March 1, 2009

To the editor:

Last Friday, at 6:32 PM, OU Executive Vice-President and Provost Kathy Krendel and Vice-President of Finance and Administration William Decatur sent OU faculty some sobering news. The Budget Planning Council, they reported, would recommend (a) "freezing salaries in fiscal 2010, with the exception of employees who are contractually obligated to receive raises"; (b) "postponing a $1.2 million investment in raising faculty salaries as called for in the Vision OHIO plan"; (c)  "increas[ing] employee premiums, co-pays and co-insurance levels and add[ing] a deductible"; and (d) excluding Holzer Clinic physicians from "in-network" coverage beginning July 1 because they cost too much.
 
These are tough times, the worst in 25 years. Businesses and governmental institutions, including public universities, face severe budget shortfalls and an obvious need to cut expenses. The questions are where to cut and according to what priorities. OU's administration seems to have decided that the $85,000 raise for the president and the six-figure salaries of a bloated administrative staff should remain off the table. Instead, faculty are the problem and they alone should be made to bear the brunt of the cuts. The administration cannot touch unionized employees (janitors, groundskeepers, and maintenance staff represented by AFSCME).  These individuals have salary increases (3.5% for the coming year) and locked-in benefits guaranteed through the life of their contract.  This contract is a multi-year agreement negotiated through collective bargaining. Faculty members, however, are an easy target for cuts in livelihood because they lack the protection of such a negotiated, binding, multi-year contract.

Budget cuts invariably reflect the priorities of the people who wield the knife. The self-serving goals of OU's administration are crystal clear. But who's looking out for the university and its faculty--the core of the university and the guarantors of its academic mission? Isn't it about time that we, the faculty, form a collective bargaining unit capable of utilizing the legal protections available to us through binding negotiation and arbitration?  We can only preserve academic excellence at OU if we have the authority to advance the priorities that matter--academic excellence through effective shared governance that protects the integrity and interests of the faculty and its students. We can regain this authority through a strong faculty association that has the ability to negotiate on its own behalf through collective bargaining.

Some are still uncertain about how to proceed, of course, but discussion can only become robust if we authorize an election.  So that the debate can begin, I urge faculty members to sign an AAUP collective-bargaining card now.  Sending in the card is not a vote for a union, nor is it a commitment to join the AAUP.  It is simply a request that the AAUP hold an election to determine if we want to be represented by them.  Obviously, I hope that my colleagues will want to join the AAUP in order to achieve strength through association, but first we need to ask for that election by submitting our cards. 

Sincerely,

Joseph W. Slade
Professor, School of Media Arts and Studies
Ohio University