Minutes AAUP Meeting 2\/13\/2018<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In attendance:\u00a0 Jon Jonakin; Megan Atkinson; Ada Haynes; Josie McQuail; Julia Gruber; Kim Godwin; Ahsan Languri<\/p>\n
Guest: Cassie Watters<\/p>\n
Treasurer\u2019s Report \u2013 Allen Driggers, via report: Balance in our account was $6,023.01.\u00a0 Deposit today of $485.30 was not reflected in that.\u00a0 Quarterly dues to AAUP national were just paid.\u00a0 A check was written to cover a Red Book given to Dr. Mark Stephens.<\/p>\n
The Treasury is healthy and stable.\u00a0 The checking account address needs to be changed to Dr. Diggers.\u00a0 Requests for reimbursements need to be made to the treasurer if there are any pending.<\/p>\n
Membership report:\u00a0 Kim Godwin: We have 37 members + 1 or 2.\u00a0 The AAUP national membership list is problematic. There was some discussion about recruitment opportunities in the current climate.<\/p>\n
Committee W \u2013 the gender equity study was given before the Faculty Senate by Ada Haynes and Troy Smith.\u00a0 Some people first questioned it and then came around and seemed to accept it. \u00a0It has been on the Faculty Senate agenda but keeps getting tabled because of all of the other things going on on campus.\u00a0 When it was given at the open forum there was a diverse group including students, faculty and administrators.\u00a0 There were good comments and questions. Drs. Haynes and Smith are hoping to write up the information and statistics for a publication.\u00a0 The editor of The Oracle<\/em> called President Oldham and asked about Oldham being over paid and faculty underpaid.\u00a0 President Oldham said he did not believe the study and said there are a lot of bad universities out there.\u00a0 It seems the solution to the problem is now to find a different comparison for faculty \u2013 not to compare them to the national norm.\u00a0 Dr. Haynes said that we hire nationally for faculty positions and this needs to be kept in mind.\u00a0 Dr. Gruber asked if salary data is being sent to national AAUP.\u00a0 This is important.\u00a0 For the staff side Drs.\u00a0 Smith and Haynes did their own comparison which showed they are NOT overpaid, but the only comparable group is community colleges.\u00a0 Dr. Haynes said that if the administration starts picking and choosing comparison groups then the numbers lose validity.\u00a0 Right now there are 3000 institutions in the comparison.\u00a0 Dr. Haynes said she has never been told which CUPA figures are being applied or what exactly is being used by TTU in their salary comparisons.\u00a0 Dr. Gruber reported that Acting Provost Mark Stephens had come to the same conclusions as Drs. Smith and Haynes\u2019s study.\u00a0 She noted that Dr. Stephens worked to get AAUP data and came to the presentations.\u00a0 Dr. Jonakin asked if on the new committee set up by the university to study salaries there were any women?\u00a0 Dr. Haynes said yes, and Dr. Jonakin asked if they were aware of the study?\u00a0 Dr. Haynes said she was not sure.\u00a0 Cassie Watters said students always seem to be uninformed about what goes on campus and suggested that the study be presented to the SGA (Student Government Association).<\/p>\n New Business \u2013 we need to change the bylaws to reflect meeting day changes voted on by AAUP.<\/p>\n Dr. Gruber said she wanted to conduct a new satisfactory survey regarding the TTU administration after the Fitzgerald Glider Engine controversy.\u00a0 She pointed out that we never hear the results of the Administrators\u2019 evaluations.\u00a0 Dr. Gruber has asked for assistance on putting together a survey from faculty in Sociology and Political Science in order to establish objective and non-leading questions.\u00a0 There was some debate about what type of survey instrument to use.\u00a0 Dr. Haynes suggested Qualtrix.\u00a0 Survey monkey was also discussed. There was concern expressed about privacy issues.\u00a0 It was noted that staff is more nervous about stating opinions.\u00a0 Cassie Watters and Kim Godwin both noted that the atmosphere on TTU campus is very fearful.<\/p>\n On the Fitzgerald Glider Engine controversy Dr. Jonakin pointed out that there seems to be a tendency to act with impunity on the part of administration, but in choosing an Inquiry Committee President Oldham and Dr. Soni recused themselves. \u00a0He asserted it depends on how rigorous this committee is what the results would be.\u00a0 Dr. Sharon Huo is chairing it and Faculty Senate President Christy Killman met with her to discuss it. Dr. Joy was supposed to have some say on the formation of the committee.\u00a0 Dr. Gruber stated that what was in question was the ethics behind the research \u2013 there seemed to be a conflict of interest and fraud in manipulation of data.\u00a0 The letter that went to the EPA showed lack of instruments to even measure the things supposedly being measured.\u00a0 With the firm of Fitzgerald financing the research and the promise of a center for TTU on their property there seemed a conflict of interest.\u00a0 Benjamin Mohr was removed as Primary Investigator without being told.\u00a0 The ethics of doing research and guidelines for the PI according to Dr. Haynes are very strictly regulated.\u00a0 President Oldham\u2019s signature.\u00a0 Cassie Watters pointed out that the ethics in outsourcing is a problem, as with custodial outsourcing.\u00a0 The lawyer from UT asked about ethics laws, and they seem to be weak- it\u2019s only when the issues is exposed to the public that the public sees it for what it is: unethical.\u00a0 Public exposure is important.<\/p>\n Next social:\u00a0 The Lazy Cow, March 21.\u00a0 There was a social also on Feb. 28 at the Red Silo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Minutes AAUP Meeting 2\/13\/2018 In attendance:\u00a0 Jon Jonakin; Megan Atkinson; Ada Haynes; Josie McQuail; Julia Gruber; Kim Godwin; Ahsan Languri Guest: Cassie Watters Treasurer\u2019s Report \u2013 Allen Driggers, via report: Balance in our account was $6,023.01.\u00a0 Deposit today of $485.30 was not reflected in that.\u00a0 Quarterly dues to AAUP national were just paid.\u00a0 A … Continue reading Feb 2018 minutes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}