Our Plans

This is a crucial moment in the history of academia, the country, and the world. JHU AAUP needs to be the trusted voice for all faculty, postdocs, and academic professionals. We offer this six-point plan to the JHU AAUP as a strategy to meet today's challenges:

  1. Grow our membership: A clear strategic plan will mobilize our members. Building on previous admirable work fostering interdivisional conversations, we will: a) target outreach, b) appoint school and division liaisons, c) reach out to postdocs, d) expand membership diversity, and e) cultivate open dialogue with our members, neighboring unions, and the university administration.

  2. Resources: JHU AAUP should be the trusted resource for members' questions, worries, and concerns. This requires leadership that will:

    1. Defend free speech tenaciously. The policy of institutional restraint should not limit faculty's free speech or the university's ability to respond to today's challenges.

    2. Advocate consistently for shared governance and ensure consistent communication and coordination with university administration to ensure all faculty, postdocs, and students are supported effectively and confidentially.

    3. Connect faculty confronting visa issues with legal aid through AAUP National; work closely with OIS to ensure members have the information and resources they need.

    4. Provide opportunities for members to access professionalization and mentorship resources and networks, including support with reviews, promotions, and contract negotiations.

    5. Maintain an effective and informative website, a robust social media presence, and clear channels to publicize resources and enable efficient one-on-one communication.

  3. Organized and targeted action: We believe it is important to act quickly and decisively to meet the challenges facing our communities today. We will work with the membership to set strategic priorities to develop clear plans and tactical action, which can be deployed rapidly (e.g., attendance at national days of action, responses to attacks on academic freedom and issues related to visa status).

  4. Wider net: Representing academics at the largest university recipient of federal funds, JHU AAUP has a local, regional, and national role to play. We will build partnerships nationwide to help develop, support, and lead a national faculty movement. We will develop and implement a plan to cooperate with local unions, interest groups and other workers at Hopkins, including graduate students and staff, to build effective coalitions.

  5. Trust: We believe that focused, strong, and dedicated leadership is essential to meet our challenges. We will work to establish mutual respect and shared governance with university leadership, political leaders, neighboring unions, and national interest groups. We will also maintain trustworthy and steady communications with the administration based on mutual respect. We believe reliable, focused leadership is crucial to advancing AAUP goals and ensuring the success of our advocacy for shared governance, free speech, and protecting the rights of our members.

  6. Healthy Organization: We believe achieving these goals requires a healthy, efficient, and effective organizational structure. We will dedicate time to streamlining our internal communications, hold regular chapter meetings, and welcome the participation of all members. We will put structures in place to provide accountability and open communication with members, striving to ensure that the chapter acts in alignment with its values.


Co-authored by: Lisa Siraganian (President); Ahmed Ragab (Vice-President); Siobhán Cooke (Secretary); Graham Mooney (Treasurer)