Annual meeting assesses academy's transformation

Academe, Jul/Aug 2002

How do the technologies used in higher education affect students? How have hiring trends such as the increase of contingent appointments influenced faculty collegiality and interactions with students?

To what extent is it appropriate and useful for institutions of higher education to adopt practices and discourses from the corporate realm? These and other questions were explored by panelists, keynote speakers, and participants at the 2002 AAUP annual meeting held June 6-9 in Washington, D.C.

Keynote speaker David Kirp, professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, addressed the assembly about the rise of market ethics in academia and how they connect, and sometimes collide, with traditional academic values. Kirp explored two case studies of institutions that have, in different ways, adopted market values. In one case, the business school at a large public institution runs lucrative programs tailored to specific companies and is increasingly independent of the larger institution, to which it pays a small percentage of its income as a "franchise fee." In another, a small liberal arts college salvaged its declining reputation and revenues by calling attention to a few outstanding programs and developing a financial-aid formula designed to attract highly qualified students rather than the neediest applicants.

Market strategies allowed both institutions to realize important gains, ranging from increased reputation to better facilities and more focused missions. But the primacy of market values also undermines some traditional academic values, such as a commitment to educating all students, not just middle-class students and academic high achievers; a belief that the fruits of university research should be shared with the public, not controlled by corporate patrons; and the conviction that it is not just market demand that determines the worth of an academic discipline. Academics, Kirp concluded, must do a better and more forceful job of articulating how and why academic values matter.

In her address, keynote speaker Mary Ann Mason, dean of the graduate division at Berkeley, presented results from a research project titled "Do Babies Matter?" The answer, Mason said, is that babies do matter, but in ways that are sometimes surprising. Women who have babies early in their careers (within five years of earning a Ph.D.) are less likely than their male colleagues to earn tenure in the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Conversely, men who have "early babies" are more likely than all other groups to earn tenure. The majority of women who have tenure have no children in the household, and women in general tend to be concentrated in lower-status and lowerpaying academic positions, such as staff or adjunct appointments and positions at two-year institutions. Mason made several recommendations about how to ameliorate the problem, including advising graduate students about the "realities" of academic life; providing support for graduate students who have children; stopping the tenure clock for one year for each child for assistant professors; and encouraging re-entry tracks for those who leave academia for a few years.

At a banquet on June 8, the Association honored Stephen Firmer, who is retiring from the staff after twentythree years. AAUP president Jane Buck reminded the assembly of Finner's achievements, particularly in the area of collective bargaining and on behalf of historically black colleges and universities.

The annual meeting included updates on some recent events. Indiana conference president Joseph Losco made a brief presentation about a controversial production of the play Corpus Christi at Indiana University-- Purdue University Fort Wayne. Barbara Clark Smith and Paul Forman, both curators at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, discussed the continuing controversy over the extent to which it is appropriate for donors to be involved in decision making at the institution. Robert Quinn, director of Scholars at Risk, discussed worldwide threats to academic freedom and the efforts of his organization to rescue threatened scholars.

On June 6 conference attendees participated in Capitol Hill Day. The AAUP's government relations department held an orientation to lobbying and distributed materials on higher education issues. Contingents of members from different states visited their senators and representatives to emphasize the vital importance of federal funding for higher education, including student aid and research funding. Members also discussed intellectual property issues, labor law reform, and academic freedom with lawmakers. The day ended with a reception in the Russell Senate building on Capitol Hill and presentation of the Henry T. Yost Award to U.S. Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii. The award recognized Mink's leadership on higher education issues, especially her efforts to protect the integrity of student-aid programs.

HONORS AND AWARDS

As always, the annual meeting honored outstanding service to the profession and the Association and exemplary work upholding its principles. In addition to the Yost Award, the AAUP presented several other honors.