In the Line of Duty

The outgoing president of the American Association of University
Professors, Dr. Jane Buck, weighs in on the importance of tenure,
shared governance at Black colleges and the future of AAUP.

By Patricia Valdata

Dr. Jane Buck
Title: Outgoing President, American Association of University Professors
Professional: Professor of Psychology, Delaware State University, 1969-1998
Education: B.A., Political Science; M.A., Economics; M.Ed., Educational Psychology; Ph.D., Behavioral Sciences — University of Delaware

Dr. Jane Buck, who spent almost her entire career teaching psychology at Delaware State University, the only historically Black college in Delaware, is the outgoing president of the American Association of University Professors.

Growing up in a family of civil rights activists in Reading, Pa., it seems appropriate that Buck conclude her presidency with a show of civic disobedience. In April, she and incoming AAUP President Cary Nelson, a professor of English at the University of Illinois, were arrested after demonstrating in support of striking graduate assistants at New York University. Buck and Nelson, along with 55 graduate and undergraduate students from the university, spent several hours in jail.

In a recent conversation with Diverse, Buck reflects on her teaching career and on leaving the office she has held for six years.

DI: You spent your career at Delaware State University. What led you to an HBCU?
JB: Leroy Allen, former president of Cheyney [State University], when I was working on my Ph.D. said, “You know, Jane, I think you’d be great at Del State. I think you would be good for each other.” Well, I may be embellishing this a little, but this is what I remember about it. He said, “You put on your best interview dress and you get in your car and you drive to Dover and you introduce yourself to the president and say, “‘Here I am, I’m available.’” And I said, “I can’t do that,” and this part I do remember as being absolutely one of those flash-bulb memories: He said, “Jane, do you trust me?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “I was president of a historically Black institution. I know what I’m talking about. Do what I tell you.” So I put on my best interview dress, I got in my ancient car and I drove to Dover and I talked to the secretary and said, “I’d like to talk to the president.”