In accordance with our constitution and by-laws, this will serve as our call for nominations for the 2025 OCAAUP elections. The positions to be elected in 2025 are:

-Vice President

-Treasurer

-At-Large Member from a public institution with fewer than 100 members or a private institution

The Vice President serves in the absence of the President. The Treasurer is responsible for overseeing the Conference’s finances. The At-Large Member represents public institution chapters with fewer than 100 members, as well as private institution chapters.

Each position serves a two-year term commencing September 1, 2025. Board members are expected to attend four quarterly Board meetings each academic year (a mix of virtual and in-person) and oversee the direction and interests of the Conference.

To nominate yourself or another member, or if you have any questions, e-mail sara@ocaaup.org. Nominations are due by January 20, 2025.

Ohio AAUP Members:

We invite you to attend this year’s virtual annual meeting on Saturday, October 26. The event will begin at 9:00 am and run approximately until 10:30 am. This Zoom meeting requires registration, which you can do here. All registrants will receive the complete meeting materials the week of the meeting.

This is an excellent opportunity to hear about the important work in which the State Conference has been engaged over the last year. During the first hour, we will present reports and conduct business. For the last half hour, we will hear from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) about their new “Real Solutions for Higher Education” campaign, which will include Q&A.

Among the business on the agenda, chapter delegates will be asked to approve the 2023 annual meeting minutes and the 2025 budget. There also will be a vote to establish the “John T. McNay Memorial Award for Outstanding Service.” Finally, collective bargaining chapters will vote on a proposed increase to OCAAUP dues.

As a reminder, OCAAUP will alternate between virtual and in-person annual meetings for the foreseeable future. We are planning an in-person meeting for fall of 2025, which will be the 75th anniversary of our State Conference!

We hope to see you on October 26!

Ohio AAUP Members:

We hope you are well-rested and ready to begin the new semester. It’s hard to believe that we’re already at the end of summer. Despite the legislative lull, it has been a busy couple of months for us at the state level, and we want to share a few updates.

1) Endorsement: Yes on Issue 1

The Ohio Conference AAUP has endorsed the Yes on Issue 1 constitutional amendment that will appear on the General Election ballot this November. The amendment will create a citizen-led redistricting commission, which will completely remove politicians and lobbyists from the legislative redistricting process.

Currently, we have a system through which politicians pick their voters instead of the other way around. These politicians create “gerrymandered” or “safe” districts where the primaries are the only elections that actually matter. Thus, we tend to end up with ideologically extreme lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The political party that controls the redistricting process is able to create a lopsided legislature in their favor, one that is not representative of Ohio.

Why is OCAAUP supporting a Yes on Issue 1?

By creating fair districts where voters actually get a choice, we will have much better odds of producing a balanced General Assembly with more moderate legislators who can work together. Extreme, ideologically-driven legislation like Senate Bill 83 is unlikely to be seriously considered under a more reasonable legislature.

This is about good government, not partisanship, which is why Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike are supporting the amendment. In fact, former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a lifelong Republican, has been an outspoken advocate in favor of this amendment, much to the dismay of many of her colleagues who have benefitted from the current gerrymandered system.

We hope that you will consider voting Yes on Issue 1.

2) Endorsement: Senator Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate

The Ohio Conference AAUP Board doesn’t make a habit of endorsing in partisan elections. We understand that we represent members from across the political scope, who may not always agree with these decisions. Our endorsement policy explicitly requires a compelling rationale for endorsing candidates for elected office. The Board is a democratically-elected body that makes decisions in a democratic manner. The Board believed that Sen. Brown is worthy of the endorsement of his re-election campaign because of the issues that directly impact our members: workers’ rights and education.

First, Sen. Brown is rightfully known as the most pro-union U.S. Senator. Time and time again, he has delivered for workers when it matters. And it’s important to note that he has gone to bat for the AAUP in Ohio on a number of occasions, supporting faculty unionization, encouraging administrations to return to the bargaining table, and being on the front lines with us when we fought to repeal Senate Bill 5 in 2011. Brown even wrote the forward to the late, great Dr. John T. McNay’s book about the SB 5 battle: Collective Bargaining and the Battle of Ohio: The Defeat of Senate Bill 5 and the Struggle to Defend the Middle Class. That book is available for free here thanks to John and the University of Cincinnati press.

In addition, Sen. Brown has been an unequivocal advocate of public education at all levels. He is a strong supporter of all forms of post-secondary education, and has introduced legislation to make college more affordable and attainable. He not only understands, but also genuinely cares about, academic freedom for faculty, at a time when other lawmakers want to control classrooms and suppress forms of speech with which they disagree.

These attributes must be juxtaposed with Brown’s opponent, Bernie Moreno, who has decided to parrot the same kind of authoritarian positions on higher education as Ohio’s other Senator turned Vice Presidential candidate, J.D. Vance. Moreno is outwardly hostile toward higher education. He also was found guilty of wage theft from his car dealership employees. Given the high stakes of the upcoming elections and the stark contrast between the candidates, the Board believes that retaining Sherrod Brown in the U.S. Senate is of great importance to the Ohio AAUP.

