Trusteeship - November/December 2020 - 6

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NEWS IN BRIEF

AAUP Recommendations
on Contingent Faculty
and the Global Pandemic
ON AUGUST 11, 2020, the American Association
of University Professors' (AAUP) Committee on Contingency and the Profession released "Contingent
Faculty and the Global Pandemic." This statement
contains eight principles and recommendations to
promote faculty advocacy during COVID-19.
According to the statement, AAUP condemns
administrations' removal of experienced contingent faculty. Their removal not only contradicts
"the highest ideals of equity and justice espoused"
by institutions, but also "undermines student learning conditions in the short term and the institution
of higher education in the long term."
Nontenure-track faculty and graduate student
employees make up 70 percent of the teaching force
but are rarely afforded basic employee benefits.
AAUP argues contingent faculty deserve paid sick
leave during COVID-19 and unemployment benefits.
AAUP also urges institutions to offer paid training for all faculty to ensure a smooth transition to
online education this fall. As faculty pivot toward
preparing dynamic remote instruction, they also
deal with widespread cancellation of conferences
and the closure of research facilities. Each of these
changes contribute to disruption of traditional
tenure time lines; AAUP recommends institutions
suspend tenure clocks for a year.
Shared governance must also be expanded and
"administrations should not take advantage of
good faith cooperation by faculty," according to
AAUP's statement. Such manipulation includes seizing intellectual property, refusing to defend contingent faculty whose intellectual property is used
for political gain, and forcing contingent faculty to
facilitate their replacement amid the pandemic.
"The future of the profession is at stake," AAUP
warned in the statement. "And the current situation will not be sustainable in the next academic
year if changes are not made

6 TRUSTEESHIP NOV. DEC. 2020

Two HBCU Presidents
Join COVID-19
Vaccine Trials

N SEPTEMBER 2, 2020, Walter Kimbrough,
the president of Dillard University, and
Reynold Verret, the president of Xavier

University of Louisiana, announced their participation
in the Ochsner Medical System's Phase Three vaccine
trials.
In their joint message, the presidents urged students, staff, faculty, and alumni of
Dillard and Xavier universities to "consider participating in this trial or others being
conducted" to "advance the cause for not just ourselves, but our sisters and brothers
suffering from the effects of this virus on their families and communities."
COVID-19 disproportionally impacts people of color, and Kimbrough and Verret
hope increased participation of minority communities will ensure an eventual vaccine is proven effective on nonwhite Americans. Black physicians, scientists, and
researchers concur with the presidents. Larry Graham, MD, a retired pulmonologist,
told NBC: "Genetics related to racial differences make it essential that we be involved
in broad-based and diverse clinical trials of medications and vaccines."
Despite this encouragement, Kimbrough and Verret's message was met with
widespread skepticism because of the medical establishment's historic exploitation
of black people in unethical medical experiments.
The presidents' letter briefly acknowledged African Americans' long held distrust.
"We remember the Tuskegee Syphilis Study... undermining trust in health providers
and caretakers. Today, there are many regulations in place to assure the ethical execution of medical studies, including oversight by Human Subjects Committees."
Nonetheless, a torrent of social media responses condemned the presidents' message to their constituents. "Sorry, not using my child as a guinea pig. The Tuskegee
experiment all over again," commented Erika Smith on the Xavier University Facebook
page. "This letter is an outrageous insult to our community," another user agreed.
Alexis Ponder Calloway, MD, a 2004 Xavier graduate and emergency room physician, understands African American's nuanced responses to the call to volunteer.
"Given the severe impact of Covid-19 on communities of color, it is understandable
to want and need involvement in vaccination trials to ensure the population is representative of everyone. It's difficult, however, to reconcile targeted requirement" she
told NBC. "Everyone should have the freedom to do their own research, ask questions, and decide if participation is desirable on an individual basis without outside
influences."
Kimbrough echoed Calloway's push for individual choice and responded to critics
in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 21. "The letter
was to tell people to consider participating. It's not to tell them to do it. There aren't
enough African Americans participating in the trials. And the vaccine makers are
saying we won't know if the vaccine works for African Americans if you don't have
enough people in the trial."

SHUTTERSTOCK/ SCOTT CORNELL

Trusteeship - November/December 2020

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