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?

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