The Senate Task Force Report on Faculty Issues and Concerns is a clear victory for the faculty and for the processes of
shared governance. It puts in place both short-term fixes for issues of
immediate concern to faculty, and proposes long-term structural reforms that
can strengthen the processes of governance on campus and allow us to more
effectively promote faculty contributions to unit-level and campus policies.
The Task Force was co-chaired by faculty union
supporter Randy McCarthy and faculty union critic Nick Burbules, who both
agreed that the main goal was to set aside the arguments about faculty unionization,
pro and con, and try to make substantial progress on the issues and concerns
that faculty care about. And the Task Force did that, producing 18 significant
recommendations and reform proposals, developed in co-operation with members of
the campus administration, addressing issues ranging from salary, to benefits, to promotion and tenure and other faculty concerns.
What
has the CFA response been?
First,
they fought against the establishment of the Task Force when it was proposed to
the Senate (you can watch the video here).
Their
main objection was that the Senate COULDN’T address issues of salary,
benefits, and working conditions because these were union territory.
Then,
when the report came out, they ignored or minimized the committee’s
accomplishments in just these areas, because they didn’t address non-tenure track faculty issues
even though (a) it was not the charge of the committee to do so, (b) not a
single CFA member spoke up when the Task Force was proposed to say that it
SHOULD address those issues, and, most important, (c) the report did in fact
address some NTT issues, in particular the key question of strengthening
protections and appeals processes for our colleagues working off the tenure
track when they are not reappointed.
Finally,
and most recently, the new CFA line (on their Facebook page) is that these
accomplishments mean nothing because the administration is just trying to
undermine the unionization drive by making concessions now. In their world,
administrators were only willing to respond positively to faculty
recommendations because they are afraid of the union movement.
This
is a fascinating, Moebius-strip like argument. When things are bad it is proof
that we need a union. When things are getting better, this is also proof that
we need a union because it is only union pressure that forces concessions.
Faculty
union advocates like to say that they want to “strengthen shared governance.”
But here, and up at UIC, a central part of their strategy has been to undermine
the Senate and shared governance processes, to minimize its achievements, and
to insist that no matter what the Senate accomplishes it is never enough (and any
accomplishments that it does have are really
attributable to the union).
As Randy McCarthy and Nick Burbules said when they
proposed the establishment of the Task Force, what we need is a
pragmatic process that focuses on solving real problems and taking real
responsibility for coping with the fiscal and other challenges this university
faces. We want to make the nationally-recognized system of shared governance we
have work better -- and we want to strengthen the partnership between faculty
and administration so that we can respond more effectively to
the very real challenges and opportunities we face.
*** 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. ***
