Happy New Year! Here is how OCAAUP works for you.

We thought that the New Year would be a great time to remind our members about the ways that the Ohio Conference serves faculty interests.

We know that OCAAUP may sometimes seem like a mystery. You likely are most in tune with the AAUP at the chapter level, which generally has the greatest impact on your day-to-day professional lives.
However, at the state level, OCAAUP does valuable and important work for all Ohio members. With just one staff member and a 19-member elected volunteer board, the Conference accomplishes a tremendous amount each year.

One of the biggest roles of the State Conference is governmental advocacy efforts. OCAAUP is seen as the faculty voice at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. We regularly engage legislators, track bills, and provide oral and written committee testimony. Our goals are to lobby for greater resources for higher education, as well as protect and advance academic freedom, faculty job security, and shared governance. We advocate for strong pensions to the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) and Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) Boards.

We belong to several coalitions with other organizations that work on issues impacting worker rights, collective bargaining, the state budget, education, and public pensions. This work not only strengthens our collective interests, but it also means that other groups have our backs when we are faced with a threat.

In addition to our advocacy efforts, we often work with National AAUP’s Committee A to help individual faculty address infringements to academic freedom and tenure, and we help chapters address wider issues that threaten AAUP principles at the campus level. Over the years, we have had some success mitigating faculty job loss and holding administrations accountable.

We also aid in establishing new advocacy and collective bargaining chapters, build membership at existing chapters, and facilitate information sharing among our chapters. OCAAUP serves as a hub that connects all 25 chapters in the state so that faculty can exercise a collective voice and collective power. We frequently have op-eds published to engage the public on issues of importance to higher education and make the faculty voice heard.

You can keep up with Conference activity by reading our e-mails, checking our website, and attending your own chapter meetings to get updates from your local leadership. Thank you for being an AAUP member and supporting the important work that we do!