DURHAM, N.H. - The University of New Hampshire chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP-UNH) today agreed to immediately suspend its efforts to boycott the university's summer session, avoiding a Superior Court hearing requesting the continuation of the temporary restraining order issued by the court on March 10, 2010.

In paperwork filed this morning in Strafford County Superior Court, AAUP-UNH agreed it would not "encourage, sanction, condone, publicize or threaten to engage in" any activities related to a summer school boycott pending final resolution of the unfair labor practice complaint filed by the university and currently awaiting hearing before the state Public Employee Labor Relations Board (PELRB). That hearing is expected to take place soon after the April 8, 2010, collective bargaining fact finding session.

"We are very pleased the faculty union has agreed to suspend its efforts to encourage a boycott of the university's summer session," said Candace Corvey, chief negotiator for the UNH. "Thousands of students rely on UNH summer school every year and this will ensure we can provide them with the quality and variety of classes they need and have come to expect."

The university maintains the AAUP was not only violating state law by advocating for a boycott but its own collective bargaining agreement, which states that strikes and other forms of job action are unlawful. Specifically, the contract states that "the AAUP agrees it shall not directly or indirectly encourage, sanction, or condone any activities by members of the unit in violation of this Article."

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

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