The Ohio University chapter of the Association of American University Professors (OU-AAUP) joins the numerous academic and community organizations around the country condemning President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” The order is discriminatory and xenophobic. Its implementation would further demonize immigrants, refugees, and especially those of Middle Eastern and/or Muslim identity – many of whom consider Ohio University home. Furthermore, the executive order directly threatens the academic freedom of those non-US-citizen faculty and students at Ohio University who fall under its purview. Among a number of measures, the executive order suspends entry into the United States of all nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, regardless of whether they hold a valid US work, student, or other visa. The order effectively bans overseas travel to the United States for non-US-citizens who hold one of the seven nationalities, whether their aim is to conduct research, participate in conferences, or return to the schools where they are enrolled, teach, or research.

Many students, faculty, and staff at Ohio University are actively protesting this order, even as judges and lawyers around the country move forward on judicial challenges to its constitutionality. OU-AAUP meanwhile calls on the Ohio University administration to ensure that affected students, faculty, and staff are properly advised of their legal, immigration, and faculty/student rights. We further call on the administration to enact policies that accommodate those international students, faculty, and staff who are unable to fulfill their responsibilities at Ohio University successfully as a consequence of the executive order. Whatever comes of the present order, we remain vigilant over challenges to academic freedom, research, and well being of all members of our university.

[This statement appeared in the Athens News in print on Feb. 9 and online on Feb. 13. Click here to read the statement as it appeared therein.]

​

On Wednesday Feb. 1, a group of students organized a rally in front of the Athens Court House calling on Ohio University to declare itself a sanctuary campus, providing specific definitions of the term. The rally eventually turned into a march, and subsequently approximately 70 people (primarily students) staged a sit-in in Baker Center. OUPD arrested the students amid what has become a controversial point for the Ohio University administration, resulting in faculty, undergraduate student, and graduate student senates all passing resolutions calling on the administration to recommend that charges be dropped. What follows is a set of links, in chronological order of appearance concerning the arrest and prosecution of the students, various responses from campus communities, and the end result of the trials:

• Feb. 1: "More than 70 Protesters Arrested after Sit-in at Baker Center," Athens News
• Feb. 6: "Faculty Senate Asks OU to Recommend that Charges be Dropped," Athens News
• Feb. 8: "Arraignments Continue for "Baker Center 70" Protesters," Athens News
• Feb. 8: "Faculty Calls for Protest Charges to Be Dropped," Athens News
• Feb. 12: "OU Police Chief Says protesters Charges Should Go Through Court," Athens News
• Feb. 12: "Student and Faculty Senates All Agree: Drop the Charges," Athens News
• Mar. 27: "Student Arrested in Baker Center Found Not Guilty," The Post
  
• Mar. 27: "Trespassing Charged Dropped Against Remaining 'Baker 70' Protestors," Athens News
  

Our chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is hosting a brown bag discussion next week:

Brown Bag Discussion: Freedom in the Classroom
12:00pm-1:00pm, Wednesday 18 January 2017
Alden Library Faculty Commons, Room 301U 

All faculty are invited to participate. Please reply to this email or write Kevin Uhalde (uhalde@ohio.edu / kevin.uhalde@gmail.com) with any questions about the event, joining the chapter, or being removed from this email list.

​

Join us for a Critical Conversation about “THE FUTURE OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM AT OHIO UNIVERSITY”

OU’s Faculty Handbook opens by invoking the American Association of University Professors (AAUP’s) principles regarding academic freedom and tenure. Tenure, according to these principles, is a means to academic freedom. And academic freedom is essential to the “common good” of the University and the “free search for truth,” whether in teaching or in research, in the laboratory or the classroom.

