Advocacy and Activism

Guidance and Resources by Topic

Effecting Change and Organizing

• Negotiating Contingency: Devising a Practical Work plan. A webinar presented by Mike Mauer, a labor attorney who serves as senior labor advisor to the AAUP.
• Resisting Increased Contingency
• “Collective Bargaining Toolkit: Taking on the Academic Staffing Crisis,” Associated Federation of Teachers
• Negotiating Policies, American Association of University Professors
• Workforce Advocacy Kit, Modern Language Association
• Everyday Advocacy, National Council of Teachers of English in partnership with Principles in Practice series editor Cathy Fleischer
  • Storytelling as Advocacy
  • Identifying and Framing
  • Taking Action
• Everyday Advocacy: Action Principles and Toolkit
  • Action Principles Toolkit
  • Creating an Action Plan
• One Faculty Campaign. Through the campaign, AAUP staff, leaders, and members are working together to develop tools that faculty can use on their campuses to gain concrete improvements in job security and working conditions for faculty on contingent appointments.
• “Strategy and Campaigns,” Organizing for Power, Organizing for Change.
  • Tools for Planning an Advocacy Campaign
• Donhardt, Tracy and Sarah Layden, “Adjuncts Foster Change: Improving Adjunct Working Conditions by Forming an Associate Faculty Coalition.” Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity, edited by Seth Kath, William Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Biniek.

Unemployment Insurance and Benefits

• Unemployment Insurance Information. 2016 guidance makes it easier for faculty in contingent appointments to qualify for unemployment compensation over the summer.
• Retirement

Other Working Conditions

• Health and Safety, American Association of University Professors
• Academic Freedom, Provisions, including negotiability and enforcement,  American Association of University Professors
• Working Conditions, American Association of University Professors

Increasing and Supporting Diversity

• Creating a Positive Work Environment for LGBT Faculty: What Higher Education Unions Can Do, Associated Federation of Teachers
• Promoting Gender Diversity in the Faculty: What Higher Education Unions Can Do, Associated Federation of Teachers

Appointments and Reappointments, Including Position Conversation

• Appointments and Reappointments, American Association of University Professors
• Conversion of Appointment Type, American Association of University Professors
• Data and strategies on approaches to conversion of contingent to tenure-line positions with examples from specific institutions, American Association of University Professors
• McBeth, Mark and Tim McCormack, “An Apologia and a Way Forward: In Defense of the Lecturer Line in Writing Programs,” In Contingency, Exploitation, and Solidarity: Labor and Action in English Composition, edited by Seth Kahn, William Lalicker, and Amy Lynch-Biniek, WAC Clearinghouse, 2017.

Representation

• Governance Participation, American Association of University Professors

Organizing and Activism in the Context of Budget Crises

Responding to a financial crisis, information from the American Association of University  Professors, FAQ
 
AAUP Policies and Best Practices in the Context of Budget Crisis

• Legal Considerations
• Understanding Institutional Finances
• Organizing the Faculty Response (questions broken down into subsections below)
  • Engaging the Faculty
  • Government Relations and Lobbying
  • Communicating Through your Chapter and with the Media
  • Using Collective Bargaining

Organizing and Activism Principles and Resources

• Strategy & Campaigns: an overview of elements of strategic organizing, methodologies for reaching goals, and campaign planning tools.
• 20 Principles for Successful Community Organizing: an overview of getting things done and navigating power structures.

Information for Individuals

• FAQ: AAUP on Workplace Issues: beginning a faculty appointment, evaluations and reviews, leaving an institution, academic freedom.
• Family and Medical Leave AAUP Guidebook (member content)
• Faculty Handbooks as Enforceable Contracts: A State Guide, American Association of University Professors
• Non-Academic Careers for Doctoral Students in Language and Literature: Connected Academics, Preparing Doctoral Students of Language and Literature for a Variety of Careers, Modern Language Association, website including:
  • Humanities Careers
  • Advice   
  • Proseminar
  • Resources