AAUP Against Austerity
We love Bucknell!
So much that we want to make it the best Bucknell it can be!
Since beginning at Bucknell in academic year 2024-25, Provost Sternberg, Vice President Hungerford, Vice President Nicole Whitehead, and General Counsel Karin Riley, working at the behest of President Bravman and the Board of Trustees, have instituted a series of austerity measures across the university. These measures represent a gross mismanagement of the university, that threaten the wellbeing of its students, faculty and staff, and the longterm integrity of our educational mission.
- Spring 2025: Provost Sternberg overturns the recommendation of faculty shared governance to withhold the return of four returning tenure-track lines to programs and departments.
- Spring 2025: The University is sued for the wrongful death of a student athlete in Summer 2024.
- Summer 2025: Vice President Whitehead fires scores of staff employees.
- Summer 2025: Vice President Hungerford pulls designated endowment funds allocated to programs and departments by donors for advancing the academic mission of the university through research and teaching to fill a small but persistent budget gap created through previous mismanagement by the administration. Some donors have threatened to sue the university, and distrust between donors and the administration threatens to kneecap the University’s capital campaign.
- Summer 2025: The Equal Protection Project sues the University for non-compliance with Trump administration mandates about diversity, equity and inclusion, no doubt caused by the dissolution of the division of Equity and Belonging which had been tasked with evaluating compliance.
- Fall 2025: The Provost unilaterally announces the closure of the healthy and vibrant Bucknell University Press, a boon to the University’s national and international reputation, at the end of 2025-26.
- Fall 2025: The Provost’s academic strategic planning suggested undermining of the teacher-scholar model, tenure protections and faculty control over the curriculum by planning to hire non-tenure track teaching faculty to make curricular innovations outside of departments and programs.
These actions pull from a playbook used by administrations across the country over the last decades. This playbook—undermining tenure, concentrating power in the hands of administrators, and placing the endowment before education—has gutted the educational mission of universities fostering public distrust of higher education. Now the administration wants to do the same here at Bucknell.
AAUP Bucknell, backed by AAUP National and the American Federation of Teachers, is fighting back on behalf of the people who are the university—faculty, staff, and students. Here’s how.
Information Sharing to build Solidarity
Administrators have publicly announced the elimination of some positions at Bucknell University. Other positions are being quietly eliminated and many staff and faculty may not be aware of the extent of downsizing that is currently taking place on our campus. AAUP Bucknell is collecting data about the positions that have been eliminated in 2025 in the interest of greater transparency and solidarity.
Please fill out this form if you know of additional staff or faculty positions that have been eliminated in 2025 (i.e. a person was fired and their position has been eliminated, or a person retired or resigned and their position has been eliminated). Please also fill out this form if you know of a full-time benefits-eligible staff position that was transitioned to a part-time position in 2025.
The form is anonymous; your email address and name will not be collected.
Cost of Living Adjustment to Improve Livelihoods
In May 2025, a majority of faculty and staff petitioned the administration for fair pay. It was the first time that Bucknell coworkers spoke with a majority voice. The administration continues to underinvest in the people who make the university run.
In 2025-26 AAUP Bucknell will again advocate for real raise. Join us!
Making a Majority for Workplace Democracy
Fortunately, the administration’s austerity comes from a tired playbook. We already know the solution. To fight back and win, we will need to make a majority that can speak loud enough that they cannot continue to ignore us. Shared governance is one vehicle but it really only represents faculty since only faculty have the job protections (tenure) to meaningfully speak up. AAUP Bucknell is the only organization on campus advocating for all the people who make the university work—faculty, staff, and students. Growing our democratic organization is the only way to win. Join us!
What can you do?
- Sign up for AAUP Bucknell (no dues) to join our listserv.
- Add the “AAUP Against Austerity” badge to your email signature to demonstrate your solidarity with your co-workers. (right-click the image below to download).
- Share information about dismissals, non-renewals and cuts by filling out the form.
- Talk to your co-workers about your wages and compensation, about AAUP Bucknell, and our campaign against austerity.
