BY MARTIN KICH

On Sunday, January 13, AAUP-WSU completed a strike authorization vote in response to the WSU Board of Trustees unilaterally imposing an unfair labor contract on January 4, AAUP-WSU had already filed an intent-to-strike notice with the State Employment Relations Board, but the final decision on whether to strike was dependent on a democratic vote of its members.

85% of voters authorized a strike. 95% of those eligible to vote did vote. The strike will begin on Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 8:00am.

The contract imposed by the administration will make it more difficult for faculty to offer individualized attention to students who most need it. It will reduce the percentage of students completing their degrees or completing them in a timely manner. And it will reduce the quantity and the quality of the research and scholarship produced by the faculty, undermining the academic reputation of the university and eroding the value of the degrees that our students are earning and that our alumni have already earned.

The faculty are committed to meeting the educational needs of the students in the Dayton region who depend on our providing an affordable education and a pathway to career opportunities that might otherwise be out of their reach.

Marty Kich, President of AAUP-WSU said: “Administrators and Boards come and  go. But most faculty will spend their entire careers at Wright State. We have a deep interest in the long-term viability of our University and are devoted to its academic mission. Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions, and the value of the degrees that our students earn is defined in no  small measure  by the  professional contributions of our faculty.”

Kich added: “Like the teachers in the ‘Red  for Ed’ movements  nationwide,  our faculty are standing together to uphold the principle that public  education  serves the public good. We want to preserve the faculty’s role in institutional decision-making, and no one who has been following what has  been occurring  at our  University  can possibly think that the decision makers need less input.”

Rudy Fichtenbaum (Chief Negotiator for AAUP-WSU and President of National AAUP) said: “Our members have voted to reject not only the language itself but also the administration/Board’s skewed idea of negotiation, in which their proposals cannot be discussed but can, at most, be traded off against one another. That is not fair dealing in any sense of the phrase.”

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Please sign our petition of support and distribute it to your contact lists and over your social media accounts: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stand-with-wright-state-faculty.

Please visit our social media accounts and express your support to encourage our members and demonstrate to the communities that we serve that we have broad support:

https://www.facebook.com/AAUP-Wright-State-University-636430523091526/,

https://twitter.com/aaupwsu?lang=en,

https://www.instagram.com/aaupwrightstate/.

Please take a photo that includes a sign expressing support and send it to martinkich@gmail.com.