More AAUP stories:
here •
Related story: "
The 28 labor-states"
Labor-state university professor speaks out against AAUPThis quarter I have a class on Monday evenings, and am not free to participate in the Faculty Senate deliberations over unionization, scheduled for a vote in October. I use The Post as a platform for expressing my opinion for this reason.
Over the past year, I became aware that there is a plan on the part of a few of my colleagues to replace our Faculty Senate with a Faculty Union. This troubles me. Over the summer, I made an effort to attend the two information and planning sessions sponsored by the
American Association of University Professors. In looking at their Web sites and talking to colleagues on campus, I have sought to understand what advantages there might be in going down the path toward collective bargaining. My conclusion is that an effective Faculty Senate is the way to go. If we don’t have one, we should work at creating one.
The faculty senator from my school in the College of Communication was quoted in Tuesday’s Post as saying, “I have never seen my faculty so discontented.” With all due respect to my colleague, I have never seen our faculty so creatively engaged in teaching and advising, in recruitment and retention of students, in scholarship and productive work and in service to the community. I do not personally feel that my alternative is either to shut up or send out my resumé, as suggested by the senator from Arts and Sciences; nor do I find these comments representative of other faculty members in my college or elsewhere in the university.
My own perspective is that I am fortunate to work in a fine university where I can (within reasonable constraints) teach, research and write about things that interest me; I am amazingly free to set my own schedule; I am paid well; and I have one of the best health care and benefits plans short of the U.S. Congress. If I see something I object to on campus or off, I am free to speak my mind without fear of retribution.
Ours was the 27th school or department that President Roderick McDavis made a personal visit to last year. When he came into the room, he took off his jacket and said, “I am here to get to know you.” There were about 25 faculty and staff present. We told him our names, talked about the courses we teach, explained our research and creative agendas, and ended up discussing for over an hour what makes our school distinctive in the state and in the world. He listened and learned, and I for one was impressed.
I happen to think that Ohio University needs a Vision Ohio: Unless we do innovate in undergraduate and graduate education, unless we do increase our creative/research productivity, build partnerships domestically and abroad, and find ways to make ourselves usefully distinctive, we will be left in the dust of those that can.
My vision of an effective Faculty Senate is one that worries about the quality and credibility of our academic programs, that serves to stimulate innovation and productivity among faculty, that genuinely cares about the nature of the student experience at Ohio University. I cannot imagine how collective bargaining of the faculty will help us attain such goals.
- Don Flournoy is a professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies.
(thepost.ohiou.edu)
A never-ending embezzlement cover-up
