Summer Institute Draws Record Numbers

The AAUP's twenty-fourth annual Summer Institute was held in July at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. It set an attendance record, with more than 220 people participating. Over seventy traditional AAUP advocacy chapters and collective bargaining chapters were represented.

"At the Summer Institute, tenured, tenure-track, and contingent faculty from across North America learned from each other about how we can protect our profession and the quality of the education our students receive. The conversations were indeed serious, but the opportunity to work and socialize at the beautiful campus of the University of New Mexico was both a rewarding and an enjoyable experience," says Elizabeth Hoffman, a lecturer at California State University-Long Beach and associate vice president of lecturers for the California Faculty Association.

Sessions were offered on evaluating the effectiveness of faculty handbooks, collecting and analyzing higher education data and research, conducting a collective bargaining campaign, engaging in strategic communications, dealing with the increased use of contingent faculty appointments, conducting contract negotiations, and administering contracts and grievances.