In Fall 2023, the Workplace Democracy and Voice committee identified its charge as developing proactive plans for shared governance mechanisms already existing and to facilitate communication among staff who often feel siloed by current communication practices at the university. Toward this end, the committee reached out to the University Staff Personnel Committee to encourage USPC to be more forthcoming about their work and its outcomes, to which the co-chairs replied that they are exploring how to provide monthly updates. This advocacy to get USPC to work for staff will continue into Spring. The committee’s conversations also revealed the need to train supervisors on best practices relating to employee evaluations, and the possibility that administrators also be subject to evaluation by the employees they manage. In the spring the committee will be researching the channels for realizing these improvements of evaluation at Bucknell.
You can contribute to the work of the committee by exercising your voice and advocating AAUP values in shared governance; listening sessions; department, division, and office meetings. In the spring, look out for opportunities related to the provost search; the Board of Trustees meetings in the spring; and the listening sessions hosted by the Faculty Committee on Planning and Budget, the Finance Office, and Human Resources (now Talent, Culture and Human Resources (yikes!)). Finally, any AAUP Bucknell member or participant can contribute to the work of the committee by sharing ideas for issue advocacy, since as the AAUP says, “The best way to recruit new members and build your chapter is to fight for things your colleagues care about.” To add your voice to the committee, please reach out to Loren Gustafson (lgustafs@bucknell.edu).