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.
