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The UMD AAUP Chapter is gearing up for an eventful year.
President Pines has hired the Huron Consulting Group to participate in drafting a Ten-Year Strategic Plan for UMD. Huron has earned a reputation for recommending aggressive cost-cutting measures and program closures. Making matters worse is the over-representation of highly paid members of the administration in this process, as is starkly reflected in the following: An analysis of salaries reveals that the annual average salary for members of the plan’s Steering Committee is above $300,000!
We think that the faculty and staff and students who fuel the UMD enterprise can generate an exciting and inclusive People-Centered Strategic Plan (PCSP), one that eliminates the gender gap in salary for women faculty, supports our graduate students on par with their peers, and reduces the precarity experienced by many professional track and contingent faculty. We will team up with AFSCME to launch an independent analysis of the university’s finances, so that we can re-prioritize funding, to produce a more equitable and just university.
You can help by joining a UMD AAUP committee. Please email [email protected] now and let us know how you want to participate.
Strategic Plan and Governance Committee. Focus on giving voice, proactively, to faculty concerns. Let’s develop our vision for the equitable treatment of students and faculty across all ranks and schools and for a more democratically-run university.
Organizing Committee. Strength comes with numbers. Help build our chapter and create energy behind our campaigns by reaching out to departments, schools, and individuals. The organizing committee also serves as a listening post. No prior experience necessary. We’ll train you quickly with the organizing skills you’ll need.
Finance and Transparency Committee. Upper administrators always claim they are limited by financial constraints. But budgets are always about choices. Let’s show that different choices are possible. Members of this committee will learn from the experts and develop the skills necessary to understand how financial and other decisions are made. Members of this committee will research the university’s changing landscape. We will also launch a fundraising campaign in a few weeks to cover the costs of a comprehensive analysis of UMD finances.
Communications and Outreach Committee. Do you have writing, design, social media, or other media skills? Do you have contacts in the press? Join the communications team and stand ready to make our goals and campaigns reach their intended audiences. This group will not hold regular meetings but will be ready to respond to communications needs as they develop.
Lastly, please consider becoming a member of the AAUP national. Let’s build a strong voice for faculty together: https://www.aaup.org/membership/join.