Fact finding “ends,” though perhaps the real adventure is just beginning

EMU-AAUP President Howard Bunsis sent around information about the close of the fact finding process today. Before I get to what he wrote, let me mention the rally scheduled for Tuesday, March 20, at noon, outside by the fountain in front of Welch Hall. Someone from the UAW wrote me (I assume in my role as sitedad) and wondered if the AAUP leadership would have any objection to UAW participation in this rally. That strikes me as a good idea– after all, they don’t have a contract either– but I’m not really in a position to give the go-ahead on this.

So, AAUP leadership, meet the UAW leadership. UAW, this is the AAUP. I’ll let y’all exchange numbers on your own.

Anyway, here’s what Howard wrote:

Faculty Colleagues:

Today, Friday, March 16, 2007, the EMU-AAUP submitted our final brief in
the fact finding process.

This brief can be found on our website at www.emuprofessors.org (it is
right on the front page).

If you don’t see it, the actual pdf file is at:
http://www.emu-aaup.org/files/EMU-AAUP%20Final%20Written%20Report%20For%20Fact%20Finding%20March%2015,%202007.pdf

The administration also submitted their final brief today, and it is
likely posted on the university website.

I am extremely proud of our brief for many reasons, but most
importantly, because it is the result of an incredible amount of hard
work from a dedicated team of faculty members: Megan Endres, Diana Wong,
Linda Woodland, Jim Carroll, Paul Leighton, Dave Crary, Jim VandenBosch,
and Howard Bunsis. And a special thanks to our office manager, Julie
Berger, who was a constant source of support for our team.

In addition, this brief clearly articulates why the contract proposal of
the EMU-AAUP is fair for faculty. It is:
• Fair when compared to faculty raises and salary levels at the
comparable institutions
• Fair to the students in terms of tuition affordability
• Fair to the university and the community in terms of the abundant
resources of EMU.

Lastly, this brief takes a positive and factual tone, and I will let you
decide what tone you think the administration’s brief has. Our goal was
to provide the fact finder with a clear and articulate discussion of the
issues, without any attacks or confrontational language. I think we
were successful in achieving this goal.

The next step is to wait for the recommendations of the fact finder.
This should occur within the next 2 to 3 weeks.

As we have stated, we are ready to accept the recommendations of the
fact finder, if the administration would pledge do the same. It has yet
to make such a commitment.

However, we hope to demonstrate how important this is to us by the
petition that we sent out the other day.

How can you help?

1. If you have not done so, send me an email indicating your support for
the petition. In just over 2 days, almost 200 faculty members have
already sent their pledge of support. It would be great to hear from
all of you.

2. Come to our rally on Tuesday, March 20th, at noon outside the
fountain in front of Welch Hall. Show your support for the fact finding
and negotiating teams, and let the Board of Regents and administrators
know how united the faculty are.

If you get a chance, read through our brief, and let us know your
thoughts. Your ideas, opinions, and support are always greatly
appreciated.

Of course, I have only been following the fact finding process from afar, but it does seem like the AAUP folks did a good job, though I have also heard that the administration team thinks there case was good too. I guess we’ll have to see.

And see we will soon enough, and that’s what I really fear at this point. The idea that the faculty up-front are willing to accept the fact finder’s findings seems very noble and above-board, but I have to think that one of the reasons why the union is saying this is because they’re pretty confident that they are going to more or less “win.” Conversely, I have to think that the administration has had these twisted comments about how we’ll once again return to the table after fact finding is over because, deep down, they’re not as confident about the outcome.

Now, the eternal optimist in me wants to say that at the end of the day, the administration will want to wrap up the negotiation process (finally!) and they will take the fact finder’s findings, maybe with one or two minor tweaks. But the realist in me has to admit that, to date, the administration has seemingly done nothing else right with this whole process since they walked out of talks early in September.

So, I want to agree with Howard, that fact finding is “complete.” But somehow I think this is likely to be a new and bumpy beginning.