A Belated Welcome and a Look Forward

Welcome, AAUP-Oregon members to the 2021-2022 academic year! We know you are already hard at it and fully committed to this academic year. We should reflect on what we have accomplished together this past year as union siblings. 

You taught, researched, and served through a world-historic pandemic that changed and challenged you month by month. You took care of your friends and families and served your communities.  There was loss, lots of loss, in places, shapes, and forms we couldn’t even have imagined. And growth too, in places, shapes, and forms we couldn’t have imagined. On campus, you found and invented ways to serve and connect with your students to help them make sense of this world health challenge. The pandemic taught us all again the lesson that our lives are not just interconnected, but interdependent. We are each other’s strength. And here we are, weeks into the fall term, making our way again together through this storm. 

Thank you for all you have done to take care of your friends, families, and your communities. And for what you have done to take care of yourself and what you have ignored in self-care to help others.. 

During the 2020 Presidential Election, AAUP’s supported candidate, Joe Biden, has already signed an executive order stating that the creation of union jobs was a top priority of this administration. A president who has stated that “every American deserves the dignity and respect that comes from the right to union organize and collectively bargain is a welcomed voice after the recent Supreme Court decisions that eroded collective bargaining.   Here in Oregon, we fought for and made big legislative wins in health care for part-time faculty, new faculty representation on the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, and $900 million in funding for public higher education— matching AAUP-Oregon’s recommendation. We rallied to the support of faculty at Oregon Institute of Technology as they went on strike and won their first collective bargaining agreement. United Academics at Oregon State University completed their first collective bargaining agreement, Portland State University AAUP won improved protections for non-tenure track faculty, and we rallied across the state to support the New Deal for Higher Education.  We fought back efforts to enact covid wage cuts and fought for the voices of faculty in setting campus covid protocols. 

The work focusing on how we safely make our way through the pandemic continues. And the work of the changes and transformations that will take place as we build a vibrant post-pandemic public higher education system is ahead, especially threats to Tenure and collective bargaining rights as well as forcing administration and Boards of Trustees to match their calls for equity and inclusion with meaningful action. 

On the statewide level, we are hard at work to ensure that your voice is represented throughout the Oregon higher education system. We’re working to appoint a voting faculty member to the newly reconstituted Higher Education Coordinating Commission Board. AAUP-Oregon is also working statewide with our coalition partners to ensure our hard-working, part-time faculty colleagues have the health care they need through their newly guaranteed access to PEBB benefits. And as ever, we are champions for faculty across the state as they bargain new contracts, navigate public health challenges, and work to hold university administrations accountable. 

These efforts, and so many more to come, all depend on your input, guidance, and feedback.  For our part, we will keep you informed of our efforts and keep our close ties with your advocacy chapter or local union.  Without our steadfast members, AAUP-Oregon would not be successful, and we are poised for even more success this coming year. We hope that you will participate and make us even stronger in the future.

You can reach out to AAUP-Oregon any time at aaup@aaup-oregon.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

In Solidarity,

Steve Shay, President

Carl Bybee, Vice President – Communications

AAUP-Oregon