As Public Funding of Universities Dwindles, Faculty Are Unionizing
As Public Funding of Universities Dwindles, Faculty Are Unionizing
Sunday, 20 December 2015 00:00
By Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout | News Analysis
When newly installed University of Washington (UW) President Ana Mari Cauce and Interim Provost Jerry Baldasty got wind that the UW faculty was collecting signatures on union cards, they quickly sent a series of memos and emails to the 6,000 people eligible to vote. Their missives trumpeted their opposition to collective bargaining and denounced the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) effort to organize on campus.
"Having a union bargain for all of the faculty on matters including evaluation, salary policy, promotion and tenure would sideline the Faculty Senate, diminish the faculty voice, and eclipse the collaborative approach we have worked on for generations," they wrote on October 22, 2015. "Union representation would fundamentally alter the relationship between the UW administration and faculty, creating a dynamic not unlike that of a manufacturing company." An administration-created, anti-union website, UWexcellence.org, further slams the idea of collective bargaining and smears the union as little more than a money-grubbing dues collector.
Moon-Ho Jung, an associate professor of history on UW's Seattle campus, notes that the arguments about shared governance - which are framed as if faculty and administration collaborate on all university policies - are deeply flawed. "The Faculty Senate is purely advisory," he said, with little clout on hiring or the academic direction of the institution. In fact, Jung believes that a union is needed for just this reason. "When I started teaching at UW in 2001, about half of the faculty was tenure track. Now, 14 years later, it is down to 30 percent," he added.
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Growth of Adjunct and Contingent Labor on Campus
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, since 1993, the number of part-time faculty on college campuses has grown 104 percent, from 369,800 to 752,700. Nationwide, three-quarters of college courses are now taught by part-time teachers who typically earn $3,000 per class, at least 60 percent less than their full-time, tenured peers. Most receive no benefits and typically have to juggle numerous jobs to make ends meet. As has been well documented, this is a travesty for students since harried adjunct professors are often unavailable for out-of-classroom conversations or informal advising sessions. Worse, part-timers usually have no idea about graduation requirements or what is necessary to complete a particular major.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34102-as-public-funding-of-universities-dwindles-faculty-are-unionizing
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