This blog is a project by the two of us, but we
welcome the voices and experiences of other faculty colleagues as well.
We are especially interested in two kinds of
postings:
(1) Experiences you have had during office visits
from union organizers. We have heard anecdotally about repeated visits,
harassment, and pressure on individuals, but we don't want to post anything
based on hearsay. If you have experiences you want to share, we will post them – with your name or anonymously, as you choose.
(2) The perspectives of faculty who have come here
from unionized campuses and want to share their views about the contrast
between the academic life and atmosphere on a unionized campus and life here at
Illinois. Union advocates, not surprisingly, regularly bring in guests to tell
faculty how wonderful life is on a unionized campus. We know that isn't always
true, but we would prefer personal accounts from people who have experienced
both worlds – again, with your name or anonymously, as you choose.
We will review what comes in and post entries as
part of our normal cycle of topics (perhaps a "Special Issue" on each
of these, depending on what comes in).
Please join us!
*** This
blog is a jointly authored project by two people who believe that the campaign for tenure-track
faculty unionization has damaged morale and divided our campus, and that a
faculty union, if ever established, would erode academic quality and undermine
our highly successful system of campus shared governance, which has earned
nationwide praise.
We speak for
ourselves. We have no organization behind us, we don’t ask for funding, we
don’t pay national hired guns to come in and make the case for us.
We want to
start a different campus conversation about faculty unionization, which we
believe will be more thoughtful and substantive when people have all the facts.
We
welcome and will consider postings from others expressing issues and concerns
about faculty unionization. We know that many faculty are very upset about the
possibility of working on a unionized campus.
If you see
any information here that is inaccurate, please tell us and we will correct it.
If you share
our concerns and want to help, please forward these postings to your friends
and colleagues, and urge them to do the same. ***
