Summary of The Executive Committee Meeting of the UL Chapter of the AAUP

Summary of The Executive Committee Meeting of the UL Chapter of the AAUP, 4th Feb 2009

The UL Chapter of the AAUP was recently revitalized after a moribund period. As part of the process of re-invigoration, regular Executive Committee meetings have begun on a monthly basis. The meeting of the 4th of February this year was the first of these meetings. It was noted that since this time last year, membership in the UL – AAUP Chapter has increased by over 800%.

The first order of business concerned filling the vacant Secretary/Treasurer position, which was not filled during our initial organizational meeting. With this position filled, the UL – AAUP Chapter Executive Committee is now comprised as follows:

President: I. Berkeley,

Vice-President: C. Rzadkiewicz,

Secretary/Treasurer: M. Smith,

Member-at Large(1): J. Gentry,

Member-at-Large(2): H. Bruder.

Arrangements were made to update Chapter banking arrangements, in the light of the new Executive Committee.

After a number of housekeeping items were dealt with, discussion turned to agenda items for a meeting with Dr. Savoie, The UL President. Under this heading, a number of items arose, primarily concerning responses to the projected budgetary issues for next year. One proposal was that the administration should be encourage to adopt a 'Be Nice' policy towards any faculty members who are adversely influenced by any changes. A list of detailed concrete proposals on how such a policy might be implemented were made. It was agreed that, as far as is possible, library subscriptions to on-line resources should be protected, as being essential to the university's core academic mission. It was also proposed that athletics programs should be impacted before academic programs.

The meeting concluded with a wide ranging discussion of what might happen next year, and how the university might best handle any arising budgetary issues. No real consensus emerged. However, it was agreed that these discussions should be on-going.

Istvan S. N. Berkeley Ph.D

Cognitive Science and Philosophy E-mail: istvan@louisiana.edu

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette

P.O. Box 43770 Tel: +1 337 482-6807

Lafayette, LA 70504-3770 Fax: +1 337 482-5002

USA http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~isb9112