UNITED ACADEMICS
of The University of kansas
WE ARE UAKU
We are United. We have worked together to craft a shared Statement of Purpose, signed by a growing majority of our colleagues. We are committed to KU at its best: a university that attracts scholars, staff, and students from all over the world. Our diversity is our strength. When we lose members of our community because they feel more welcome elsewhere, we lose more than valuable colleagues — we lose sight of our mission.
We are Academics. In our myriad roles on campus, we produce and support scholarly and creative work and guide our students down paths of inquiry and activity that enrich their lives and the communities they go home to. Our work is a valuable and vital public good.
We are KU. A university is its people. Students’ time here is designed to be limited. Administrators, too, come and go. Alongside dedicated staff, we sustain the University and fulfill its academic mission. It is our research, our teaching, and our service that earn KU its R1 status and maintain its AAU designation. We are proud of this place and our role in it.
We’ve chosen our name with care and intention: to reflect our unity, to demonstrate our understanding of the wide range of academic positions on campus, and to advocate for job security for all of us.
WHY A UNION?
A union that is empowered to bargain collectively on behalf of faculty – a union which we, the faculty, govern collectively and democratically – is the best way to enable us to contribute to the betterment of students, university staff, and the community in which we live.
Our current system of governance allows us to make recommendations on the rules, regulations, and policies that govern this university. Fortifying our governance bodies with a union would empower us as active participants in the negotiations about our work, backed by clear guidelines and state and federally-recognized processes. This, in turn, will have a positive effect on the ability of university governance to be heard when it comes to policies and procedures.
WHY UNIONIZE NOW?
The last several years have made apparent the importance of maintaining spaces of connection and cooperation in many facets of our lives. Here at KU, we have been reminded of the value of shared governance and the need for effective communication and leadership. Our recent hard times and rapid changes in higher education have brought into focus where structure, support, and collaboration are needed for us to do our work.
We are attuned to and inspired by similar movements at universities across the country, where our colleagues have united to advocate for one another and for their institutions.
People elsewhere are prone to misunderstand and underestimate us here in the center of the US. The moment offers us an opportunity to lead, to further demonstrate the power and potential of speaking with a united voice. We can, on our own terms, be Jayhawks Rising.
We are UAKU. And so are you. As academics, we’re well acquainted with revisions. We welcome your feedback, your edits, your suggestions — and most of all, your participation.