Solidarity @ USC
Starts With You
the American Association of University Professors
at the University of Southern California
Members of the USC AAUP Chapter work to ensure that the University of Southern California is attentive to the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized and to develop a people-centered approach to the immense challenges facing higher education in moments of crisis.
Solidarity, respect, compassion, and collective power are key principles guiding the work that we do.
USC-AAUP Chapter Statement Regarding the Cancellation of 2024 Valedictorian Graduation Speech
In light of the USC administration's decision to cancel the commencement speech of 2024 valedictorian Asna Tabassum, USC-AAUP reminds our academic community of the importance of academic freedom. We speak as faculty affirming a principal tenet of our mission: in the words of the USC Faculty Handbook, “Academic freedom is the core value of every great university.”
Either Asna Tabassum deserves to be valedictorian, or not. If not, then rescind her honor. If so, why deny her the ability to speak that has been given every other valedictorian for decades?
The Provost’s statement that “There is no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement” is technically true: the freedom of speech granted by First Amendment guarantees only that the government will refrain from making prohibitions on speech. But this framing is a diversion from the issues at hand: What we have here is a matter of academic freedom and campus values. As an organization dedicated for more than a century to preserving academic freedom, it is incumbent on the AAUP to challenge this grievously bad decision.
Additionally: framing of this as a security issue is disingenuous at best. If the issue is protecting the valedictorian, there are all manners of threat mitigation available. The DPS is California's largest private security force. It strains credulity that DPS, in coordination with city and state law enforcement if necessary, could not fashion a secure environment where the valedictorian could deliver her remarks.
If the issue is protecting the graduation ceremony from those who would disrupt it, how is removing the valedictorian from the ceremony anything other than caving in to illegitimate threats? We have had controversial speakers in the past. In keeping with our core values, we have — simply and unequivocally — let them speak. But here, we have capitulated to a "heckler's veto" before the fact. Why is the burden of a potential threat placed on the shoulders of the valedictorian rather than those who would disrupt her?
Faculty participated in selecting Tabassum as valedictorian in recognition of not only her high G.P.A. but her remarkable achievements. While it is salutary that the Provost is taking responsibility for the decision to disinvite her from giving the traditional valedictorian speech, the fact that it was made without consulting the bodies nominally involved in academic decisionmaking, the Academic Senate or the Faculty Councils, gives the lie to the notion of 'shared governance.' This was a decision that affects our larger community, done entirely without any notice to or consultation with that community.
It appears that the only input that mattered to the Provost's office came from people who took issue with a link on an Instagram page.
Asna Tabassum has earned the highest academic honor bestowed on an undergraduate student. She has distinguished herself academically and earned highest accolades throughout her tenure at USC. Surely she has earned the standing to address her peers and the campus community.
By casting aside the achievements and USC’s own recognition of such an acclaimed student, the USC administration does not merely create a chilling effect on the academic freedom of the entire USC community. It actively strangles it.
USC's capitulation here plays into the hands of those in Washington and elsewhere, many of them anti-intellectual reactionaries, who are opportunistically, cynically using the banner of "antisemitism-on-campus" as a means to assault higher education in the US and to demonize campus communities that express solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle.
What this surely looks like is less campus security threats than cowardly administrators afraid of facing heat from forces beyond our campus (see this, today) throwing an undergraduate student and indeed the entire USC community under a bus. Their capitulation harms not only our campus community but all of higher education in the U.S. By being honored as the 2024 valedictorian, Asna has been called to speak by USC; let her.
USC-AAUP stands strongly behind instructors mandating masking in their classrooms to accommodate health needs, September 2023
Sarah Van Orman, USC’s Chief Campus Health Officer, recently wrote the campus community to acknowledge a rise in COVID-19 cases and to encourage members of the campus community to “choose to wear a mask based on your preference and personal risk.”[1]
USC-AAUP reminds the campus community that masking in classrooms is more complex than personal choices made by individuals. (For this reason, university policy requires that people with known COVID-19 exposure wear a high-quality, tight-fitting mask for ten days.[2])
Keeping high-risk students and employees safely integrated into classrooms is both morally right and legally required per the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The Eighth Circuit issued a ruling that allows schools to require classroom masking in order to protect students with disabilities that make them vulnerable to COVID-19.[3] Federal employment law also holds that a medically vulnerable employee has the right to request that co-workers mask in a workplace setting.[4] Thus, if anyone in a classroom is high-risk, they are entitled to ask for universal high-quality masking (KN95 or higher) as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. USC-AAUP recommends that students notify the Office of Student Accessibility Services and instructors notify the Office of Institutional Accessibility and ADA Compliance in writing of their accommodation requests; but USC-AAUP underscores that instructors can choose to honor these accommodation requests even if made only to the instructor.
