American Association of University Professors (AAUP) -- University of Rhode Island Chapter (Mss. Gr. 118)

Historical note

The American Association of University Professors has a rich history dating back to 1913. In this year the Association was created to represent academe's common interests and deal with the problems of university policy. Founding members of the Association saw the organization as kin to the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association. The stated aims of the group were to "facilitate a more effective co operation among the members of the profession in the discharge of their special responsibilities as custodians of the interests of higher education and research in America; to promote a more general and methodical discussion of problems relating to education in higher institutions of learning; to create means for the authoritative expression of the public opinion of college and university teachers; to make collective action possible; and to maintain and advance the standards and ideals of the profession. (1)

Sixteen years after its creation the AAUP arrived on the campus of what was then called Rhode Island State College. According to the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, this was the first chapter in the state. In 1931 the local chapter formed with two members: Joseph W Ince of the Chemistry department and Andrew J. Newman, director of the school's placement service and lecturer in public finance. Membership ranged from a high of twelve to a low of two between the 1931 and 1945 (See Appendix 1 - Growth of the Membership). From 1931 to 1941 just two people held the position of chapter president, Joseph W. Ince and Ralph E. Brown from the department of Mechanical Engineering (See Appendix 2 Presidents & Department Affiliation). No mention is made of a chapter president from 1941 through 1945.

The earliest record of the Association on this campus is a treasurer's book which dates from 1945. Other of the Association's records relate the chapter's constant role of watchdog over the Administration's dealings with faculty. A typical example of this oversight appears in a report presented to the Executive Committee in May of 1954. The Committee on Intra-University Relations, reporting on the Administration's dismissal of Professor Frederick Clayton, protested the apparently arbitrary interpretation of the agreements contained in the faculty manual. Other issues such as peer review and salary equity which were touched upon in this report continue to be important topics today.

Correspondence from the 1960s reflects a partnership of sorts between the chapter and the administration benefiting both parties. University President Francis Horn's letter of January 3, 1962 spoke of the Association's request for the construction of a faculty club as part of the ongoing development of the University. Horn stated that after deliberating the matter he agreed with the Association's request and was actively approaching wealthy investors with the intent of raising the required funds. While there are instances of cooperation between the administration and the association, there were also issues that continued to crop up from year to year as problems that eluded resolution by either party. Academic freedom, salary negotiation, termination, appointment of administration officials without faculty input, and tenure were, and are, continually addressed by both parties. There is ample evidence of faculty members approaching the chapter for assistance when issues such as these became too overwhelming for the individual to handle alone.

The singular nature of bargaining was not unique to URI. Across the nation important employment issues facing the professoriate were being addressed by the solitary professor and the Administration. The national body of the AAUP sought to change this inherently unbalanced process and in the mid 1960s began, tentatively, to move toward collective bargaining. This was a difficult decision for the organization in that it had always embraced the idea of faculty as officers and joint custodians sharing authority with the Administration. The notion of collective bargaining seemed to nudge the Association, ever so slightly, away from these concepts. Faced with the prospect of losing membership because it would not embrace collective bargaining, the national body granted interim guidance in 1966 to local chapters authorizing them to seek recognition as bargaining units. By 1971 the AAUP, sensing the empowerment generated by collective bargaining, made the unequivocal statement that it would now pursue collective bargaining as another means of achieving the Association's goals. Still the AAUP disclaimed the moniker of "faculty union."

The Executive Committee of the URI chapter of the AAUP wasted little time exploring the matter. Talks at this level tended toward moving the faculty in the direction of collective bargaining but it appears that the idea itself was to be used as a link in an overall strategy of talks with the Administration. Discussions in September of 1970 reveal the Committee's thoughts that timing was not yet right to push collective bargaining. The issue continued to be addressed however at committee meetings through the end of the year and into 1971. By March the Committee was sure of the timing and moved that "the [chapter] support efforts to undertake collective bargaining with a view to having the AAUP become the collective bargaining unit at URI.”(2) The motion passed and the committee convened a chapter meeting to present the idea to the faculty.

The introduction of collective bargaining to URI was not a new issue for the university community. The New England Director of the AAUP, Matthew Finken, had addressed the Association at its meeting on March 9, 1971. His report on the AAUP's role in collective bargaining sought to strengthen his Association's position as a potential agent for the faculty. To this end Finken promised the chapter one thousand dollars to be applied against legal fees incurred when the chapter received designation as a bargaining agent.

