUP

What is Talk to 2?

Talk to 2 promotes colleague to colleague discussion of collective bargaining and professional issues. It asks that faculty members speak with two colleagues each semester emphasizing membership and/or involvement with FHSU-AAUP efforts. Let us know if you are interested and we will provide you with everything you need to contact your colleagues.

Who are we?

FHSU-AAUP represents all full-time teaching faculty who are tenured or in a tenure track. This may soon include all full-time “temporaries” and “regular” part-time faculty as well.

The mission of FHSU-AAUP is to uphold, promote and defend values essential to the protection of higher education such as academic freedom, tenure, shared governance, and due process while at the same time enhancing the working conditions and other benefits of those we represent. These endeavors protect the interests of the university community, the academic professions, the organization and the members of our bargaining unit.

A few items worth talking about.

Some of the “Benefits of Membership” and “Accomplishments of FHSU-AAUP” are listed below. Take some time to consider how collective bargaining has improved conditions at FHSU and perhaps aided you in some specific way. Share your thoughts with other faculty members. Refer to the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and see the items listed on the next two pages for specific ideas.

Why should we talk to our colleagues about this?

Research, experience, and history have demonstrated that organizations like ours most successfully grow and reach their goals when individual members act as ambassadors and contact their colleagues about participation and professional issues. Members are our most important resource and Talk to 2 helps build the relationships that are critical to our community.

Some Recent Accomplishments

• We have negotiated persistently and consistently for (at least) salary parity with our peer institutions. We have had partial success with this, but there is more to be done.

• We negotiated for tuition assistance for faculty, spouses and dependents, and this is now a part of the MOA – Article XXIII.

• We negotiated a $50,000 (annual) Professional Travel Fund for faculty.
See MOA Article XXII.

• We have fought, along with Pittsburg State University, to protected intellectual property rights of faculty, especially as it pertains to the Virtual College. This is an on-going effort.

• We now have procedural due-process clearly defined in the MOA to help protect faculty – especially those going through tenure. See Tenure Article XV, page 28.

• We have negotiated increases to promotion stipends to help alleviate the problem of salary compression. See Article XI.

• We now have the phased retirement provisions and procedures in the MOA along with an agreement by the administration to try a faculty advisory committee to see how well it works. The procedures require the Administration to send a letter to applicants explaining why they were not accepted (if that was the case). Article XXIV.

• The MOA now contains the policies and procedures regarding the teaching of summer classes and Virtual College classes. See MOA Article XXV.

Some Benefits of Membership

• Your membership helps FHSU-AAUP to more effectively represent faculty interests at the bargaining table and in Topeka.

• Your membership strengthens our defense of due process and academic freedom.

• You become a member of a national organization representing college and university faculty members, and it is the only non-disciplinary organization that represents only the interests of university faculty and higher education. The national AAUP has members at more than 2,000 institutions and local chapters at nearly 1,000 campuses.

• National AAUP has a legal office that responds to faculty inquiries on higher education law. The staff lawyers are experts on academic freedom, discrimination, and faculty contracts.

• You become a member of the local chapter, the state organization (called the Kansas
Conference) and the national organization that sponsors workshops and various
conferences to help faculty regarding items mentioned above.

• You get a subscription to Academe, the AAUP’s bimonthly journal. You will be able to
purchase professional liability insurance and other types of insurance at reasonable rates.

FHSU-AAUP

A statement of goals and principles

The AAUP is dedicated to defending the principles of academic freedom and tenure and supports the establishment of sound academic standards.

Toward the goals stated above and regarding excellence in teaching and excellence in scholarly activity (original research and other creative activities), FHSU-AAUP advocates the following principles:

1. Faculty members should experience academic freedom in the classroom and when engaging in scholarly activity. Tenure is the single most important ingredient in the protection and promotion of academic freedom.

2. Professional travel of faculty is as important as professional travel of administrators, and it should be adequately funded.

3. The average salary at each level of faculty positions (instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, professor) at FHSU should meet or exceed the average salaries for those same faculty positions at our designated peer institutions.

4. There should be no conversion of faculty positions to administrative positions without consultation with and approval of faculty.

5. There should be no conversion of faculty salary dollars (retirements and vacated positions) to any other purpose without consultation with and approval of faculty.

6. The University should fully support faculty excellence in teaching and scholarship.

7. Department members should decide when a new department chair should be selected as well as determine the selection process.

Please contact Linn Ann Huntington or any of the individuals listed below so we can help you get started with “Talk to 2.”

Officers and members of the Executive Committee:

Rich Hughen (5915) Jerry Stark (5336)
Linn Ann Huntington (4018) Sandra Tweed (4122)
Sue Strohkirch (4358) Richard Packauskas (5966)

Nominating Committee: Keith Campbell, Josephine Squires
Collective Bargaining Committee: Carl Singleton, Mike Meade, Rick Peters