Our handbook and these principles apply to all faculty members, including those not on the tenure track. How is the principle of academic freedom guaranteed, especially for Group II faculty teaching full-time without the protection of tenure? We in the local AAUP chapter would like to host a conversation with faculty members about how to ensure academic freedom in the classroom for all faculty:

Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 2pm

Alden Library Faculty Commons, 301U

This event is sponsored by the Ohio University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (OU-AAUP). If you have any questions, feel free to email ou.aaup@gmail.com or mattson@ohio.edu

As concerned faculty, we endorse Athens News Editor Terry Smith’s call for a third-party investigation into the propriety of recent negotiations between Ohio University administration and local proprietor John Wharton.

We would like to believe Vice President Steve Golding’s statement “that all those involved with the gift acted in good faith and without any improper intent.” Yet reasonable people will wonder what President McDavis and Senior Associate Athletic Director Ryan White discussed “at length” at a basketball tournament on March 14.  We can understand Mr. Wharton not wanting to comment publicly. But reasonable people will ask whether Wharton, a real estate agent, knowingly entered into an arrangement to sell his house above market value to the OU Foundation in return for major donations to Intercollegiate Athletics. The timing and substance of exchanges over both home and gifts are troubling. A neutral investigation that includes testimonies under oath from the parties involved would help to settle these doubts. 

The best outcome for the University would be to exonerate the administration from lingering doubts about whether malfeasance took place, something that an internal investigation, however well-intentioned, can never satisfy.  At the same time, as faculty who believe we have a central role to play in the stewardship of University resources and preserving the value of its academic reputation, we would hope that if something unethical or illegal occurred it would immediately be brought to light.  Only then could we complete the task of restoring the trust of the Ohio University community—students, faculty, alumni, and staff—as well as the members of our local Athens community and the citizens of Ohio to whom our University belongs.

As members of a public university, we agree with Terry Smith that either the Ohio Inspector General or the Ohio Ethics Commission would be an appropriate body to investigate possible ethical violations and financial malfeasance.  Such a body would have the credibility and the clout to get at the truth and, we hope, answer the serious questions that remain. We invite other faculty to add their names to this letter, which we will consider sending to state representatives if action has not been taken in the meanwhile, by emailing ou.aaup@gmail.com. We share the administration’s desire to restore the reputation of our University as a community that practices ethical behavior and responsible stewardship.

Kevin Uhalde, Secretary, and Joseph McLaughlin, member-at-large, on behalf of the Ohio University chapter of American Association of University Professors, together with the undersigned faculty.

Gene Ammarell, Associate Professor of Anthropology

Mark Barsamian, Associate Lecturer of Mathematics

Alyssa Bernstein, Associate Professor of Philosophy

Neil W. Bernstein, Professor of Classics and World Religions

Bonita Biegalke, Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences

Geoffrey Buckley, Professor of Geography

Larry Burmeister, Professor of Sociology   

Diane Ciekawy, Associate Professor of Anthropology

Anne Cooper, Professor Emerita of Journalism

John R. Cotton, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering

Mariana Dantas, Associate Professor of History

Bernhard Debatin, Professor of Journalism

Robert DeMott, Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English

David Drabold, Distinguished Professor of Physics

Marsha L. Dutton, Samuel and Susan Crowl Professor of Literature

Sherrie Gradin, Professor of English

Judith Grant, Professor of Political Science

Gary Holcomb, Professor of African American Studies

Janis Butler Holm, Associate Professor of English

Jaylynne N. Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Critical Cultural Studies in Education

Sharon Inman, Associate Professor of Renal Physiology 

Gregory R. Janson, Associate Professor of Child and Family Studies

Katherine Jellison, Professor of History

Greg Kessler, Associate Professor of Linguistics

Nicholas Kiersey, Assistant Professor of Political Science, OU-Chillicothe

Ray Klimek, Assistant Professor of Photography + Integrated Media

Robert Knight, Associate Professor of Mathematics, OU-Chillicothe


Laura Larson, Associate Professor of Photography and Integrated Media Program

Judith Yaross Lee, Professor of Communication Studies

Tracy C. Leinbaugh, Associate Professor Emerita of Counselor Education

Sergio R. Lopez-Permouth, Professor of Mathematics

Loren Lybarger, Associate Professor of Classics and World Religions

Nancy J. Manring, Associate Professor of Political Science

Vladimir L. Marchenkov, Professor of Philosophy of Art

Kevin Mattson, Connor Study Professor of History

Jaclyn Maxwell, Associate Professor of History and Classics and World Religions

Richard McGinn, Associate Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Southeast Asian Studies

