On October 5, 2022, the Whitman College Chapter of the AAUP issued a Statement on Affordable Housing for Whitman Faculty. The statement:

• Asserts that the housing crisis in Walla Walla is of significant concern to our members;
• Calls for the immediate creation of a new benefits program to address the housing crisis;
• Expresses solidarity with efforts on this issue by the Faculty Committee on Compensation;
• Provides links to housing benefits policies at similar institutions of higher education.

During the spring semester of 2022, the chapter and its members:

• • Continued to speak up for equity and transparency with regard to in-person teaching mandates, with measured results.
  • Interpreted and shared the findings from the external financial analysis of Whitman College. (See the FAQ about the external analysis here.)
  • Worked with the Academic Freedom and Due Process Committee to join a multi-university effort and propose a resolution “Defending Academic Freedom to Teach About Race and Gender Justice and Critical Race Theory.” The faculty voted on and approved the resolution.
  • Engaged with department and division chairs over plans to institute online summer pre-major advising, and issued a statement of concern over processes and policies that resulted in the formalization of that plan.
  • (Select chapter members) initiated a successful motion to amend the Faculty Code to prevent retaliative administrative action against faculty who do not advise over the summer.
  • Turned our focus to rebuilding faculty power in light of the “financial sustainability review,” results from the external financial analysis, and the change in the college president. Specifically, we aim to:
    • • Advance the teacher-scholar model at Whitman (by advocating for practices, policies, and programs that sustain it);
      • Organize for appropriate faculty compensation (knowledgeably, broadly, and equitably defined).

The external financial analysis (Download the FAQ here) took place in response to the 2020-2021 “financial sustainability review” and subsequent changes to the college’s budgets. Faculty, staff, alumni, students, and community members funded the external analysis. Dr. Howard Bunsis, Professor of Accounting at Eastern Michigan University, and certified public accountant, conducted it. Some key findings from the analysis were that:

• Between 2020-2021 alone, there was an astonishing increase in Whitman College’s endowment.
• Whitman’s credit rating was ranked as “Excellent” by Moody’s credit agency, very close to meeting the criteria for “Exceptional.”
• Whitman received $3.9M in Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds. $2.2M of this amount was fully discretionary. $1.7M went to Student Aid.
• “The cuts that were made in 2021 fell most heavily on instruction, and most lightly on administration (institutional support).”
• Since 2017, Whitman has seen a dramatic drop in the salaries of its faculty at all ranks relative to the Panel of 13 [comparison peer institutions]. No comparable data about staff salaries (not in administrative positions) are available.

Chapter members launched a fundraiser for an independent external financial analysis of Whitman College in response to the college’s 2020-2021 financial sustainability review (FSR) and questions about the FSR’s initiation.

As of June, 2022, the president of the chapter is Lisa Uddin (Associate Professor of Art History and Visual Culture Studies, and Paul Garett Fellow), the vice president is Jack Jackson (Associate Professor of Politics), and the Secretary-Treasurer is Pavel Blagov (Associate Professor of Psychology).

In early November, the AAUP chapter contacted Danielle Garbe Reser’97, Chair of the Presidential Search Committee, and made the requests below of the search committee’s members.

The Three Requests

• A request to include the chapter among those groups from the college community that will have a chance to meet with candidates for present selected for campus visits.
• A request that each of these candidates be asked to respond to three specific questions about academic freedom and one question about open searches’ pros and cons in the selection of future presidents.
• A request that, once an individual is hired, their responses to the four questions be made known to the entire college community.

As of May of 2021, the Whitman College Chapter of the AAUP has 62 dues-paying members, its largest known number of members since it founding in 1916.

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.