Welcome to EMUtalk.org! We’ll see how this goes….
A few things about what’s here so far:
- I have some basic instructions on how to become a contributor available on a separate page on this site– just click on “contributor” and you’ll see what I mean. The only way this can work is if others contribute! Like I said over on my official blog when I brought this idea up, I really want to try to facilitate a conversation here, and for that to work, others have to step up. So please! Sign up!
- I want to make it clear to the powers that be and everyone else that this has nothing official to do with EMU. I’m paying for this out of my pocket (though see the next point), I’m using a computer that I bought, internet access I pay for from Comcast, and in my house (or about town). This is not something I plan to be working on in my office.
- I’ve received many offers of “chip-ins” to make this site work, and I might take people up on it. Afterall, it’s pretty cheap– $62 for a year under the current configuration (because I had an account with ICDSoft previously, I got a discount). Another option I’m thinking about is discreet ads. I’m not interested in making money at this site, but if it can be self-sustaining through some small advertisements, that might be a good thing.
- I decided to make myself the “sitedad.” “Administrator” seems a little heavy, and with the recent stuff about the EMU strike, the last think I want to be known as is an administrator. I thought about calling myself the “site janitor,” but that didn’t seem quite right either. “Sitemom” is a kind of gender-bending I wasn’t all that keen on, so sitedad it is.
- If you have ideas for things me to link to, please please send them along in an email to sitedad@emutalk.org Along those lines, if you have things you think ought to get posted but you don’t want to go through the rig-a-ma-roll of setting yourself up as a contributor (but it isn’t that hard to be a contributor), then email that to sitedad@emutalk.org
- I’ve got a pretty basic design here that is liable to change, especially if this thing takes off. I took the picture of the library this morning while driving around campus. I thought it looked arty.
Questions? Thoughts? Ideas? Post ‘em in the comments here!
Want to contribute? Let me know!
I’m here. I don’t know that I can conform to the purity test (no emu resources used) completely, but it’s a worthy goal. –>s
Well, that’s just me– you know, as the organizer of it. Let me know if you want to sign up as a contributor, too!
Hey now. This is great, Steve. I’m happy to contribute funds, etc. I think building on our collective angst about the recent strike may help facilitate some changes and/or at the least, some reduction of that angst. I for one want to resolve the anger and the sense of betrayal I feel right now about the adminstration’s actions the past few weeks.
What a great idea!
One of the issues that I have been grappling with is what we can all do to keep the issues alive now that the faculty are back int he classroom. I was thinking of developing a “10 Things You Can Do” list to give out to students, etc. who are supportive. I was thinking along the lines of:
…Economically boycott McKenney Union shops and services
…Email each regent with your concerns (with list of emails)
…Write to your local newspaper about your position
…Call in to your local radio station about your concerns
…Contact your Representative about your concerns and ask for their assistance in intervening
…Contact Governor Granholm and ask her assistance in resolving the situation
…Share your concerns with at least five other people and ask them to do the same
…Ideas anyone?
I agree that we need to use the solidarity we’ve built among the faculty, and that we need to focus our energy on very specific goals.
I’ve heard there’s a union-affiliated action committee meeting and working to figure out the next steps. I hope they share with the rest of us what they come up with.
Some things I think should be on a “to do” list for faculty:
…find out what it takes to get a board of regents at EMU that is elected (and accountable) instead of appointed. If this is not possible, find out ways to make the members of the board accountable to the public.
…find out ways to improve the Union’s P.R. so that the administration’s lies, I mean statements, are not simply reprinted in the media without question.
…work to build stronger ties with the Ypsi community and with our students.
–Annette
First off, many, many thanks to Steve for setting this site up!
One of the many ideas that came up as to what to do is to get the figures for the real costs that the administration has expended in this spin war and propaganda machine against the faculty. How much is this lawyer Green making anyway?
We need to expose the scandal for what it is and also keep a constant presence in the Echo (at least) about their lies and deceit.
I, for one, very much doubt that they will adhere to the recommendations of the fact finder (tho’ I have yet to hear Fallon’s radio remarks about this, only Steve’s description of them). I am not sure what to do up to that point, but we need to be prepared for it and not get complicit.
Solidarity with the lecturers is also very important. I am not sure what happened during their contract negotiations, but I am prepared to help in any way that I can if they need me to. We need a formalized allegiance between our two unions, if not just one big union (perhaps even together with the clerical staff).
Are any of our interests really at odds? The only thing that I can think of that would put us in conflict is what we call “faculty erosion” and what they may call “more jobs.â€? But when I was a lecturer at least, I was very aware that fewer tenure-track jobs meant fewer opportunities for me to have a sustainable income in the future. (I certainly had nothing of the sort then!) Is that feeling true of the lecturers here as well?
There is also the possibility of certain personnel changes in the administrative offices, from the very tip top down. Wouldn’t any good manager (even from a managerial point of view) have been able to get a decent contract in place and thereby keep the morale of his/her employees in tact? Is it just me, or does anyone else predict a flight of junior faculty elsewhere within the year, along with an immense drop in enrollment which will make no one happy? Would a good manager (again from “their� point of view) have risked jeopardizing the entire semester by offering us worse and worse contracts at such a critical point in the negotiation process? Can we get the administration people themselves to demand some new leadership? Or is that naïve thinking?