USC-AAUP also reminds the campus community that there is no ethical or non-stigmatizing way to identify whether “medically vulnerable” people are in a given classroom (or whether those in a classroom live or are in close contact with medically vulnerable people); and thus USC-AAUP affirms its strong support for instructors to implement mask requirements in their classrooms if they so choose, whether or not they have received formal accommodation requests.
The grounds for this are simple:
-- USC has ended surveillance testing (and shifted from more sensitive and accurate PCR testing to much less accurate rapid antigen testing); COVID-19 levels were sharply higher in Los Angeles County in the past month+ (and higher than at any point since last winter); and we have not even hit the likely “winter surge” months yet [5, 6]
-- The World Health Organization recommends masking in crowded or enclosed spaces, and when infections are increasing in your community; high-quality masks (KN95 or higher) provide protection to both the wearer and those around them [7]
-- Classrooms, unlike some other spaces on our campus and in private life, are not fully elective spaces: enrolled students and instructors cannot opt out if their comfort level with safety precautions is at odds with the status quo
-- Instructors have the responsibility to offer classroom spaces that are accessible and where access is provided equitably
-- Instructors also have the responsibility to ensure that safety protocols are in place in instructional spaces
-- These are matters of academic freedom: freedom to teach in a manner that maximizes freedom to learn is the cornerstone of instructors’ compact with students and the academic community writ large
-- Instructors have the implied and stated right to adopt and modify classroom policies as a matter of course. Thus requiring masking in classrooms during in an ongoing pandemic is a matter of academic freedom that instructors have the freedom to implement, much like policies requiring safety goggles in a bench chemistry class, or any other classroom policy meant to provide fair and equitable access to learning.[8]
USC-AAUP also encourages instructors and students to keep in mind collective and cumulative effects of proliferating COVID-19: even people who were not initially “medically vulnerable” can acquire long-term health burden due to “Long Covid”; multiple COVID-19 infections carry multiplying risks; decisions made on USC’s campus affect our neighbors and campus community members’ family members; and even short-term illness has deleterious effects on goals for collaborative work and individual well-being on our campus.[9]
USC-AAUP stands strongly behind instructors mandating masking in their classrooms to accommodate health needs. Our pedagogy is hollow without commitment to collective safety.
[1] https://coronavirus.usc.edu/2023/09/01/covid-19-general-update-9-1-23/
[2] https://coronavirus.usc.edu/instructions-exposure-to-a-positive-case/
[4] https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/03/08/masks-workplace-ada-reasonable-accomodation/
[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02254-9
[6] Per wastewater monitoring conducted by Biobot Analytics, https://biobot.io/data/; see also https://deadline.com/2023/08/los-angeles-covid-cases-rise-35-in-past-week-test-positivity-nearing-peak-of-last-summer-1235527763/
[7] https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-masks
[8] The Biden administration terminated the “State of Emergency” response to the COVID-19 pandemic in May; this does not mean that the pandemic itself has ended in epidemiological terms. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/coronavirus-disease-covid-19
[9] Even amongst vaccinated people who caught Omicron strains, the incidence of Long Covid can be as high as 10%, and rises with reinfection. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2805540
April 26, 2023
Members of the USC community are excited about the appointment of our new provost, Andrew Guzman, who will represent the faculty to the wider campus. As Provost Guzman has the asset of knowing our campus well, it may come as no suprise that in discussions with faculty members, one overwhelming need emerges: true shared governance.
