Welcome Message to Newly Inaugurated Ohio University President Lori Stewart Gonzalez

The Ohio University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (OU-AAUP) welcomes incoming President Lori Stewart Gonzalez and wishes her well in beginning her term as president of Ohio University. With her decades of experience, longstanding ties to the Appalachian region, and commitment to the power of public education, we hope to build a strong working relationship together. 

While Ohio University has had many recent accomplishments that have raised its standing, including growing and healthy enrollments, and designation as an R1 institution. Our chapter would like to ensure that those successes continue, and can further ensure working conditions for faculty that allow them to excel in teaching and research. Faculty will also want to be able to devote time to their service within their fields, to the campus, and to the wider community both in southeastern Ohio, nationally, and internationally. 

We especially look forward to working with President Gonzalez on issues related to protecting and advancing academic freedom, an issue that we know has been important in her own career and which is currently being debated in the state legislature.

More broadly, faculty are the frontline workers of the university's academic mission, so the students' educational experience is immediately impacted by our working conditions. As an incoming president, we hope that President Gonzalez will work with us to build a university that is an excellent learning environment for Ohio University students.

The OU-AAUP Chapter is forging a working relationship based on mutual understanding and shared goals in order to explore the possibilities that can come from productive dialogue.