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Michael Bailey leaving GAU
AAUP/GAU liaison, Michael Bailey, is leaving the GAU for the Michigan AAUP. He has been appointed to the Executive Director's position overseeing the activities of the 18 chapters of the MI-AAUP. Mr. Bailey assisted in organizing the graduate assistants at URI in 2001 and was responsible for maintaining the structure and development of the GAU until his departure. He was a registered lobbyist for the faculty AAUP and active in community groups throughout the State. He was a Board member of Ocean State Action, a coalition of community, labor and advocacy groups in Rhode Island.
AAUP Member Newsletter
Letter from General Secretary Gary Rhodes
This is a time of and for action. A time for faculty, students, and professionals in the academy to form common cause and to take the lead in reversing current patterns of policy and practice. A time to rebalance the academy and to refocus on the broad public purposes of higher education.
California faculty and higher education supporters have declared March 4—tomorrow—a day of action for higher education. Around the country, AAUP chapters and members are engaging in activities to support California colleagues and extend the day of action to their own states. Our members— faculty, academic professionals, and graduate students—are forming coalitions with other groups to convey a clear message about the public value of higher education. The American Association of University Professors endorses those actions and encourages our members and their colleagues to make the coming weeks and months a time of action and education. We must take the lead in charting the future.
First, our challenge is to reverse public policies that are further privatizing higher education. Costs are being shifted to students and families in what amounts to an excise tax on education. Colleges and universities are increasingly focused on serving an ever-narrower band of private interests. Too many universities and colleges are focusing more on organizational self-interest in the form of aspired-to rankings and revenues, and less on serving broad academic, educational, social, and cultural purposes.
Second, our challenge is to reverse patterns of resource allocation within institutions. Over several decades, institutions have increased their relative investment in administrative positions and expenditures, and decreased their relative investment in educational positions and expenditures. At the heart of that shift has been a restructuring of the academic workforce from a largely full-time tenure-track faculty to one that is overwhelmingly contingent on managerial discretion and whim. We are depleting our intellectual capital, the faculty and professionals who serve our students. We are charging students more for less even as more prospective students have fewer economic resources. And our investment in serving our communities is diminished.
The AAUP strongly supports the right of faculty to exercise an independent voice in shared governance, without fear of discipline or punishment by the institution. Academic freedom in teaching, research, extramural speech, and speech about institutional matters is at the core of higher education’s quality, of sound governance, and of engagement with the external world. It is at the core of the public mission and dimensions of higher education.
It is time to rebalance and recognize that higher education is a public good worthy of investment and is essential to our nation’s future. We salute our colleagues in California who have undertaken this day of action to raise awareness about the crisis in public education and the need to fully fund our schools, colleges and universities, as well as colleagues nationally who are undertaking their own coordinated actions. We salute the students who have most aggressively taken the lead in establishing and coordinating these state and nationwide activities. We hope that the California day of action, and its corollaries nationally serve as a clarion call to all who care about the not-for-profit, public missions and functions of higher education and to all who are concerned about the academy’s current direction. It is time for us to take the lead to define a more promising set of possibilities for the future.
Gary Rhoades
General Secretary
Rep. Edwin Pacheco proposes state education tax deduction
Posted by: Brian Hull in State House on January 13, 2010
Tagged in: Taxes , Tax Deductions , Michael Marcello , John Savage , Frank Ferri , Edwin Pacheco , Education , Chris Fierro
Representative Edwin Pacheco gets it. Rather than corporate subsidies and business tax credits, the state needs a better educated workforce to draw employers here. His legislation (H7082) would create a state tax deduction for those paying for their own education, or that of a spouse or dependent. The AGI requirements are $80,000 for individuals, or $160,000 for joint returns, and ensure that the deduction will be available to the vast majority of tax filers in the state.
Faculty union reaches deal with UA
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 08:32 p.m. EST, Jan 08, 2010
The University of Akron and its faculty union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract.
The pact includes a one-year agreement on health care, two years on salary and four years on other items, such as work rules.
Barbara O'Malley, UA associate vice president for communications, declined to comment other than to say the tentative accord, reached Thursday, was ''an important milestone in the collective-bargaining process.'' Read more
Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010
On December 16th, the House passed the Jobs for Main Street Act to create or save jobs here at home with targeted investments ($75 billion) for highways and transit, school renovation, hiring teachers, police, and firefighters, small business, job training and affordable housing – key drivers of economic growth that have the most bang for the buck. These investments are fully paid for by redirecting TARP funds from Wall Street to Main Street. Read mo
The Follies are coming! The Follies are coming!
Posted by: North End Chick in Events on January 07, 2010
It's a Rhode Island tradition that is held in Massachusetts. The Follies sponsored by the Providence Newspaper Guild will take place on Friday February 26th at the Venus De Milo.
This is a great event, if you have never attended. All the who's who of the Rhode Island political world will be there. The food is great and the show is even better! With 2010 being a political year, who knows who will end up on stage! It's also a great way to support the Guild.
If you would like to purchase tickets they are $60 per person. You can reserve tables of 10 by calling the Guild office at 401 421-9466
For those that have attended before, if you have ever wanted to place one of those great ads featured in the program now is your chance! For as little as $100 you can have over 1000 people laugh at your great sense of humor!
Ads are due to the Guild by Feb 5th so plan accordingly!! If you need anymore info...drop me a line. Hope to see you there!!
Announcements
Health Services Hours of Operation
Winter Break Schedule
Medical Services/Clinic Hours during break:
Tuesday, January 4th – Friday, January 7th from 11 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Monday, January 10th – Friday, January 14th from 11 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 18th – Friday, January 21st from 11 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (closed Monday, January 17th in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day).
Semester Schedule
Monday-Friday: 8:00 am - 8:00pm
Appointments: 9:00 am to 7:30 pm
Weekends & Holidays: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Physician Services: 12:00-4:00 pm
Pharmacy: 12:30 to 4:00 pm
Nursing, Medical Records: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Quick Contacts:
Routine Exams, Allergy Shots? 874-4751
Emergency? 874-2121
Not feeling well, need urgent care? 874-2675
Immunizations? 874-4612
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Board of Governors Meeting:
Monday, January 24, 2010
RIC Ballroom
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President's Column
President Stephen Marchand
MEETINGS
General Membership Meeting -
Spring General membership Meeting - TBA in April