American Association of University Professors
| Yesterday, Ohio Conference AAUP President John T. McNay testified on HB 59, the state budget bill, before the Ohio House Finance Higher Education Subcommittee. Prof. McNay teaches history at the University of Cincinnati-Blue Ash. He is the Past President of the University of Cincinnati-AAUP, and has served as Ohio Conference AAUP President since September 2012. McNay’s testimony focused on three main areas: the new State Share of Instruction (SSI) formula, the faculty workload provision, and the problem of “administrative bloat” at Ohio’s public institutions. On the issue of the SSI formula, McNay noted that faculty were not consulted during development of this plan. He also warned legislators that basing funding on outcomes, while not a bad idea on its face, could result in unintended consequences, such as grade inflation. Speaking to the faculty workload provision, McNay stated, “To measure faculty purely based on the number of classes they teach would be like measuring legislators based only on the time they spend in their legislative chamber – it would fail to take into account their committee work, constituent service, and all other responsibilities expected of legislators.” McNay pointed out that too much money is being spent on ever-growing university administrations; and instead of trying to impose arbitrary workload requirements on all full-time faculty, the focus should be on reining in administrative spending and investing in the hiring of more full-time faculty. The full testimony can be accessed by clicking here. To see other testimony given to the subcommittee, click here. Representatives will be on “legislative spring break” the last week of March and first week of April. A substitute budget bill, which will reflect changes made to the original bill, is expected to be released the week of April 8. |
| Annual Meeting Deadlines Approaching This is a reminder about the Ohio Conference’s Annual Meeting, which is Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 at the Columbus Renaissance Downtown. The deadline to reserve a room for Friday evening at the reduced rate is Friday, March 22. Click here to be taken to a reservations webpage, which is unique to our meeting. The deadline to register is Monday, April 1. You may access the registration form by clicking here. The agenda and all other information regarding the meeting can be found by clicking here. In addition to important items that will be voted upon during the business portion of the meeting, we have great speakers and presentations lined up. If you have any questions, please e-mail Executive Director Sara Kilpatrick at sara@ocaaup.org. We hope that you will join us for this great event! |