Canadian government student loan

Report: Committee on government relations

The mission of the government relations committee is to advocate positions and achieve goals at all levels of government that are beneficial to the higher education community, guided by the principles of the AAUP.

The committee met in the AAUP office on November 9 and 10, 2000, to review committee activities, develop policy issues, and set the Association's federal legislative priorities for the 10%th Congress. The committee had planned to review the national election results during the meeting, but that plan was delayed owing to circumstances beyond the committee's control. The committee was unable to review the activities of the 10(6th Congress because its departure was delayed until mid-December, when it finally completed action on funding packages for fiscal 2001 federal programs.

The committee heard a preliminary report from its subcommittee on state legislation affecting part-time faculty. The fill committee reviewed the subcommittee's findings and discussed possibilities of developing state and federal legislation to address issues raised by part-time faculty and to create incentives for hiring more full-time tenure-track faculty.

Committee Issues

CAPITOL HELL DAY

The plans for Capitol Hill Day 2001 include extending the day informally to Friday morning, for those unable to make appoint-ments with their legislators on Thursday. The committee will staff a table on Friday morning to distribute additional packets and to receive lobbying reports. The committee will also sponsor a hospitality center on Capitol Hill as in recent years. Lobbying materials will be made available on the AAUP Web site well in advance of the day. The committee selected two Yost awardees for 2001 and discussed ways to open up the nominating process for Yost Awards. The Yost Awards for this year will go to Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia and Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DisTANcE EDUCATION

In July AAUP general secretary Mary Burgan presented testimony before the Web-Based Education Commission, a body appointed by Congress to ensure that students have access to high-quality educational materials on the World Wide Web. The commission released its report in December, and legislation is expected based on some of the recommendations. Staff will monitor the development of that legislation. Staff have also analyzed and responded to intellectual property policies, including campus-based or systemwide policies and, in one case, on proposed state legislation.

In October Burgan participated in a panel on distance education prepared for public television broadcasting by Dallas TeleLearning, a company associated with the Dallas Community College system. The program was called "Are You History? Faculty Job Security in an Online World." Staff supplied research assistance.

The AAUP will cosponsor a conference in Montreal on distance education with the Canadian Association of University Teachers in fall 2002. The government relations office will help create the program for the conference.

STATE GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

The national office continues to engage in substantial consultative work with faculty who are pursuing legislative strategies at the state level.

Over the past several months, staff helped to revise a student note-taking bill proposed by the California Faculty Association, assisted New Jersey and Tennessee faculty with information on state public records acts, researched public-- employee bargaining legislation for several states, researched legislation affecting part-time faculty in New Mexico, researched employee benefits legislation for members in Washington and Ohio, and researched laws regarding faculty representatives on boards and faculty lobbying.

COMMUNICATIONS

Staff have regularly posted legislative news on electronic distribution lists and on the government relations section of the AAUP Web site. The section, which is being reorganized, includes archives of previous "updates," many with links to background documents and other sites. The committee reviewed the Web site and other communication strategies at its fall meeting.

During 2000, staff addressed state conferences and meetings in California, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. Staff also presented workshops on distance education, intellectual property, and state legislative strategies at the AAUP's Summer Institute in Ohio last year.

A letter introducing the AAUP to all new members of Congress has been sent, along with a copy of the January-February issue of Academe.

OTHER ISSUES

There were plenty of opportunities for monitoring and "minor" lobbying on a range of federal issues, including research and medical school funding, medical research regulations, bankruptcy provisions, the Department of Education regulatory process (negotiated regulations), sovereign immunity (Eleventh Amendment issues), lobbying and tax laws affecting nonprofits, and regulations governing political activities of nonprofit groups. Staff proposed amendments to legislation affecting temporary visas for foreign faculty and monitored and reported on the budget and appropriations processes throughout the year.

Federal Legislative Priorities

BUDGET, TAXATION, AND APPROPRIATIONS

Priorities: Maintain support of federal student financial aid, including increases in Pell Grants, the direct loan program, and tax provisions that improve access to higher education and encourage participation in higher education careers. Promote federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Support reauthorization and funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Continue to support full funding of scholarly research activities sponsored by federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PUBLISHING ISSUES

Priorities: Monitor and protect the principles of academic freedom and access to information in the development of treaties and new legislation affecting intellectual property issues, including those arising in the development of technological innovations. Promote legislation to change the tax treatment of inventory to enhance the availability of textbooks and reference works.

DISTANCE EDUCATION

Priority: Monitor the development of legislaton and regulation governing the ise od distance education, to ensure that academic and educational qulaity are not compromised by the use of technology-based instruction.

EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY IN EDUCATION

Priorities: Promise effects to increase the diversity of college and university faculty and student populations as a means to improve and enrich the experience of higher education. Continue commitment to the principles of equal opportunity, affirmative action, and civil rights, including support for programs for women adn minorities.

LABOR LAW REFORM

Priorities: Support legislation to overturn the Yeshiva decision and maintain support for the legal right of faculty to take collective action, including that of participation in collective bargaining.1 Oppose legislation that would interfere with rights of faculty to organize, to determine democratically how they participate in governance, and to exercise their freedom of association.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Priorities: Monitor rfforts to ,imit freedom of expression and related acedemic freedom rights. Support legislative efforts to protect privacy and appropriate publication and sharing of research data.

BENEFITS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Priorities: Monitor and promote benefits, including tuition benefits and pension reform, that improve access to higher education, attract top scholars to teaching and research, and encourage graduate students to consider higher education careers.

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION AND IMMIGRATION

Priorities: Support international education and multiple-- language programs as ways to enrich and broaden the higher education experience. Oppose legislation naming English as the official language of the United States. Oppose legislation that would require educational personnel to enforce federal immigration laws or deny educational opportunities to any resident of the United States.

The Association's position on higher education issues is described in more detail in other documents in the government relations section of the AAUP's Web site .

Note

1. In NLRB v. Yeshiva University, 444 U.S. 672 (1980), the Supreme Court classified university faculty as "managerial employees" and thereby excluded them from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act. Since state employees are covered by their own state's public employee collective bargaining statutes, the Yeshiva decision primarily affects faculty at private institutions.