FACULTY GOVERNANCE AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM AT RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

WHEREAS, faculty governance is the bedrock on which higher education in the United States is founded; and

WHEREAS, Provost Robert Palazzo and President Shirley Ann Jackson of RPI have suspended the faculty senate at RPI after an impasse about the definition and qualifications of “voting faculty”; and

WHEREAS, the RPI board of trustees has taken the extraordinary step of interfering in the composition and the running of the RPI faculty senate after the faculty had clearly spoken; and

WHEREAS, an attack on faculty governance at RPI is an attack on governance at all institutions of higher education:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers go on record as strongly opposing the actions of the RPI president, provost and board of trustees with respect to their suspension of the RPI faculty senate; and

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers convey its outrage at this attack on academic freedom and governance to the appropriate parties.