It is clear that the Executive Committee sought the AAUP as bargaining agent, but another organization vied for the role also. The National Education Association (NEA) was also desirous of the role. To ensure that the selection process was both thorough and responsible, the faculty set up two teams, one of which would argue for collective bargaining and the other would argue the case for no collective bargaining. Carr and Van Eyck note that this process generated a great deal of rhetoric but ensured a "reasonably fair and thorough examination of the case step by step."(3) The election's tally was clearly in favor of collective bargaining. After a run-off election between the AAUP and the NEA, the AAUP was declared winner.

During the summer of 1971 the bargaining unit was defined during hearings before the state labor relations board. On December 21, 1971 the AAUP was certified by the board as the exclusive bargaining representative for all URI faculty. The following month the Executive Committee passed a motion authorizing five thousand dollars to be paid to the law firm of Michaelson and Stanzler to represent the faculty through the completion of the first contract. The ensuing negotiations, which began in March of 1972, took seven difficult months, resulting in a two-year contract signed into effect on November 6, 1972.

The AAUP's role of bargaining agent had caused a clear delineation in thinking about the bargaining process. Correspondence to the Executive Committee and the Presidents show that some faculty members wanted nothing to do with the collective bargaining process while others still were excited about the prospect. The chapter newsletter published on January 30, 1976 noted just how strongly the introduction of collective bargaining affected the Administration. Former University President Werner Baum appeared before a Wisconsin legislative committee considering a bill that would permit the introduction of collective bargaining at the University of Wisconsin. Baum, now Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, told legislators that collective bargaining had "destroyed the quality of life at the University of Rhode Island" and that "collective bargaining was the reason [he] left URI."

With rapid change taking place within the Association, and the workload increasing just as quickly, the Executive Committee discussed the option of hiring an Executive Secretary to deal with day-to-day association management. Professor Charles Schmidt was charged with the mission of undertaking a feasibility study and reporting back to the committee with his proposal. Schmidt's report in favor of creating the position was delivered to the committee on September 23, 1974 and ratified by the faculty on the 20th of December. Thirty three candidates applied for the position and after a screening process the field was reduced to: James Elmore, Alan Willsey, Jill Alexander and Edward Marth. In May of 1975 the chapter's immediate past president Robert Gutchen motioned that Marth be offered the position. The committee discussed the matter and after two votes, the motion passed 8 to 1. Ed Marth was offered the position and began work on July 1, 1975.

Since its beginnings as bargaining agent, the AAUP had worked well for the faculty. The chapter gained experience in the process of bargaining and won concessions for its membership. In 1975 Joseph Duffey, General Secretary for the AAUP related that "right now URI is one of the more experienced groups in higher education collective bargaining in America."(4) Duffey also praised the chapter for sending President Gino Silvestri to the University of Massachusetts in an effort to organize the faculty. While the chapter had won compromises from the Administration in many aspects of university life, there were still issues that refused resolution. Percolating under the surface for years was the issue of gender equality. This problem was seemingly brought to a head in 1972 in the form of a grievance filed against the university by Professor Lucy Peng Fei Chang. Chang alleged that the university had practiced unfair labor practices by discriminating against her due to her gender. Her grievance, denied at two levels within the administration, was won at the level of the State Commission on Human Rights only to be overturned in Superior Court. In winning this battle, the Administration divested itself from financial responsibility to Chang and, indirectly at this point, to the needs of female members of the university faculty. The issue lay dormant until 1977 when it returned as a complex class action suit.

Negotiations for the 1979 contact opened in February of 1979. By June 19th the AAUP newsletter reported that "because of the punitive nature of the Regent's proposal and intransigence of their negotiating team, a strike may be unavoidable." Over the next few months the Association communicated constantly with its members about the progress of negotiations, or lack thereof. All the while, contingencies were being drafted in preparation for a strike. Strike workshops were planned, a strike fund was authorized and members of the Association voted 162 to 19 to call a strike if agreeable terms could not be reached through negotiations. Records reflect that the Administration committed a strategic error in their belief that the faculty did not fully support the AAUP's position. On September 4th, the Association sent notice to the Administration of its intention to strike. The following day, faculty staffed picket lines; the strike was on. While there were faculty members that crossed the picket lines, a majority refused to break solidarity with the union or with their associates.