Donald B. Miles, Professor of Biological Sciences

Damian Nance, Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences

William Owens, Associate Professor of Classics and World Religions

Ruth Palmer, Associate Professor of Classics and World Religions

Daniel Phillips, Professor of Physics

B. David Ridpath, Associate Professor and Kahandas Nandola Professor of Sports Administration

Herta Rodina, Associate Professor of French

Willem Roosenburg, Professor of Biological Sciences

Stephen J. Scanlan, Associate Professor of Sociology

Louis-Georges Schwartz, Head Of M.A. Program in Film Studies

Miriam Shadis, Associate Professor of History

David Sharpe, Senior Lecturer of English

Joseph W. Slade, Professor of Media Arts and Studies

Carey Snyder, Associate Professor of English

Patricia Stokes, Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Barry Thomas, Professor Emeritus of German

Ingo Trauschweizer, Associate Professor of History

Julie White, Director of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Jackie Wolf, Professor of Social Medicine

OU-AAUP will host an open meeting at 3PM on Thursday, April 16 in Bentley Annex 202. 

Please consider joining us to share concerns and ideas about how our chapter can help move discussions that matter into the open and advocate for our common interests as faculty and citizens of the university.

If you cannot come but are interested in future OU-AAUP events, let us know by emailing ou.aaup@gmail.com. If you are interested in finding out more about your local AAUP chapter, visit our website at www.ou-aaup.org. Everyone is welcome at this open meeting.

If you would like to be taken off our email list or if you would like our emails to reach you are at a different address, please respond to ou.aaup@gmail.com and we will do so.

[The following letter is being circulated in response to recent news of the new OU President Residence. If you would like to add your name to the list signatories, please send your full name, title, and department to mclaughj@ohio.edu]

Ohio University has recently announced that it is reviewing the suitability of the traditional residence of the President on the Athens campus. This appears to be driven by the appearance of some bats and an associated unfortunate injury to Deborah McDavis, the President's wife. It also appears that the Ohio University Foundation is on course to purchase a property from former Ohio University Alumni Board member John Wharton for $1.2 million to serve as a new residence. This house is far removed from campus.

We feel strongly that this is very poor use of scarce resources. At a time when student debt is spinning out of control, and the funding of higher education is in crisis (a point emphasized recently by the Governor), it makes no sense to undertake such lavish expenditure. The Foundation exists to support scholarship and academic enrichment programs. We would suggest that this is the highest calling for $1.2 million.

And in sharp contrast to the President's House (which was heavily renovated in 1995 and maintained since), student dorm rooms, classrooms, and faculty and staff offices suffer from problems such as very poor climate control, infestations of various insects and mold, and leaking roofs.


In the School of Music, climate control is so poor that musical instruments (especially pianos) are continuously degraded. Science buildings are inadequately ventilated and suffer from serious safety issues. These problems have persisted for more than a decade for lack of funding. Yet a drastic and expensive allocation of precious University resources occurs without discussion when bats appear in a distinguished old house, because it affects the University president?

The presence of the President on campus is also important for institutional morale; changing that long-standing arrangement at the very least merits careful discussion in the broad University community (including, in a meaningful way, students and faculty). No such discussion has occurred in Athens.

We urge the Ohio University administration to reconsider this expenditure. Foundation funds, built over the years from the myriad donations of alumni and others should be directed toward pressing needs, not a new mansion for an already highly-compensated University administrator.

