Dear Colleague:

 May we trouble you for a bit of your time to read the following few paragraphs? Frankly, we hope to convince you that the faculty needs AAUP, you may need AAUP, and AAUP certainly needs you. Several reasons for joining are:

 Academic freedom and tenure are under attack from many sides. You don’t have to look at England, or the U. of Minnesota, where tenure is gone or may be going, to become alarmed. Lexington’s own Senator Tim Philpot has pre-filed a bill for the May special session to require post-tenure review at Kentucky universities. Basically it allows your removal if you are evaluated as "below standard" in a "comprehensive post-tenure evaluation process" which will be conducted "at least every five (5) years." For the relevant text of the bill, look at the UK Chapter’s web page: www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/AAUP. It’s hardly the even-handed, faculty-development process that A&S has going on a trial basis. Ever since economist Edward Ross was fired by Stanford for expressing his views on the gold standard, intelligent people have understood that academic freedom exists only if tenure exists. Those who claim that constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech are now sufficient to substitute for tenure are disingenuous at best. The constitution keeps you from going to jail for expressing your views; it certainly won’t keep a member of faculty from getting sacked.

 We need you. You need us. Each year AAUP represents faculty on academic freedom, tenure, merit and salary issues. The Chapter provides support and advice to faculty members, both tenured and non-tenured, on all sorts of problems regarding their rights and privileges. While confidentiality prevents us from sharing detailed information with you, we can say with assurance that you would be surprised at some of the situations that arise at UK. (One that is public knowledge is the attempt (so far thwarted) by the Medical Center to abrogate the established policies on notice of non-reappointment for research title series faculty.) You need not be a member of AAUP to avail yourself of our services, but the more members we have, the more we can help members and non-members alike.

 The UK Chapter has done a lot for our faculty and university. Over the past 75 years we have been deeply involved with such matters as the formation and re-instatement of the faculty senate, getting faculty members on the board of trustees, adoption of the TIAA-CREF retirement plan and other fringe benefits, and institution of the process by which faculty evaluate administrators, to name a very few. As a current example, through its annual Salary Report our Chapter applies constant pressure to raise faculty salaries. To see information about issues of current interest, examine our web page at www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/AAUP.

 You get a free 1996 UK salary report and a subscription to Academe. These two publications provide a detailed look at how your salary compares with colleagues both here (down to the departmental level) and at all other U.S. institutions. Academe, with many articles of interest to faculty, is published six times a year. Plus you get a copy of our periodic newsletter – a sample is included in this packet. There are other "perks" as well, described in the accompanying brochure.

 AAUP is a voice for the faculty. The more members we have, the more our views are listened to. You can probably think of issues (letting deans stop promotion dossiers, decisions regarding the parking system, removal of the fountain and plaza in front of POT, etc.) that you wish you might have at least been consulted about. We invite you to join us – to strengthen the faculty’s input.

 The modest dues may be deducted monthly. It costs only $10 per month for tenured faculty ($ 5.50 for non-tenured) and the dues can now be paid monthly directly from your bank or credit union account. Just fill out both enclosed forms and attach a voided check or deposit slip. (UK payroll deduction is no longer a possibility. AAUP's use of that system was withdrawn by the University when community college faculty asked UK to allow payment of their American Federation of Teachers (AFT) dues.)

 Many thanks for your consideration.

 Sincerely,

 Michael Kennedy, Chair, Membership

Kennedy@pop.uky.edu or 257-6494

Jess Weil, President, UK Chapter

Weil@ukcc.uky.edu or 257-3997

P.S. This just in: the Oregon Senate has just voted to eliminate tenure; should the bill become law, faculty will have 3-year renewable contracts.