The UConn-AAUP Executive Committee would like to share the following message from one of our fellow members. If you are interested in participating in the letter campaign, please review the below message and see the attached letter. All letters can be sent directly to Jeff McCutcheon at jeffrey.mccutcheon@uconn.edu
Dear Colleagues:
I am writing to ask you to join me in a faculty letter campaign expressing concern about the severe reductions in graduate teaching assistant support across the university. The attached letter outlines how these cuts are jeopardizing both our graduate research mission and the quality of undergraduate education.
If you are willing to participate, I ask that you remove my signature from the attached letter, replace it with your own, and include your typed name, title, and department affiliation. Please then return the signed letter to me by email.
My intention is to compile these letters and present them to senior university leadership, including Dan Toscano and Provost Alpay, during the public comment portion of an upcoming Board of Trustees meeting.
Because of the potential professional risks involved, I especially encourage non-tenured and CIRE faculty to carefully consider whether participating is appropriate for their individual circumstances. At the same time, I fully respect the right of all faculty to make their own decision about whether to participate.
I appreciate your consideration and your willingness to help voice our collective concerns about the future of graduate and undergraduate education at UConn. If you are willing to help further, please forward this to your UConn colleagues in your Colleges, Schools, and Departments and across the university since I no doubt missed a number of programs on this email.
I would appreciate your quick response so that I can engage the Board of Trustees as soon as possible in hopes of starting the process of rectifying this prior to the start of FY27.
Regards,
Jeffrey McCutcheon
jeffrey.mccutcheon@uconn.edu