Huron Coalition Demand Letter (Part 2):
Dear President Burwell, Provost Wilkins, Vice Presidents Burleigh-Jones and Grossman, and members of the Board of Trustees,
We are disappointed with the administration’s decision to decline the opportunity to meet with the entire AU community and engage in critical discussions about our collective future. It is part of an unfortunate pattern among the current American University cabinet and board of trustees of eschewing broad community input in exchange for top-down, unaccountable, and–now with Huron–outsourced decision making. We have seen how Huron’s callous approach to staff, faculty, and students negatively impacts universities time and time again. We do not want our community to suffer unnecessarily. We feel strongly that the administration’s approach will lack any legitimacy in the eyes of those who will be tasked with implementing changes and who will bear the brunt of their impact.
We care deeply about the university’s mission and the integrity of the community. Our demand remains the same as the one put to you by students, faculty, and staff this February: a transparent and open campus wide forum with the administrators charged with facilitating Huron’s assessment and making decisions based on its recommendations. It is imperative that this forum occurs before any final decisions are made following the cessation of Huron’s contract. As a result, we are demanding that it be held as soon as practicable but no later than the end of March, before changes are made.
We look forward to hearing from you and to working with you to plan the forum.
Sincerely,
American University American Association of University Professors Chapter - americanuniversityaaup@gmail.com
YDSA at American University - ydsaau@gmail.com
Sunrise Movement at American University - sunriseamericanu@gmail.com
AU Staff Union - austaffunion@gmail.com
March for Our Lives at American University - mfolamerican@gmail.com
AU Muslim Student Association - msaamerican@gmail.com
AU Students for Justice in Palestine - ausjp22@outlook.com
Hawai’i Club at American University - hawaiiclubau@gmail.com
AU Community Garden - americanucommunitygarden@gmail.com
Brave Spaces AU: Intersectional Collective of BIPOC Students - bravespacesau@gmail.com
AU Students for Reproductive Justice - americanurepro@gmail.com
AU Adjunct Union - auadjunctunion@gmail.com
SEIU Local 500
Huron Coalition Demand Letter
Dear President Burwell, Provost Wilkins, Vice Presidents Burleigh-Jones and Grossman, and members of the Board of Trustees,
As a coalition of faculty, staff, and student groups that collectively represent thousands of members of the American University community, we write to you today with an urgent demand for greater transparency and the immediate inclusion of that entire community in deliberations and decisions surrounding the future of instruction, research, work, and learning at AU.
The ongoing budget realignment exercises along with the Strategic Workforce Assessment, for which the administration has engaged Huron Consulting Group, augur profound and potentially destructive change for the conditions under which our community works, learns, and lives. Huron has a long and well-publicized track record of providing recommendations – under the guise of efficiency and cost-cutting – for reorganizations, program eliminations, and reductions in services, and university administrations have an equally long track record of implementing those recommendations with little or no input from those who will experience the impacts.
As a university community, we are open to change and have strived to embrace the values embedded in concepts like “inclusive excellence,” “changemaking,” and “Change can’t wait.” However, the record is clear; changes proposed by third party organizations like Huron, and imposed by small committees of administrators divorced from the everyday texture and flow of university labor and learning, carry extreme risk of irrevocable and long term harm to the community, unnecessarily derailed lives through layoffs, and shattered morale for those left to pick up the pieces.
We cannot allow that to happen at AU, and there is still time to choose another path. We demand that the administrators charged with facilitating Huron’s assessment and making decisions based on its recommendations host a campus wide forum within one week of the termination of Huron’s contract (Thursday, March 7th). At this forum, we expect a candid and complete report on the administration’s expectations for the Huron engagement and their intentions and plans going forward, and we further expect space for questions from members of the community to members of the administration. In advance of this forum, we demand the university share Huron’s scope of work for their contract to the undersigned, as promised by Provost Wilkins. Such transparency and openness, and the modicum of accountability they afford, will be a good first step in what needs to be a community-wide discussion about the future of American University.
We expect a response by close of business Monday, February 26th, and we look forward to working with you to plan the forum.
Sincerely,
American University American Association of University Professors Chapter - americanuniversityaaup@gmail.com
YDSA at American University - ydsaau@gmail.com
Sunrise Movement at American University - sunriseamericanu@gmail.com
AU Staff Union - austaffunion@gmail.com
March for Our Lives at American University - mfolamerican@gmail.com
AU Muslim Student Association - msaamerican@gmail.com
AU Students for Justice in Palestine - ausjp22@outlook.com
Hawai’i Club at American University - hawaiiclubau@gmail.com
AU Community Garden - americanucommunitygarden@gmail.com
Brave Spaces AU: Intersectional Collective of BIPOC Students - bravespacesau@gmail.com
AU Students for Reproductive Justice - americanurepro@gmail.com
AU Adjunct Union - auadjunctunion@gmail.com
SEIU Local 500