Faculty Association Statement. 12:01 am Thursday November 3,
2011
Tonight the SIUC administration decided it wanted a strike, not a
settlement. As of midnight tonight, the Faculty Association is on
strike.
Today the FA team brought yet another new set of proposals to the
bargaining table to help us reach an agreement and avoid a strike. The
board team has now rejected all of our proposals, and offered now new
proposals of their own. They have today and tonight, as so often
before, shown no interest in real bargaining. They have been willing to
meet but unwilling to move. SIUC has never before had a strike on
campus. Tomorrow morning, because of this administration’s
unwillingness to bargain, we will be on strike.
Let me briefly explain the new proposals we brought to the table
today, which will help you understand the major issues still separating
the two sides.
Our bargaining team brought two new options on furloughs. Both
involved major concessions on our part. We offered to allow the
administration to impose furloughs at its own discretion, without any
need to justify these furloughs–so long as it repaid the furloughs the
next year. And we offered furloughs the administration would not need
to repay, but would need to justify, including, if we found their
justification inadequate, to an outside arbitrator. Given a choice
between concession A and concession B, the administration chose none of
the above. It rejected both.
Our bargaining team brought a new proposal to the table that would
allow us to deal with our differences over a new conflict of interest
policy and SIUC procedures to follow in dealing with accusations of
sexual harassment. We suggested that these matters, important though
they are, should be postponed until midterm bargaining, so that they
would not stand in the way of a new contract that would avoid a strike.
The administration rejected this proposal.
Salaries. The Chancellor’s team offered us raises of 0,1,1, and 2%
over the four years of the next contract. But she said that offering us
such raises would require large increases in tuition for our students.
We do not want to raise tuition on our students. We have therefore
turned down their salary offer, and instead continued to offer, as we
have for a long time now, that our salaries should increase if and only
if SIUC’s overall revenues increase. If SIUC’s finances improve, our
salaries should increase. If not, not.
I hope this makes it clear that our disagreement is not about
salaries. So what is our disagreement about? The fundamental issues
are transparency and accountability. Just as we hold our students and
ourselves accountable by giving them a syllabus outlining the criteria
by which we will judge them, so too we expect the administration to
provide us with transparency and accountability.
Transparency and accountability are particularly crucial regarding
tenure. The FA represents all tenured and tenure-track faculty at SIUC.
Tenure is essential to protecting academic freedom and attracting and
retaining high quality faculty at SIUC. It has come under attack here
before. As long time residents of Carbondale will remember, SIUC laid
off 104 tenured and tenure-track faculty in 1974. That move was
illegal, and was eventually quashed in the courts–but only after SIUC
suffered tremendous damage. This administration would have the Faculty
Association sign off on contract language that would make such layoffs
legal. This is something we cannot do.
We are willing to help SIUC out in the event of a genuine financial
crisis. We are not against furloughs in all circumstances or against
layoffs in all circumstances. We are prepared to support both furloughs
and layoffs, but only if they are justified by a true fiscal crisis.
The only way to ensure this is through a process that provides
transparency and accountability, a process that all on the SIUC campus
can understand and accept. The administration has been unwilling to
work with us to produce such a process.
As of midnight tonight, the Faculty Association is on strike.
Tomorrow morning thousands of SIUC students will be left without
qualified professors in their classrooms. This is not an easy step for
faculty to take. Tomorrow morning, the place we want to be in the
classroom. Instead we will be on the picket line. We will be there
seeking what we have been seeking for 16 long months now–a fair contract
that is in the best interest not only of SIUC faculty but in the best
interest of the university as a whole and, most importantly, the
students we serve.
Given the threats to tenure, please support the faculty at SIUC by signing this petition. **please include comments, affiliation, any relationship to SIUC** We are hoping for support from students, alums, campus community, faculty at other institutions and other allies.
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