Rudy Fichtenbaum, a professor at Wright State University, was elected the next president of the AAUP last month. John K. Wilson interviewed Fichtenbaum via email about his goals for the AAUP.
John K. Wilson: A headline about your election on InsideHighered.com asked, “Is the AAUP about to change course?” Is it? In what direction?
The happy news this week that University of Illinois President Michael Hogan will resign was followed by two disturbing pieces of information. First, a state appeals court ruling that adjunct faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago will not be allowed to be part of the tenure-track faculty union at UIC.
Second, the news that Hogan will be paid $285,100 a year (plus annual raises) as a distinguished history professor, after (of course) a one-year paid sabbatical.
By Tom Suhrbur
For the past 18 months, East-West University (EWU) in Chicago has fought a vigorous campaign against the efforts of its part-time faculty to organize a union. In November 2009, adjunct (part-time) Professor Curtis Keyes contacted me about organizing a union. In January, I had my first meeting with the group and, by May, their organizing committee obtained enough signatures to petition the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for union representation election.
EWU adjuncts were not breaking new ground. Over the past ten years, many other adjuncts in Chicago and the suburbs successfully organized unions. In fact, Columbia College, Roosevelt University and the City Colleges – all within walking distance from EWU – already had part-time faculty unions. As a result, no one expected the extremes that the EWU administration would go to fight the union.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed a new law banning unionization by graduate student research assistants at public colleges.
It’s appalling that students are denied their fundamental right to form a union simply because they also happen to be students. Even if you dislike the idea of graduate student unions, you should dislike even more the idea that students don’t have rights.
I don’t often agree with Robert Weissberg, but he makes a lot of very good points at Minding the Campus about faculty unionization at the University of Illinois. Weissberg refers to a Chronicle of Higher Education article that emphasizes the tensions between adjuncts and tenure-track faculty among faculty union groups. But the reality is that all faculty need to stand together, and seek to protect all faculty against a common foe.
Weissberg strongly criticizes the University of Illinois administration for spending large sums of money in an attempt to prohibit adjuncts and tenure-track faculty from being in the same union:
Who should have a right to determine union membership — the boss or the employees? The answer seems obvious, given that unions are the voluntary coming together of workers who know that they and only they can protect their rights and working conditions. The administration of the University of Illinois should stop trying to divide and conquer its faculty and come to the table to begin collective bargaining in good faith.
By Jay Sosa
Yesterday, graduate students from the University of Chicago handed a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) based in Washington DC, asking that they rule on the case of the New York University (NYU) graduate employee union by December 31. Sound confusing? Welcome to NLRB-land, where the board that adjudicates labor disputes has been understaffed and over-politicized for some time. Normally composed of five members, the NLRB has suffered from attrition in the past three years, as members’ terms have expired without replacements. Senate Republicans have refused to confirm President Obama’s appointments to the board, and the Supreme Court ruled that the NLRB can only make decisions while composed of a three-member quorum.
The faculty strike at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is over.The SIUC Faculty Association’s Departmental Representative Council (DRC) voted tonight to end the strike after it was presented with a revised administrative proposal will form the basis of a tentative agreement to be submitted to the full membership. All faculty will return to their normal duties Thursday morning.
Diana Vallera is a Fine Artist and Photography Instructor at Columbia College of Chicago, and President of the Part-Time Faculty Union. In this essay based on a talk given last month at the Illinois AAUP meeting, Vallera analyzes Columbia College of Chicago (which has no connection to Columbia University), and the approach of the administration toward corporatization and shared governance.
From the AAUP website: Faculty at Cincinnati State have a new contract. “During the past few months of negotiation, the administration positions became increasingly extreme and the possibility of reaching meaningful, economically sound compromises seemed unlikely,” Cincinnati State AAUP past president Pam Ecker said in a statement. “Faculty members agreed to accept this contract resolution to protect the college and our students from additional, prolonged disruption.” Read more in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Journal News, or on Fox 19.
Tenured and tenure-track faculty at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale went on strike this morning. Three other unions, representing non-tenure-track faculty, graduate assistants, and civil service employees, reached agreements last night. (All four unions are represented by the IEA/NEA.)
SIU president Glenn Poshard, who has been head of the institution for five years after earning three degrees there, denounced the faculty for striking, adding that “I don’t think anyone has as much invested in this university as I do.”
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