[To add your name to the list signatories, please send your name, title, & department to mclaughj@ohio.edu]

Signatories:

Gene Ammarell, Assoc. Prof. Anthropology

Jim Andrews, Assoc. Prof. Classics & World Religions

Austin Babrow, Prof. Communication Studies

Mark Barsamian, Assoc. Lecturer Mathematics

Alyssa Bernstein, Assoc. Prof. Philosophy

Neil Bernstein, Prof. Classics and World Religions

Joseph Bernt, Prof. Emeritus Journalism

Laura Black, Assoc. Prof. Communication Studies

Roy Body, Prof. Emeritus Economics

Robert Briscoe, Assoc. Prof. Philosophy

Geoffrey Buckley, Prof. Geography

Thomas Carpenter, Dist. Prof. Classics and World Religions

Devika Chawla, Assoc. Prof. Communication Studies

Gang Chen, Assoc. Prof. Physics

Bill Christy, Assist Prof Music/ Interdisciplinary Arts, Zanesville

Diane Ciekawy, Assoc. Prof. Anthropology

Joan Connor, Prof. English

Thomas Costello, Visiting Lecturer in Communication Studies

John Cotton, Assoc. Prof. Mechanical Engineering

Mariana Dantas, Assoc. Prof. History

Bernhard Debatin, Prof. Journalism

Robert DeMott, Dist. Prof. Emeritus English

David Drabold, Dist. Prof. Physics

Marsha Dutton, Samuel and Susan Crowl Prof. Literature

Andrew Escobedo, Assoc. Prof. English

Marvin Fletcher, Prof. Emeritus History

Matthew Fox, Assis. Prof. Nursing, Zanesville

Andrea Frohne, Assoc. Prof. African Art History

Beatrice Giannandrea, Assoc. Prof. Modern Languages, Janesville

Loreen Giese, Prof. English

Sherrie Gradin, Prof. English

Alonzo Hamby, Dist. Prof. Emeritus History

Gabriel Hartley, Assoc. Prof. English

Steven Hays, Assoc. Prof. Classics and World Religions

Megan Helgeson, Asst. Lecturer Modern Languages

Robert Hikida, Dist. Prof. Emeritus Biomedical Sciences

Gary Holcomb, Prof. African American Studies

Jessica Hollis, Asst. Prof. English

Janis Holm, Prof. English

Mara Holt, Assoc. Prof. English

Annie Howell, Assoc. Prof. Film

Gregory Janson, Assoc. Prof. Child and Family Studies

Katherine Jellison, Prof. History

Joan Jurich, Assoc. Prof. Family and Child Studies

Nicholas Kiersey, Assoc. Prof. Political Science, Chillicothe

Jennie Klein, Assoc. Prof. Art History

Raymond Klimek, Asst. Prof. Photography and Integrated Media

Lynne Lancaster, Prof. Classics and World Religions

Laura Larson, Assoc. Prof. Photography and Integrated Media

Judith Yaross Lee, Prof. Communication Studies

Sergio Lopez-Permouth, Prof. Mathematics

Loren Lybarger, Assoc. Prof. Classics and World Religions

Nancy Manring, Assoc. Prof. Political Science

Jeff Marks, Sr. Lecturer, Modern Languages

Kevin Mattson, Connor Study Prof. Contemporary History

Jaclyn Maxwell, Assoc. Prof. History and Classics/World Religions

Duane McDiarmid, Prof. Sculpture + Expanded Practice

Joseph McLaughlin, Assoc. Prof. English

Robert Miklitsch, Prof. English

Paul Milazzo, Assoc. Prof. History

Donald Miles, Prof. Biological Sciences

Scott Minar, Prof. English, Lancaster

Molly Morrison, Assoc Prof. Modern Languages

Michele Morrone, Prof. Social and Public Health

Angela Risner, Lecturer, Modern Languages

Damian Nance, Dist. Prof. Geology

Michael Nern, Assoc Prof English, Janesville

William Owens, Assoc. Prof. Classics and World Religions

Betsy Partyka, Prof. Modern Languages

Hajrudin Pasic, Prof. Mechanical Engineering

Harold Perkins, Assoc. Prof. Geography

Marina Peterson, Assoc. Prof. Performance Studies

Daniel Phillips, Prof. Physics

Mark Phillips, Dist. Prof. Music

Patti Bayer Richard, Trustee Professor Emerita Political Science

Herta Rodina, Assoc. Prof. Modern Languages

Mary Rogus, Assoc. Prof. Journalism

