POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN
The following statement is reposted from the website of the University of Chicago chapter of the AAUP.
Statement of Concerned Faculty in Support of Graduate Students United
The University of Chicago’s campaign against graduate student unionization has significantly damaged the integrity of the University both morally and intellectually.
In his February 14 email, announcing Graduate Students United’s decision to withdraw their petition to serve as the duly elected representative of graduate students, Provost Diermeier engaged in careful reputation management, providing no explanation and no context for these events. Both are available, however, on the GSU website (https://uchicagogsu.org/2018/02/14/how-well-win-our-contract/). Their story undercuts the administration’s carefully crafted narrative and flattering self-portrait.
There we learn that the GSU took this action based on a realistic concern that the University’s actions, in cooperation with the anti-union agenda of the Trump administration, could produce long-standing damage to the graduate student unionization movement here and elsewhere. Having seen their heavy-handed attempts to block unionization fail, the President, Provost, and trustees stubbornly refused to recognize the democratically elected union. They wagered correctly that if they stalled long enough, an NLRB dominated by Trump appointees would ultimately rule in their favor and establish a precedent with far-reaching consequences.
In plotting this course of action, the Zimmer/Diermeier administration cynically chose to ally the University with the most anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-democratic, anti-education administration in modern US history. And whatever they think they may have gained comes at high cost, for they have taken actions, made allies, and employed weapons antithetical to the integrity, ideals and mission of any self-respecting academic institution. In the process, they have caused serious damage to this University’s reputation and breached the trust of students and faculty.
This episode is also consistent with others. Take, for example, the administration’s relentless branding of the University as a bastion of “free speech” where right-wing ideologues like Steve Bannon are welcome, while the same “free speech” policies threaten student and non-student demonstrators with disciplinary action and even arrest. Taken as a set, they show a determination to chart policies favored by trustees, wealthy donors, hierarchic elites, and administrative advantage, even when their interests conflict sharply with liberal academic values, the demands of intellectual rigor, or the legitimate rights, needs, and desires of students, faculty, and staff. We are profoundly distressed both by these individual actions and the broader trend.
Yali Amit, Professor and Chair, Dept. of Statistics
Karlos Arregi, Associate Professor of Linguistics
Elizabeth Asmis, Professor of Classics
Leora Auslander, Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor in Western Civilization
Lauren Berlant, George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor of English
Robert Bird, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Michael Bourdaghs, Robert S. Ingersoll Professor in East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Alida Bouris, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration
Adrienne Brown, Associate Professor of English
Daniel Brudney, Professor of Philosophy
Matthew M. Briones, Associate Professor of US History
Seth Brodsky, Associate Professor of Music
E. Summerson Carr, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration
Kyeong-Hee Choi, Associate Professor in Modern Korean Literature
Cathy Cohen, David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science
Jennifer Cole, Professor of Comparative Human Development
Paul Copp, Associate Professor in Chinese Religion and Thought
Whitney Cox, Associate Professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Ryan Coyne, Associate Professor, Divinity School
Jessica H. Darrow, Director of Global Social Development Practice Programs, School of Social Service Administration
Daisy Delogu, Professor of French and Chair, Dept. of Romance Languages
Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions
Alireza Doostdar, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies
Shannon Lee Dowdy, Professor of Anthropology
Jacob Eyferth, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and History
Chris Faraone, Frank Curtis Springer and Gertrude Melcher Springer Professor of Classics
Allyson Nadia Field, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies
Norma Field, Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor Emerita in Japanese Studies
Cornell Fleischer, Kanunî Süleyman Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies
Anton Ford, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Itamar Francez, Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Susan Gal, Mae and Signey G. Metzl Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology
Adam Getachew, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Michael Geyer, Samuel N. Harper Professor Emeritus of History
W. Clark Gilpin, Margaret E. Burton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Divinity School
Andreas Glaeser, Associate Professor of Sociology
Colleen Grogan, Professor, School of Social Science Administration
Thomas Gunning, Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Cinema and Media Studies
Ramón Gutiérrez, Preston & Sterling Morton Distinguished Service Professor of History
Susan Gzesh, Senior Lecturer and Executive Director, Pozen Center for Human Rights
Elaine Hadley, Professor of English
Jesse Russell Hall, Professor Emeritus of Medicine
Sarah Hammerschlag, Associate Professor, Divinity School
Kay Heikkinen, Lecturer in Arabic
Elizabeh Helsinger, John Mathews Manly Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, Depts. of English, Art History, and Visual Arts
Angie Heo, Assistant Professor, Divinity School
Faith Hillis, Associate Professor of History
Denis Hirschfeldt, Professor of Mathematics
Thomas Holt, James Westfall Thompson Distinguished Service Professor of History
James A. Hopson, Professor Emeritus of Organismal Biology & Anatomy
Paola Iovene, Associate Professor in Modern Chinese Literature
Travis Jackson, Associate Professor of Music
Patrick Jagoda, Assistant Professor of English
Janet Johnson, Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Heather Keenleyside, Associate Professor of English
Robert Kendrick, Professor of Music
Michael Kremer, Mary R. Morton Professor of Philosophy
Loren Kruger, Professor of English
Benjamin B. Lahey, Irving B. Harris Professor of Epidemiology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience
James Lastra, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, and English
Ben Laurence, Lecturer in Philosophy
Bruce Lincoln, Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History of Religions
Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Associate Professor of Latin American Literature
Armando Maggi, Professor of Italian Literature
Patchen Markell, Associate Professor of Political Science
Joseph Masco, Professor of Anthropology
William Mazzarella, Neukom Family Professor and Chair, Dept. of Anthropology
John P. McCormick, Professor of Political Science
Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Theology and History of Christianity
