The PSU-AAUP strongly supports our USNH colleagues in the Lecturers United-AAUP chapter at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). We call upon the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees to agree to our colleagues’ very reasonable requests for true job stability and security. The average UNH Lecturer Faculty member has been at UNH for longer than seven years, and some over 20 years. These faculty are clearly committed to fulfilling the mission of the university—a mission to which they are indeed crucial. As valuable members of the academic community, they (and the students they serve) deserve a strong commitment from UNH.
Furthermore, we support their very reasonable call for fair and equitable compensation. The administration’s expectation that Lecturers should suffer wage stagnation, as a result of significant increases in employee benefit contributions coupled with negligible salary raises, reveals how little the administration values Lecturers and the students they teach. In every institution, faculty working conditions are student learning conditions. Therefore, we stand in solidarity with our colleagues in demanding better treatment for UNH Lectures and the UNH student body they serve.
The PSU-AAUP joins faculty from institutions across the state and region in considering how UNH is treating all faculty in situations like this. We consider our UNH colleagues close kin and will continue to closely follow both the successes and challenges of maintaining the value of public higher education in New Hampshire and beyond.
Signed by the Executive Committee of the Plymouth State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (PSU-AAUP):
Jeremiah Duncan, President
Evelyn Stiller, Vice President
John Kulig, Treasurer
Anne Jung-Matthews, Secretary
Christopher Chabot, Member-at-Large
Elliott Grunner, Past President
Scott Coykendall, Chief Negotiator
