[H-PAD] Another important resolution to sign from Scholars for a New Deal in Higher Education

[Margaret Power]

Dear H-PAD Members,

We just received this important resolution this morning and I am forwarding
it to you. Please consider signing it and sharing it with other AHA members
you know.

Thank you.

Margaret Power and Van Gosse

Dear Colleagues,



We have until October 1 to submit this resolution from Scholars for a New
Deal for Higher Education
<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fforms%2Fd%2Fe%2F1FAIpQLSeiMvVSe4y1eIITNJ8jbpwfNrS5P_FIa35Wh-BaHneGGnmVqg%2Fviewform%3Fusp%3Dsf_link&data=05%7C01%7Caimee.loiselle%40uconn.edu%7C98dcb7f387c3401b5f2c08dbbaab9bc0%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638309018442619868%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XoMWFaWMj0UCICzWhlDHKQj3AgEbZyYu%2BalQqjMwC%2FU%3D&reserved=0>
for
consideration at the Business Meeting during the AHA Annual Meeting,
January 4-7, 2024 in San Francisco.



AHA leaders have been discussing the crisis in higher education, but this
resolution urges the association to take concrete steps to support
increased government funding for higher education that protects and
respects higher education workers.



*We need 227 members (2% of the total membership) to sign the resolution,
so as to get it on the agenda for the Business Meeting.*



*If you are (or will be as of October 1) a paid-up AHA member, *please sign
this google form
<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fforms%2Fd%2Fe%2F1FAIpQLSeiMvVSe4y1eIITNJ8jbpwfNrS5P_FIa35Wh-BaHneGGnmVqg%2Fviewform%3Fusp%3Dsf_link&data=05%7C01%7Caimee.loiselle%40uconn.edu%7C98dcb7f387c3401b5f2c08dbbaab9bc0%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638309018442619868%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XoMWFaWMj0UCICzWhlDHKQj3AgEbZyYu%2BalQqjMwC%2FU%3D&reserved=0>
*. *The resolution appears in the form and below.


Also, please forward this email to your colleagues and any historians you
know who may be AHA members.  We need to get the word out as widely and
quickly as possible.




BACKGROUND:
The escalating crisis in higher education, including most recently the
drastic cuts to West Virginia University, undermines historians’ abilities
to produce knowledge and contribute to teaching and research and the health
and welfare of society. The historical profession is collapsing as a result
of decades of reduced public funding; take-overs of governance by state
legislatures and governors; the closure and merging of academic departments
and elimination of majors and degrees, especially in the arts and
humanities; threats to tenure; and the reliance on low-paid, contingent
instructors for over three quarters of all teaching.

The shift to overwhelmingly underpaid and unsupported contingent labor has
also resulted in professional organizations losing their dues paying
members and seeing fewer participants in their conferences and subscribers
to their publications. The diminishing numbers of faculty who receive the
resources and time to engage in peer review, whether for publication or
tenure, is also creating a crisis in the production and sharing of
disciplinary knowledge.

For decades, public higher education has been one of the country’s most
important democratic and economic institutions. The current crisis is an
enormous and universally relevant social setback, one which it is our right
and obligation to oppose. Now is the time for professional disciplinary
organizations to take leadership roles in educating their members and the
public about the crisis, and in expressing support for policies that
support the survival of the profession.

Historians must insist that higher education be fully funded by the
government, and that those funding policies, including those focused on
reducing tuition, recognize that faculty and staff are the bedrock of
higher education and that everyone employed by colleges and universities
should be respected and compensated fairly. Models for ensuring fair,
equitable employment, such as the federal “College for All” bill, most
recently introduced in 2023, include provisions that require institutions
receiving federal monies to make college affordable for students to also
invest in their workers by increasing the proportion of faculty on the
tenure track to 75 percent and providing greater support and opportunities
for contingent faculty and staff.

RESOLUTION:
Whereas there is a crisis in higher education resulting from decades of
reduced public funding; take-overs of governance by state legislatures and
governors; curtailment of tenure; and the reliance of low-paid, contingent
instructors for over three quarters of all teaching,

Whereas this crisis is threatening to collapse the professional academic
discipline of history that provides knowledge, instruction, and expertise,

We resolve to advocate for increased federal and/or state public funding of
higher education that would strengthen and rebuild colleges and
universities by ensuring equitable access for all students, while fostering
a stable, fair, and secure workforce.

We resolve to support efforts to provide low-cost to free tuition for
students coupled with labor protections that require institutions to
advance toward 75 percent tenure track and fair, renewable, stable
contracts with benefits for others.




*Solidarity Across the Americas: The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and
Anti-imperialism*
https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469674056/solidarity-across-the-americas/
Margaret Power
Professor of History Emerita
Department of Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
3301 South Dearborn
Chicago, Illinois 60616

*I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land I am on today, the
Kickapoo and the Potawatami, and pay my respects to their elders past and
present.*
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