Admissions & Standards
This year’s Admissions and Standards Committee committed significant time to the review of a full and diverse range of applications. Perhaps in response to the efforts of last year’s committee to modernize and globalize the application forms, our applicants were much more international than usual: Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv (Introductory), Pan Atlantic University Press (Affiliate), National University of Singapore Press (Regular), Hanover Press (Introductory), City University of Hong Kong (Regular), Virginia Tech (Affiliate), Dumbarton Oaks (Regular).
While we were encouraged by the global growth, the committee became increasingly aware of shortcomings we have in assessing the broad and sometimes foreign array of experiences represented by these presses. In light of this, the Association will continue reviewing and updating the guidelines, the application, and the review process used by the committee.
We also advanced the work of last year’s committee in assigning a liaison to each introductory members to engage with them on advancing toward regular or affiliate membership. We saw immediate returns on this investment and will be encouraging future committees to maintain this work.
John Sherer, North Carolina, Chair
Douglas Hildebrand, British Columbia
Alexandria Leonard, Princeton
Lara Speicher, UCL
Wendy Queen, Johns Hopkins
Peter Berkery, Central Office Liaison
McKenzi Thi Murphy, Central Office Support
Audit
In collaboration with Central Office and after receiving guidance from legal counsel that AUPresses is not subject to NY’s annual audit requirement, the Audit Committee recommended the following actions to the board: moving to a triennial audit, dispensing with outstanding audits (FY23 and FY24), communicating these changes with the membership, and revising procedures and policies to reflect the change. The board approved this motion in July 2024. The next audit will be completed after the end of FY25, and the hope is to secure the services of the new accounting firm the Association is working with (RLN-US). The committee has pulled together a record of historical decisions, workflow details, and audit process timeline for future audit committee members.
Tara Cyphers, Ohio State, Chair
Hilary Claggett, Georgetown
Alexandria Leonard, Princeton
Erich van Rijn, California
Kim Miller, Central Office Liaison
Nominating
The Nominating Committee solicited and evaluated nominations from the membership for candidates for the 2025-26 Board of Directors in late 2024 and early 2025. The Committee drew from a robust number of nominees, some put forward as a result of the formal call for nominations, others proposed by members of the Board and the prior Nominating Committee.
The committee’s slate of nominees, including a President-Elect, Treasurer-Elect, and three Directors-at-Large (the third being a formalization of a candidate who was required to step into a position unexpectedly vacated mid-term), was approved by the current Board at their March 2025 meeting and will be presented for ratification by AUPresses members at the May 22, 2025 Annual Business Meeting. Building on prior work, the committee attempted to assess the composition of the Board as it relates both to the diversity of our membership and to our call to create a more equitable ecosystem—focusing on the broadest possible elements of representation: race/ethnicity, gender, geography, professional background, and press size, among others. While a board of fourteen members cannot represent fully the broad diversity of our community in any single year, this year’s nominees, when added to the current roster of returning members, bring an increased breadth of perspective to the board’s deliberations.
Charles Watkinson, Michigan, Chair
Jane Bunker, Cornell
Anthony Cond, Liverpool
Rachael Levay, Princeton
Amy Liu, Oklahoma
Dennis Lloyd, Wisconsin
Brian Roach, Catholic
Peter Berkery, Central Office Liaison
McKenzi Thi Murphy, Central Office Staff Support