EMERITUS ASSEMBLY MEMBERS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND
Morton Tenzer, EA liaison to the AAUP-CSC attended the State Conference Executive Committee meeting the night of March 13th, 2008, where the arrangements for the CSC-AAUP annual spring meeting were finalized. He writes:
The annual meeting will be held at the Graduate Club on Elm St. in New Haven from 5:30 t0 9:00 PM on Thursday May 8, 2008. It will feature a panel discussion on the subject of the effects of the war on terror on the universities' activities in research, teaching and scholarship. The panelists will be Terence Dwyer (Justice Studies) of Western Connecticut State University, Scott Pious (Psychology) Wesleyan University, and Jocelyn Boryczka (Politics) Fairfield University.
Members of the Emeritus assembly are invited to attend. Registration is $30 for the event which includes dinner, and, much appreciated, the State Conference will pay half of the cost of emeriti who attend,
For further information and registration contact Flo Hatcher, Executive Director of the State Conference at 860-354-6249 or at keith.hatcher@gmail.com
Mort Tenzer
March 14, 2008
Four delegates representing the Connecticut State Conference attended the annual meeting of AAUP in Washington June 6-10. Thanks to the scheduling efforts of Ann Doyle (UConn) the group visited the offices of all seven members of Connecticut's Congressional delegation, pressing for the re-authorization of the Higher Education Act, increased Pell Grant funding, and an end to the student loan scandals. Opposition was expressed to the right wing inspired so-called student bill of rights. Gratifyingly staff of the five Congress persons and two Senators seemed to agree with the AAUP positions. Brief hallway encounters were made with Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Joe Courtney.
The annual meeting itself was made up of a number of workshops, panels, and speakers, and the highlight, as always, was the plenary session during which the membership votes censure on institutions found to be violating academic freedom. Connecticut's Flo Hatcher was continued in her leadership role in the Assembly of State Conferences, and Ernst Benjamin was brought back to serve as acting General Secretary with the departure of Roger Bowen. There was promise that the
long standing problems of the computer system that has records of membership and finances will finally be replaced, and serious consideration of restructuring the organization is underway.
A meeting was held on August 16 to plan for the fall's activities and to learn of new developments since June. The national will be issuing a revised academic freedom statement that will expand permissable faculty speech made in class. A new e-mail system is being developed and access to 350,000 faculty names will be available. There will be a state conference fall meeting, probably on Nov. 8, in the New haven area with workshops on a variety of issues. George Lang will be memorialized by an award in his name.
Morton Tenzer
July 2007
