From the FWC Executive Committee
Hello everyone,
We're in a contract year, so you'll be hearing more from us about the issues at the center of this year's collegial discussions between the administration and the Faculty Salary Committee, which will culminate in a Memo of Understanding (MOU) that will be presented to the General Faculty in Spring 2026. The MOU is a key document that describes compensation, raises, health benefits, and other important issues. We used to have these discussions every year, and now we are thankfully on a three-year contract.
The FWC has been participating in the newly-formed Connecticut AAUP-AFT Higher Education Council, and we have been meeting every few weeks this fall to talk about how we can organize a formal network and take action as a collective of AAUP chapters in CT. The council held a press conference in New Britain on Nov. 7, with coverage by CT Insider, calling on universities and colleges across the state reject the Trump loyalty oath, which the FWC Executive Committee voted last week to endorse. This is a network that will continue to offer us more ways to get our concerns heard.
As you may have noticed as the result of the Faculty Handbook revision passed this fall, we have new committees, including a Governance Committee, with a charge of reviewing "in accordance with the procedures specified in Appendix I, grievances concerning a faculty member or administrator not following established governance procedures"; a Mission and Belonging Committee, to "act as a resource for faculty development in these areas" and "to attend particularly to the mission’s call to celebrate the dignity of all human persons and to 'value the diversity which their membership brings to the university'” and an Academic Personnel Committee, "to review cases, conduct hearings, and make recommendations and/or decisions concerning grievances involving members of the General Faculty in accordance with the procedures specified in Appendix I: Faculty Due Process Procedures" in cases "concerning the non-renewal of a contract within the term of appointment for a full-time untenured faculty member," to review merit appeals, "to review trends in merit appeals and appeals of non-renewals of contracts and to present general feedback from the faculty," among other issues. We as faculty should use any and all of these avenues if we need them. If you need any help or advice in these areas, please contact us.
Want to write a piece for the FWC newsletter? If so, please send it to my email below!
All the best,
Sonya for the FWC Executive Committee (shuber@fairfield.edu)
Recap:
Research Pivots Event
We met at the Frederickson Lab on Oct. 15 with Dr. Margaret McClure of the Meditz College of Arts & Science and the Provost's Office and Dr. Alison Kris of the Egan School of Nursing and the IRB Committee to talk about how faculty members who have experienced pressure on their funding or research agendas, fields, ability to travel, and personal circumstances might pivot, re-see their work, or use campus connections to adapt to our current circumstances. We discussed the possible long-term effect this will have on the pipeline of research, and the history of lower levels of research funding in different presidential administrations. We shared that individuals making cases for tenure and promotion can discuss major research roadblocks in their narratives. Related to this concern, the FWC has contacted the Rank and Tenure Committee to suggest allowing "Research Impact Statements" regarding the current era. Other ideas:
- If a faculty member needs to put a book project on hold, for example, in cases where a research agenda might be specifically risk, then the faculty member can discuss that in their narrative.
- Faculty members who feel impacted should reach out to a mentor in their field for advice, as well as to their chair and dean.
- Faculty members should reach out to the Office of Research and Grants to get advice on leads for future research support and other funding mechanisms for their work. Margaret is also happy to meet with faculty members to brainstorm.
- Another approach is to launch a more long-term research project, with the publication of research timed to hopefully hit at a time when sharing of topics might be less risky in terms of personal exposure.
- Scholars can pivot by focusing on scholarship of teaching and learning as a way to explore opportunities for publication related to pedagogy in their fields. Dr. Mike Andreychik, Faculty Liaison for Research, is leading efforts in this area.
- Dr. Kris shared the many ways that researchers who use human subjects can improve their data collection and use of Qualtrics to protect the identities of people involved in this research. If you have questions about this, please reach out to her at akris@fairfield.edu.
Accreditor NECHE Drops DEI, Libraries
From EveryLibrary Institute: "The Draft 2026 Accreditation Standards being circulated by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) proposes to eliminate all references to libraries, librarians, and library services. These terms are central to the current (2021) standards. This omission signals a significant shift in how accreditation defines institutional quality and threatens the visibility, funding, and strategic role of campus libraries across the region. Additionally, the draft removes all references to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), replacing them with vague language about students “feeling welcomed.” These changes come in response to direct federal pressure. An April 2025 executive order from the Trump administration warned accreditors that they could lose federal recognition if they continued to include DEI-related requirements, forcing them to choose between compliance and adhering to long-standing best practices. NECHE leaders have acknowledged that these changes directly respond to that pressure."
Switch AAUP to Your Personal Email
If you receive national AAUP emails at an address ending in .edu or .gov, please log into our member portal and change your preferred email to a personal address. Correspondence to and from work emails can be accessed by the employer or via public records requests. You can leave your institutional email on your record so we can run a report to unsubscribe it from emails from our email system, which is separate. If you do get duplicate emails (to both your personal and institutional addresses), please email communications@aaup.org and we will get it fixed.
- Go to https://members.aaup.org/s/login/.
- Login with your email (the email where you receive national AAUP communications) and password.
- You can click the “Forgot your password?” link beneath the “Log in” button to reset it if necessary.
- Once you’re logged in, scroll down to the second header “Communication Information.”
- Click Change (in red on the right of the screen).
- Add your personal email.
- Select “Personal” under Preferred Email Type.
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From AAUP National
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Dec. 10: Faculty Unionist Roundtable: Contract Language for AI and Ed Tech
Join Britt Paris of Rutgers AAUP-AFT and other AAUP members across the country for an informal discussion of the contract language available in the AAUP IP Committee’s Resource Guide for Addressing AI in Higher Education.
This event is for AAUP members only. Check your email for registration and be sure to register two hours ahead of the event start time to allow time for membership verification.
Register here.AAUP has a new report out on Artificial Intelligence and the Academic Professions, which has several recommendations including advocating through shared governance for faculty participation in setting policies that shape our use of AI.
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We promote faculty welfare, broadly defined, through chapter programs and activities designed to advance academic freedom, advance the economic and professional status of the faculty, encourage faculty participation in governance, and inform the community about AAUP standards and policy statements to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.
