The Whitman College Chapter of the AAUP continued to facilitate faculty education, discussions, and advocacy throughout the semester. A partial list of activities includes the following.

• • We provided forums for discussion of issues related to “Financial Sustainability Review” (FSR).
  • We generated questions for and intensively participated in the trustee-faculty forum about the FSR.
  • We collected and distributed testimonials about the importance of sabbatical leave to the excellence of teaching and scholarship at the college.
  • We joined and spoke at a student-organized protest of the FSR.
  • We advocated at faculty meetings for actions to develop and improve faculty-trustee relations.
  • We authored three resolutions that were passed by the faculty on April 14, 2021:
    • Advocacy for retaining provost (rather than trustee) control over each year’s initial NTT (non-tenure track) staffing plan, and for restoring multi-year contracts for NTT faculty.
    • Registration of opposition to the extended sabbatical timeline, and support for the model proposed by the FSR faculty representatives.
      • (The trustees decided to adopt a less generous policy for the timeline of sabbatical eligibility of tenured faculty members — one that had not been recommended by the “FSR” committee on academic affairs, whose members were unable to reach consensus in this matter. The faculty members of that committee submitted to the Board of Trustees a letter separate from the committee’s report, but that letter was not released to the rest of the faculty.)
    • Advocacy for an open search for the next college president.
  • Asked the faculty to consider a motion resisting trustee intervention in the process for selecting amongst sabbatical applications.
  • Participated in National Debt Reveal Day, together with 32 other colleges, universities, and educational organizations.
  • The chapter elected Associate Professor of Religion Lauren Osborne to become its new vice president.