PSU-AAUP: New PSU President & Caucus Creation

by José Padín, President, PSU-AAUP

On Monday, May 15, the PSU Board of Trustees approved Rahmat Shoureshi as the next President of Portland State University. I served on the Presidential Search Committee, representing PSU-AAUP, and welcome President Shoureshi with great enthusiasm. In all of our exchanges he showed sincere commitment to the mission of public higher education, humanistic values, and for the critical of role faculty/academic professional unions and Senate in successful universities. PSU-AAUP will join colleagues from all campus unions and the Faculty Senate to extend a warm welcome to President Shoureshi. We look forward to a strong, healthy, and productive relationship that builds towards a debt-free, high quality, PSU that justly rewards the dedication of all who labor to make it so.

I am very pleased to report that we have nearly completed a cycle of “conversations” for important groups of our members, and that we are taking the first steps this spring towards turning those conversations into formally-constituted caucuses within our union: caucuses for (1) women, (2) members of color, (3) LGBTQ members, (4) members with disabilities, (5) international members, and (6) parents and caregivers. Alongside caucuses for tenure-line faculty, non-tenure track faculty, academic professionals, and research faculty, our vision is to begin the next academic year with a vibrant and renewed caucus structure that represents, and taps into the energies of, all PSU-AAUP members. Our vision is one of a union of university professionals where the entire membership see ourselves as allies for each and every one of our member caucuses!