EMU non-strike - request for fact-finding
This afternoon I attended the latest EMU-AAUP meeting. I was out of town for the last meeting (in Pittsburgh), so this was my first meeting since the strike started. For those who want to cut to the chase (and aren't reading Steve Krause's blog, which is really the official unofficial information source on the strike), I'll cut to the chase - the results of the meeting - before continuing:
*with the interests of EMU students firmly in mind, the AAUP has again taken the moral high road and asked the university to submit to fact-finding. This is apparently a lengthy process - months long - and while it takes place, we have agreed to teach under the terms of the old (expired) contract. The university must agree with this request, but come on -- do they really want faculty out there picketing? (No - don't answer that.)
*this means that faculty will be in the classroom, where we belong. Whew! But this struggle isn't over by a long shot.
The problem here, basically, is that there are forces at work - forces like, say, the regents - who don't seem to like faculty, value our work, or believe that we should have a union (or a contract, or any kind of humane working conditions). I don't think that many of our administrators share this belief, though I think that some at the top do.
Now, let me say this. I am a person who eats her proverbial lunch on working strategically with others. I have always proceeded from the assumption that it's best to work proactively, in the interests of shared governance and mutual cooperation, to avoid situations just like this. But it takes two to tango. I tend to be extremely, extraordinarily optimistic, too - but I just don't see the other side dancing here. It's a whole different level of working, but I'm rolling up my sleeves. This place is too good, our students too cool, to let our faculty (and our work) be dismissed and insulted.
So - not ideal because I see long-term work, but at least we're back in the classroom (and by "we" I'm speaking collectively, of course, because I remain on sabbatical)...
*with the interests of EMU students firmly in mind, the AAUP has again taken the moral high road and asked the university to submit to fact-finding. This is apparently a lengthy process - months long - and while it takes place, we have agreed to teach under the terms of the old (expired) contract. The university must agree with this request, but come on -- do they really want faculty out there picketing? (No - don't answer that.)
*this means that faculty will be in the classroom, where we belong. Whew! But this struggle isn't over by a long shot.
The problem here, basically, is that there are forces at work - forces like, say, the regents - who don't seem to like faculty, value our work, or believe that we should have a union (or a contract, or any kind of humane working conditions). I don't think that many of our administrators share this belief, though I think that some at the top do.
Now, let me say this. I am a person who eats her proverbial lunch on working strategically with others. I have always proceeded from the assumption that it's best to work proactively, in the interests of shared governance and mutual cooperation, to avoid situations just like this. But it takes two to tango. I tend to be extremely, extraordinarily optimistic, too - but I just don't see the other side dancing here. It's a whole different level of working, but I'm rolling up my sleeves. This place is too good, our students too cool, to let our faculty (and our work) be dismissed and insulted.
So - not ideal because I see long-term work, but at least we're back in the classroom (and by "we" I'm speaking collectively, of course, because I remain on sabbatical)...
posted by Linda Adler-Kassner at 1:38 PM
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