Introducing the Strategic Initiatives Fund: Empowering PA-AAUP Chapters to Tackle Higher Ed Challenges

Have you ever wished you could do more as an AAUP chapter? There are many obstacles to this, including time constraints, administration resistance, and lack of funding.

To counter this last obstacle, your PA-AAUP Conference Board is pleased to announce the establishment of a “Strategic Initiatives Fund” to support proposals for up to $10,000 from Pennsylvania chapters.

This initiative is a response to the challenges that threaten higher education’s survival.

Corporatization has resulted in the metastasizing of administrative jobs and the decline of full-time faculty positions. Students are increasingly treated as customers; that justifies boards to downsize traditional departments as well as saddling students with junk fees and debt.  Politicized attacks on professors and disciplines also threaten higher ed, decreasing the capacity of colleges and universities to be a forum for the pursuit of knowledge that strengthens a free society.

We seek proposals that address these threats.  We are interested in ideas that can involve faculty in an ongoing way and/or build membership and capacity for organizing.  Preference will be given to proposals that could be adopted by other chapters, or a network of chapters, or state organizations. Proposed initiatives can be in digital or in-person form. They should indicate specific ways chapters will involve faculty and allies. Do not submit proposals for social events, speaker series, and the like.

We approved our first application last month. The recipient, University of Pennsylvania’s advocacy chapter, requested support for hiring a part-time staff member to assist with chapter logistics. AAUP—Penn’s membership quadrupled in size in the past 18 months. They are working on a parental pay equity campaign, academic freedom policies, and a host of issues related to contingent faculty.

Whether your chapter is an advocacy chapter or a collective bargaining one–irrespective of its membership size or longevity—please consider applying for Strategic Initiatives Fund support today.