When this presidential term began my home and office were filled with acrid smoke from forest fires to the north that would continue to burn all summer long. It felt like a metaphor of sorts. Global climate change affects every aspect of our lives, from the food we eat to the way we travel to the air we breathe to the plans we make.
I open with this vignette as a way of saying things can feel dire. There is much we cannot control. And yet, we have agency, we can make better decisions, we can do good work. The members of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) are doing critically important work publishing books, journals, and multimodal scholarship that address climate change and the myriad of other high stakes issues affecting our lives. As ever, we continue to partner with authors and others both in the academy and elsewhere to build the scholarly record and provide trusted, vetted knowledge to readers everywhere. And the Association is doing critically important work supporting its members, ensuring all have access to resources, and supporting publishing professionals as they hone their skills and progress in their careers.
It is National Volunteer Week as I write this, and I reflect back to my first presidential responsibility: appointing chairs to the 18 committees that are the engine producing those resources that benefit the membership. My immense gratitude goes out to the 23 people who answered the call. They stepped up, formed committees, and tackled newly constituted charges, with grace and aplomb. Special thanks to the chairs of the committee for which I served as board liaison: the Annual Meeting Program Committee. David Aycock (Baylor) and Michelle Sybert (Notre Dame) were models of positivity and organization. The committee they formed followed suit, and the program developed for the upcoming meeting in June is exceptional, with planned sessions on all the usual needed topics, along with panels on AI, the hybrid/remote office, accessibility, and much more. Our industry can be dizzyingly complex, but the annual meeting provides a space in which to gather and learn new ways of doing things and enjoy camaraderie and the fruits of community.
While committees formed, the board’s work ran in parallel, including completing a refresh of the Association’s Strategic Plan, begun under Past-President Charles Watkinson (Michigan). We reaffirmed our commitment to the mission—“AUPresses advances the essential role of a global community of publishers whose mission is to ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge”; values—equity and inclusion, integrity, intellectual freedom, and stewardship; and goals—Collaboration, Advocacy, Research, Education, and Infrastructure.
Progress over this year included promoting Ask UP more broadly to authors and institutions, showcasing and advancing members’ work at book fairs internationally, the creation of accessibility resources for presses, placing opinion pieces in key channels, offering workshops on financial literacy to staff at member presses, strengthening an expanded Partners program, and developing and adopting a succession planning policy.
While this is an impressive list, perhaps the most exciting accomplishment was adding capacity at the Central Office. Not one but two terrific new staff members were added: Trevor Nau as Administrative Coordinator, and McKenzi Thi Murphy as Membership Coordinator. Along with Peter Berkery, Brenna McLaughlin, Kim Miller, Kate Kolendo, Annette Windhorn, and Alexis Fagan, Trevor and McKenzi round out a terrific team of skilled professionals who work tirelessly to advance our collective goals. It has been a joy to interact with every member of this team this year, and I thank them for all their good work.
Most are aware that the Association’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic effected a significant change to the Annual Meeting strategy, now featuring an alternating virtual format, described at the time as “both accessible and environmentally responsible.” Our hopes for this strategy have been borne out, allowing for in-person community alternating with a greener, more accessible virtual format. In 2023, we added a smaller in-person Directors’ Summit, addressing four “economic headwinds”: the retail bookselling landscape, course adoptions and inclusive access, the library and aggregator markets, and relationships with campus budget offices and development teams. Directors shared experience and tactics for meeting the challenges of each. Additional programming covered new experiments and mandates in Open Access publishing. Attendance was robust and feedback was excellent, reinforcing the idea that community remains vitally important for publishing professionals at every stage of their careers.
Accessibility remained a priority, and another important challenge met was to help educate members about the new EU Accessibility policies. The Association retained Bill Kasdorf to develop a resource for members on accessibility requirements for ebooks. This important tool was made available to members with a follow up webinar. That webinar, along with many others and additional accessibility resources, was recorded and can be found on UP Commons.
November saw the publicity blitz of University Press Week—this year’s theme was Speak UP—perform at record-breaking levels, with the UP Week Gallery featuring the work of 103 university presses; a new Publisher Toolkit; UP features in Publishers Weekly, Lit Hub, Publishing Perspectives, Feeding the Elephant, New Books Network; and more. We even garnered a mention on MSNBC! Also that month the Association hosted a shared stand in the vendor showcase at the Charleston Library Conference. The establishment of a consistent presence each year at this important meeting of librarians, publishers, and vendors is key to keeping the work of university presses on the radar of these important stakeholders.
In March, I attended the National Humanities Alliance (NHA) annual meeting and joined the New York delegation for Humanities Advocacy Day. We traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with legislative aides and congresspeople to advocate for support of the president’s budget for funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Title VI, and Fulbright Hays. The NHA is doing fantastic work, and they are fortunate to have Peter Berkery serving on their board.
Throughout this year outreach and engagement has been a priority. I have connected to colleagues at many member presses to build and deepen relationships across the community during this fragmented and challenging time. Community bonds are sustaining, and while nurturing them takes time, the support afforded by being in community with other publishers is priceless. I am especially grateful to my co-authors across the membership who helped shape two important opinion pieces the Association placed in widely read higher-ed media: “Building Up Books” and “Policy-making and the future of scholarly monographs.” Working towards thoughtful consensus and persuasive advocacy with these colleagues was an enriching part of my presidency.
As this term comes to a close, acrid smoke—literal and metaphorical—fills more of our homes and offices. People all over the globe, especially young people on college campuses, continue to protest injustice and stand up for what they believe in. They want to live in a different world, a more equitable and just, peaceful and sustainable, world. And though the world sometimes feels as though it is on fire, as scholarly publishers, we have a commitment and responsibility to ensuring we represent the world in all its diversity—and our values in all of their most potent hope. This Association supports us in our efforts. My motivation for volunteering with this Association has always been to learn more about how to be a good publisher. Service teaches and edifies, as well as expands opportunities. It is an honor to serve, the Association is healthy and strong, and I am eager to see what’s next. We build on what came before, and we are fortunate to have Anthony Cond (Liverpool) stepping up as the first non-North American president for 2024-2025.
Jane Bunker, President 2023-2024
Director, Cornell University Press