We look forward to engaging with Provost Guzman regarding:
Demonstrable commitment to shared campus governance, including the signficant incorporation of faculty perspectives into decisions that affect the research and teaching mission of the university;
transparency that includes accountability and responsiveness to faculty members' concerns and requests for information, as "faculty are partners in the shared responsibilities of managing the academic enterprise," per the Faculty Handbook;
managing campus resources in a way that demonstrates that research & teaching are the institution's core priorities.
We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with our new provost in service of renewed shared governance as we look ahead to the future of USC.
USC-AAUP Statement to/re Newly Appointed Provost,
Andrew Guzman
USC Faculty Letter of Neutrality Regarding Graduate Student Workers
Dear President Folt, Provost Zukoski, and Senior Vice President Washington,
As USC faculty, we have become aware that graduate student workers are seeking to form a union and engage in collective bargaining. This is not without precedent at USC; there are several other unions operating on campus already. We respect the right of graduate student workers to make this decision without any interference from USC administration or supervisors.
We care about our graduate student workers and our ability to support and mentor them in their development as scholars and researchers. Furthermore, we are proud of the world-renowned teaching and research we do together. We intend to remain neutral and will not attempt to interfere with grad students’ rights to choose freely whether to form a union, and we encourage our colleagues, and administration, to do the same.
Our Continuing Campaign
USC Faculty Salary Increase vs Rate of Core Inflation (2017-2021)
917 signatures and counting!!
AAUP of USC’s Open Letter to the Administration
Re: Faculty Salaries and Cost of Living Adjustments
Dear colleagues,
You may have noticed that your paycheck doesn’t stretch quite as far as it used to. There’s a reason for that — and it’s not you. Rather, one simple fact: our “merit increases” have not kept up with inflation.
Our raise pools for the past two years were 0% and 2%, respectively.
The cost of living in Los Angeles — as compiled by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics — rose 1.5% and 6% respectively, for a cumulative total of 7.59%.
In short: in real dollars, you are making 5.56% less than you were two years ago.
Click the button below to read the rest of the letter.
USC professors demand raise in salaries
An open letter signed by more than 900 faculty members calls for cost of living adjustments.
February 4, 2022 – The USC chapter of the American Association of University Professors sent out an open letter to USC on Jan. 8, pushing for cost of living adjustments to faculty salaries for the upcoming school year.
Read the full story here.
A Call to Action for Pay Equity
The pandemic has revealed, in so many ways, the inequities in "business as usual"--and widened many of them. Over the past year, we have all struggled to adjust to an unprecedented situation, and the well-being of our campus community has been challenged.
We are taking this opportunity to initiate a series of ongoing conversations about equity on our campus, and we invite your participation in those conversations. At public universities, salary information is public. As a private university, we are all in the dark about compensation at individual and collective levels, besides our own, unless a trusted colleague happens to share.
Our campus AAUP chapter, comprised of faculty across schools, ranks, and titles, invites your participation in an anonymous survey about compensation at USC. We hope it will generate insight into pay inequity, compression and inversion, and serve as the basis for future conversations amongst faculty, and between faculty and administration. Sharing salary information is legal, and is common in other industries and workplaces.
*Survey link: https://tinyurl.com/abwhy6ht
We are your colleagues, with gratitude and in solidarity--
USC-AAUP
(*This is a Google survey and you must be signed into a Google account to respond. This is solely to limit "spam" answers. Your account information/identity beyond your survey answers are not stored.)
Faculty Advocacy
Beginning in 1915, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has advocated for academic freedom, shared governance that prioritizes the voice and decision making power of faculty, and social equality. It helps to define professional ethics in higher education and to set pedagogical standards for teaching and learning that foster a just and equitable society. AAUP centers meaningful faculty and staff participation in decision-making processes and aims to build worker solidarity across campuses in the United States. It represents workers at universities and colleges in labor disputes and fights for economic security through direct advocacy and the creation of labor coalitions.
Working Together
The USC AAUP chapter commits to social justice, the safeguarding of teaching, learning and research, and the strengthening of empowered faculty governance. During these times of intense uncertainty at USC, coupled with the longstanding inequalities plaguing our institution, our chapter believes collective action and mobilization are more important than ever.