The strike ran through the 19th of the month. Several negotiating sessions over the two week period were fruitless. Newspapers covering the story captured the range of emotions that permeated the strike period. Pictures of angry faculty members shouting at a motorcyclist crossing the picket line, Board of Regents Chief Negotiator Tom McAndrews conferring with a pensive University President Frank Newman, and students rallying in front of the State House, all convey the tension sweeping through every affected party. When negotiations continued to fail, Governor Garrahy intervened in an attempt to bring both sides back to the negotiating table. Members of the AAUP met at the State House with the Governor, Tom McAndrews and former governor Frank Licht in a marathon session lasting eighteen hours. At exactly three o'clock in the morning on the 19th of September both sides shook hands and ended the strike. Although negotiations over several issues continued to be addressed, the school could now return, at least in part, to a semblance of normalcy. The national association's journal Academe noted that the strike at the University of Rhode Island had been the longest in AAUP collective bargaining history.

While the furor of the strike began to subside, the Chang case again flared to life. Chang's case, filed in 1977, sought to represent a class of women who "had been, or could have been, faculty at URI." This case merged with another class action suit (Seleen v. URI) and two separate individual actions filed against the University (Krayack v. URI and Roworth v. URI). In a two-hundred-and-ninety nine page decision handed down by United States District Judge Bruce M. Selya on April 4, 1985, the judge referred to the complexity of the case as a "… winding path so tortuously followed …" He found that the university had "engaged in a pattern of discrimination in derogation of the rights of women faculty" and that this practice had extended perhaps for decades prior to this suit.(5) In its newsletter of April 19, 1985, the Association presented a concise overview of the decision and its ramifications for the University community.

While the judge strongly rebuked the Administration, demanding that changes and restitution be made, he also noted that the Association was not blameless in this matter. Selya's epilog to the case stated that “ … the AAUP and its members seem to have developed a penchant for confrontation, an uncanny ability to see ghosts in the most austere of closets, a self annihilating eagerness to tackle the administration for the sake of battle irrespective of the importance, or insignificance, of the issue or sometimes the merits of the Administration's position."(6)

Selya was, however, explicit in his praise of the University of Rhode Island itself, calling the school "the crown jewel in Rhode Island's coronet of state sponsored higher education." While he found that the school had unfairly discriminated against its female faculty members and the union had also to shoulder its share of blame, Selya believed his judgment would clear the way for the University and its faculty to "walk hand in hand, proudly into a just and equitable future."(7) The judge's idealistic verbiage was countered when the Board of Governors threatened appeal of the decision. Only after continued negotiations did the Board agree to settle the dispute and pay $1,190,000. From these funds $623,250 would be earmarked for distribution to past and present female faculty members who had been under-compensated. The AAUP received $30,000 with which to offset it's expenditures of $51,275 in legal and consulting fees. The process continued to drag on into 1986 when two-hundred-twenty two female faculty members were designated for compensation as a result of Selya's decision.

As the class action suit was coming to an end, Edward Marth accepted a position as Executive Director of the AAUP chapter at the University of Connecticut. The Executive Committee appointed Mort Briggs from the History Department to chair the search committee for Marth's successor. After weeding the field of candidates to five finalists, offers were made to three individuals. In 1987 Rachel Grenier accepted the Association's offer and was named the new Executive Director of the AAUP. During Grenier's tenure, issues of faculty longevity and co affiliation were addressed as were promotion standards and the construction of a local chapter of the AAUP to service part time faculty. An important milestone also took place in the late 1980s when Wendy Roworth was elected to the chapter presidency. Serving the Association from 1989 to 1990, Roworth was the first woman to hold this position in the chapter's fifty eight year history.

The University of Rhode Island chapter of the American Association of University Professors is still an active force on the campus of URI and continues to push its agenda of equality, advocacy and inclusion. The records in this archive reflect the evolution of the chapter, its mission and its members from it's quiet beginnings in Rhode Island in 1931 through its present role as collective voice of the University faculty.

WORKS CONSULTED

1. AAUP Executive Committee minutes March 22, 1971.

2. AAUP Newsletter. vol. IV, no. 4. January 30, 1976. page 1.

3. Carr, Robert & Van Eyck, Daniel K. Collective Bargaining Comes to Campus. USA: American Council on Education. 1973. p. 241.

4. Chang v University of Rhode Island Island, 77 0070S (D. RI, April 4, 1985). pp. 8, 298, 299. (Bound version of Judge's decision located in University Library Special Collections).

5. "Call for the Meeting for Organizing a National Association of University Professors. "Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors. vol. 11, no. 1. 1916. page 11.

6. ibid, 298.

7. Chang v University of Rhode Island , 77-0070S (D. R1, April 4, 1985). p. 299. (Bound version of Judge's decision located in University Library Special Collections).