EMU-AAUP President Susan Moeller sent around an email yesterday about the faculty union filing an unfair labor practice claim with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission based on “a CAS department head for twice bullying and threatening to deny an untenured faculty member tenure because of her union activities.” She also notes that the EMU-AAUP has filed more grievances with the administration this past spring/summer “during that period,” which isn’t entirely clear to me.
In any event, I don’t know the details of this specific complaint or the increase in grievances; it could mean just about anything. But with contract negotiations looming, this is kind of unfortunate. I was out the other night with someone who has some “suit connections” (shall we say) who said that at a recent administrative retreat, there was a sentiment that the tensions between faculty and administrators needs to be taken down a notch. This is true, but for that to succeed, someone has to “blink,” and neither side seems really interested in doing that right now.
If the administration really wanted to minimize the role of the faculty union at EMU, then the best thing they could do is bend a bit, give faculty a break, advocate for more money and/or a better deal, etc., etc. But if the administration really wants to rally faculty around the union and make the tensions between faculty and administrators worse, then the stuff they and the BOR have been doing lately seems right on task.
Steve: Could you elaborate on the statement “then the stuff they and the BOR have been doing lately seems right on task.” I don’t know what you mean. Has anyone taken into account what is going on at the State budget level in relation to raises/negotiations? I assume things could get pretty ugly with cuts.
I’m thinking most specifically of the situation of the folks being denied tenure with no explanation by the BOR. Faculty disagree amongst themselves about all sorts of things having to do with union issues– what we should be paid, what is fair (or not) for us to pay for benefits, what should count (or not) as scholarship, etc., etc. But one thing that no one on faculty disagrees with: the rules for tenure need to be fair, clear and decided by academic affairs, and there has to be a fair due process/grievance procedure governing the rules for work.
The other thing about cuts that could get ugly is that right now, EMU is actually running surplus and enrollments are up quite a bit. Sure, next year could look much different, but it sure looks to me like EMU is doing better than the state of Michigan as a whole.
To add to what Sitedad says above — many on the faculty are concerned about the Administration’s current budget choices, which seem to be a ratification of all the decisions of past Administrations, and everyone knows how stupid the choices of the prior Administrations were.
Law and Order: That’s a bit vague to me.
Could you expand on that and add some details?
Well, the BoR denied tenure to two faculty under somewhat mysterious and dubious circumstances. What more do you want?
Or, better yet, what more could I say? I’ve heard some rumors, but nothing I feel comfortable reporting here. But I am confident in saying that the less than clear circumstances surrounding this situation are less than reassuring that the administration and the BoR is willing or able to negotiate the next faculty contract in a way that will be fair to faculty.
I don’t know if those are the details you are looking for Alum, but my resources and opportunities are limited.
Lots of incompetent and unethical officials remain on the EMU payroll. Dozens of them. People who aided in the murder cover up and in the lies over University House, and in other bad EMU decisions of the last decade. There’s still a great fear of speaking out for fear of punishment, and that fear persists in all Divisions, because of the still powerful officials of the type I have described.
I have a question…is administration going into negotiations with that same lawyer as before? Stephen whatshisname?
The guy seems at the heart of the strikes and tension. He pulled similar withholding of info/ materials to the lecturers as he did with tenure track the last time negotiations.
If your whole track record is based on ticking people off and getting the faculty to strike…why do they keep hiring him? To play the part of “bad cop”?
I really don’t want to strike yet again…
The lawyer you are thinking of frustrated faculty is Jim Greene. And I do think you’re right that we’ll see the beginnings of a trend if the EMU administration decides to hire Greene and his firm, Dykema. Or not.
The reason why they keep hiring him, IMO, is he is very good at what he does: which is give up as little as possible for his client, the EMU administration and the BoR. Greene might have a track record of “ticking people off,” as you say, but he also has a track record of winning at all costs.
Of course, the problem is that the last faculty strike/negotiation process was so awful that there is a chance– just a chance– that the administration et. al. will try something different.