Mark Rollins, Assoc. Prof. Emeritus English

Willem Roosenburg, Prof. Biological Sciences

Gar Rothwell, Dist. Prof. Emeritus Plant Biology

Stephen Scanlan, Assoc. Prof. Sociology

Tom Scanlan, Assoc. Prof. English

Louis-Georges Schwartz, Assoc. Prof. Film Studies

Miriam Shadis, Assoc. Prof. History

David Sharpe, Senior Lecturer English

Robert Sheak, Prof. Emeritus Sociology

Allan Showalter, Prof. Plant Biology

Joseph Slade, Prof. Media Arts and Studies

Carey Snyder, Assoc. Prof. English

Eric Stinaff, Assoc. Prof. Physics and Astronomy

Patricia Stokes, Asst. Prof. Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Barbel Such, Assoc. Prof. Modern Languages

Kathleen Sullivan, Assoc. Prof. Political Science

Barry Thomas, Prof. Emeritus Modern Languages

Debra Thompson, Asst. Prof. Political Science

Daniel Torres, Prof. Modern Languages

Ingo Trauschweizer, Assoc. Prof. History

Kevin Uhalde, Assoc. Prof. History

Richard Vedder, Dist. Prof. Emeritus Economics

Amy White, Assoc. Prof. Philosophy, Zanesville

Matt White, Prof. Biological Sciences

Risa Whitson, Assoc. Prof. Geography

Jackie Wolf, Prof. Social Medicine

Sarah Wyatt, Prof. Plant Biology

Linda Zionkowski, Prof. English


 

 

 

This Wednesday, adjunct faculty across the country will be participating in a national walk-out day. Here at OU, there will be local event entitled "OU Beautiful Adjunct Party" from 10am to 4pm on Wednesday February 25 at the United Campus Ministries (18 N. College Street). The event will feature a range of speakers and an open mic, along with snacks and hot drinks. Come show your solidarity and support for one of the key issues facing academics in particular and the educational system as a whole.

We, the undersigned faculty members of Ohio University, support the right of students on our campus to pursue collective bargaining, in their capacity as employees.  The right to bargain collectively should be respected by the administration and should be recognized as an expression of democratic citizenship.  We hope that the administration will not intervene or obstruct any attempts at unionization on the part of students at our university.

Signed,

1. Kevin Mattson, Professor, History Department and President of OU-AAUP
2. Gene Ammarell, Sociology and Anthropology Department
3. Mariana Dantas, History Department
4. David Drabold, Physics & Astronomy Department
5. Ofer Eliaz, School of Dance, Film, and Theater, Film Division
6. Judith Grant, Political Science Department
7. Steve Hays, Classics and World Religions Department
8. Gary Holcomb, African American Studies Department
9. Jaylynne N. Hutchinson, Critical Studies in Educational Foundation
10. Nicholas J. Kiersey, Political Science Department
11. Judith Yaross Lee, School of Communication Studies
12. Tracy C. Leinbaugh (Emerita), Counseling and Higher Education
13. Loren Lybarger, Classics and World Religions Department
14. Vladimir Marchenkov, School of Interdisciplinary Arts
15. Jaclyn Maxwell, History and Classics and World Religions Departments
16. Joseph McLaughlin, English Department
17. Harold Perkins, Geography Department
18. Marina Peterson, School of Interdisciplinary Arts
19. Herta Rodina, Modern Languages
20. Albert Rouzie, English Department
21. Stephen J. Scanlan, Sociology and Anthropology Department
22. Miriam Shadis, History Department
23. Patty Stokes, Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
24. Kathleen Sullivan, Political Science Department
25. Daniel Torres, Modern Languages Department
26. Kevin Uhalde, History Department
27. Julie White, Political Science Department