Françoise Meltzer, Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor and Chair, Dept. of Comparative Literature
Paul Mendes-Flohr, Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor, Divinity School
W.J.T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor of English
Daniel R. Morgan, Associate Professor and Chair, Dept. of Cinema and Media Studies
Anna Mueller, Assistant Professor of Comparative Human Development
Matam P. Murthy, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
C.M. Naim, Professor Emeritus of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Constantine Nakassis, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Colm O’Muircheartaigh, Professor, Harris School of Public Policy
David Orlinsky, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Human Development
Julie Ormanski, Assistant Professor of English
Willemien Otten, Professor, Divinity School
Stephan Palmié, Professor of Anthropology
Jennifer Pitts, Associate Professor of Political Science
Cliff Ragsdale, Professor of Neurobiology
Eugene Raikhel, Associate Professor of Comparative Human Development
Srikanth “Chicu” Reddy, Associate Professor of English
François Richard, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Na’ama Rokem, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Marshall Sahlins, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
Zachary Samalin, Assistant Professor of English
Mario Santana, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies
Kristen Schilt, Associate Professor of Sociology, Director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality
Susan Schreiner, Professor, Divinity School
William Schweiker, Edwar L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor, Divinity School
William Sewell, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Depts. of Political Science and History
Holly Shissler, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
William Sites, Associate Professor, Social Service Administration
Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky, Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies
Amy Dru Stanley, Associate Professor of History
Howard Stein, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Philosophy and Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science
Josef Stern, William H. Colvin Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
William Tait, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Christopher Taylor, Assistant Professor of English
Elissa Weaver, Professor Emerita of Romance Languages
Lisa Wedeen, Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science
Christian Wedemeyer, Associate Professor of History of Religions
James Lindley Wilson, Assistant Professor of Political Science
John E. Woods, Professor of History and of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Tara Zahra, Professor of History
Linda Zerilli, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science
I’d just like to know why college’s can’t get some decent union busters in the administration. It’s ridiculous for grad students to unionize. Being a grad student is supposed to be a temporary status, not a profession. Get your degree, and go on with your life. They don’t need a union.
Perhaps your argument is correct and grad students don’t need a union. But shouldn’t that be their choice, rather than having “union busters” ban a union? If the administration can ban a union for being “ridiculous” in your opinion, why can’t it ban any other organizations or speakers that somebody thinks are “ridiculous”?
For example, the term “ridiculous” could apply to your argument that people with a temporary status (in this case, spending several years as a graduate student) should not be allowed to unionize. Why, exactly, should all non-long-term workers be banned from unionizing? Does that apply to all part-time and non-tenure-track faculty, too? Why, in fact, should workers without a “profession” be banned from having a union?
A few observations from an alumnus. The signatories are almost exclusively from the Humanities Division of the College; a few from Social Science and the Divinity School to a lesser extent. It is notable that there are no signatures from faculty in the Law School, the Booth School of Business, the Medical School, the Harris School of Public Policy, the Physical Sciences, any institutes or centers or any Deans. The Humanities especially, seem more traditionally excitable and contentious over party affiliation, and rather inaccurately describe the current US administration as “the most anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-democratic, anti-education administration in modern US history.” Making such unbalanced statements only undermines their credibility while underscoring their ideology (and as just a brief single refutation in fact, the Trump administration recently re-authorized NASA funding totaling nearly $20Billion for 2019 alone, and which programs sat dormant under the Obama administration for years). Otherwise, they may disapprove of the University’s resistance against the GSU, but that is a normative issue and not a legal cause of action. The GSU in my view is a counterproductive way to improve the economics of its members, and would likely only result in wage-assessed fees being transferred to the Union. In that regard, the UC administration is correct. I do sympathize and agree with their general characterization of the university administration’s management style, its apparent special interest agency, and its almost natural tendency toward hypocrisy. But critics need to remember that universities are generally run by college professors with little if any corporate experience, or managerial training, but nevertheless, currently enjoying unprecedented privileges (that also describes the Academy, and it may not be lost on readers that the signatories are among the highest paid university professors in the country). This is relevant as far as what motivations are in play when student and other disruptions, threaten to interfere with university hierarchy and economic privilege, and as well, risk preempting corporate donations. Of course, in business, the very presence of unions often reflects failures in management; in their ways of acting and communicating; and from their challenges in leadership. In that regard, it may not be inappropriate for more timely succession planning for the office of the president; however, the broader tenured faculty might consider their own role in perpetuating a culture of effective poverty among graduate students and teaching/research assistants–an effective slave class for the professorial incumbency, and perhaps the more causal reason why the GSU is even present. Regards, Matt Andersson, ’96 (Booth MBA).
I don’t understand why the Trump Administration proposal to increase NASA funding from $19.5 billion to $19.87 billion is considered a refutation of the criticism that Trump is anti-science, considering the cuts in many scientific areas and his anti-science beliefs. You may believe (without any evidence) that graduate students would get no benefits from a union, but the question is whether those students should be allowed to disagree with you and choose to form a union. Do you believe that your views should be imposed on the majority of graduate instructors who want a union? And why do you attack the faculty who support the rights of graduate students for helping to create an “effective slave class”? And why would you think that an “effective slave class” should have their rights to resist that poverty suppressed by the administration?