When notified of the endorsement, Sen. Brown stated, “Ohio educators know I will always stand by their side to fight for fair wages, safer classrooms, and the resources needed for every student and faculty members to succeed. I’m grateful for the support of the OCAAUP and Ohio educators across the state as we continue fighting for the Dignity of Work and quality education for all Ohioans.” 

Here are important election dates:

-Military & Overseas Absentee Voting: Begins September 20

-Deadline to Register to Vote: October 7 (Boards open until 9:00 p.m.)

-Early In-Person Voting: October 8 and includes the two Saturdays and the two Sundays before Election Day.

-Absentee Voting By Mail: Begins October 8

-Election Day: November 5 (Polls Open 6:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.) If not returned by mail, absentee ballots must be received by your board of elections by 7:30 p.m.

Click here to register to vote, update your address, or check your registration. We strongly encourage everyone to check their voter registration, given that there was recently a significant purge of Ohio voters from the rolls.

3) AAUP Biennial Meeting and Summer Institute Recap

The national AAUP held its biennial meeting in Arlington, Virginia, in June. At this meeting, delegates elected Prof. Todd Wolfson from Rutgers the new president of the AAUP. Wolfson has stressed the need for greater solidarity across workers in higher education. He has strongly denounced the national attacks on colleges and universities, as well as the authoritarian-style takeover of higher education being touted by Sen. J.D. Vance.

AAUP members across the country, including a strong contingent from Ohio (pictured), also attended the AAUP Summer Institute in Detroit earlier this month. The Summer Institute is an annual event where AAUP members and staff attend workshops, panels, and plenaries on relevant topics. As usual, it was an excellent learning and networking experience. We thank all of the organizers, presenters, and attendees for a wonderful event!

4) No, SB 83 Isn’t Dead. Winter and Lame Duck Session are Coming.

The Ohio General Assembly is expected to be back in session after the November elections, roughly from November 13 through December 18. This is referred to as “lame duck session,” and is when a flurry of legislative activity occurs and bills are passed within a condensed period of time.

We expect that there will be another push to get SB 83 across the finish line, despite the fact that the bill’s sponsor has indicated that he’s given up on it for now, and instead will introduce a worse version in a more favorable political environment. We will need our members to be on alert once again and push back on this deeply flawed bill that seeks to undermine academic freedom, job security for faculty, student success, and higher education in general.

Stay tuned. Thanks for all that you do!

The Ohio Conference AAUP Board of Trustees has endorsed U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown for re-election. The following letter was sent to Sen. Brown’s campaign, which explains the endorsement:

Despite another intensive push to get Senate Bill 83 over the finish line, the small group of lawmakers who tried to demonstrate that the bill “had the votes” failed to get 50 signatures (a majority) on their letter that urged the bill to be brought to the floor for a full House vote.

One State Representative reportedly planned to offer SB 83 as an amendment to another bill, but the lack of support became clear and the amendment was not offered.

Throughout this legislative process, the Ohio Conference AAUP has reached out to the bill’s sponsor and other legislators integrally involved with the bill. We offered to discuss our outstanding concerns and to try to find common ground. Each of our communications was met with no reply.

Once it became evident that there would be no action on SB 83 yesterday, the bill’s sponsor stated his refusal to negotiate on it and declined to engage in interested party meetings over the summer. He even went so far as to suggest that he’d introduce a worse version in a more favorable political environment. This isn’t acceptable behavior from a lawmaker.

If it hasn’t been clear so far, it should be crystal clear now that SB 83 is nothing more than a politically-motivated bill meant to punish professors and colleges and universities. The sponsor believes that he should be able to dictate higher education policy without talking to the people his bill would impact the most.

Academic freedom, collective bargaining rights, and meaningful job protections are non-negotiable for the AAUP. SB 83 is just one piece in a broad, national, Culture-War-fueled attack on higher education, and we will always fight back to preserve our rights and quality education for our students.

The General Assembly is expected to be adjourned until after the November elections, at which point it will enter “lame duck session.” SB 83 will likely be part of the discussions during this session, in which there is always a lot of negotiating to push legislation through before the end of the calendar year. We will be on alert.

One thing that AAUP members can do in the meantime is support the “Citizens Not Politicians” effort. Next week, this campaign will turn in hundreds of thousands of signatures to place a statewide initiative on the ballot to end gerrymandering–the practice of manipulating legislative district boundaries to favor one political party over the other. We need fair districts to give us a more balanced legislature–one that will work to enhance and not undermine higher education.

Thank you for your continued activism! Your calls and emails to legislators over the last week undoubtedly made a difference. We also must thank our sisters and brothers in the labor movement who have continually gone to bat for us on this bill. They have made it clear that any attack on labor is an attack on all labor, and that a bill like SB 83 is completely unacceptable. When labor sticks together, labor wins. We appreciate the support from our other partners, most notably Honesty for Ohio Education. Against the odds, we manage to beat back this bill time and time again.