While I’m sure we’ll be posting hot takes and icy shade from Friday’s BOR meeting, right now, I want to thank everyone who fought the good fight with AAUP and the four departments.
I want to thank all of the faculty, students, and staff who spoke or just showed up to lend support. I especially want to thank the students who spoke and others who have fought all semester. You should never have had to do any of this.
I want to thank the executive committee of the UNL AAUP. While half of us were fighting on two fronts, the other half stepped up in big ways to keep us moving forward.
I want to thank the AAUP membership who stepped up in big and small ways all semester. You brought new skills and energy to the fight for shared governance and academic freedom at UNL. Without your contributions and support, I personally would not have made it to the end of the semester.
I want to thank the members of the APC who were put in an impossible situation with a flawed and rushed process, who watched their recommendations put straight into a paper shredder, and who were then scapegoated for the failures of the process.
I want to thank the Faculty Senate for their work with the No Confidence Vote and all the work Senators have been doing to ask questions and shed light on this total trashcan fire of a situation.
I hope all three groups can continue to work arm and arm in the future.
I want to thank Will Aviles from the UNK union and Kay Siebler from the UNO union, who spoke yesterday. We will not let them pit us against each other anymore. We are One Faculty, One Nebraska, whether that’s in red, blue, or black. We’ll see UNK back in Lincoln in February to push back against even more program eliminations at our rural serving campus.
I want to thank AAUP/AFT national for their support in this fight, including several members who jumped in at the bitter end and worked with us down to the wire. This fight is not over. Not at UNL, not in Nebraska, and not across the US.
UNL AAUP will keep fighting to ensure everyone has the right to teach and the right to learn, and that shared governance is not consigned to the graveyard after all. If you haven’t joined us in the fight for our university, now is the time. And if you have not become a dues-paying AAUP member, now is the time.
