The AFT 2010 Convention kicks of this Thursday, July 8 in Seattle, Washington! We know that many of our readers will be in attendance and we look forward to seeing you at the higher ed events. We also hope you'll drop by the higher ed table at the AFT Action Center and add your name to the growing numbers who are asking Congress to support the DREAM Act.
For those of you who won't be able to make it to the Pacific Northwest, you can keep up with the AFT Convention 140 characters at a time by following @AFTConvention on Twitter. And, of course, you can follow your favorite higher ed tweeters from the Convention at the AFT Higher Ed Twitter list.
Non tenure-track faculty at Ferris State University voted overwhelmingly today for union representation, giving themselves the right to negotiate job security, health insurance, salary, and other conditions of employment with the university administration. The vote, 47 in favor, 7 against, certifies the Ferris Nontenure-Track Faculty Organization (FNTFO) as a collective bargaining agent affiliated with AFT Michigan, AFL-CIO.
Eligible to vote were approximately 70 non tenure-track faculty who work on the university's Big Rapids campus. Ballots were counted today, July 2, by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC). Non tenure-track faculty, frequently appointed on a semester-by-semester basis, teach an increasing percentage of courses at Ferris State and at universities nationwide. Many supported unionization because of the need for improved job security. "We make a serious commitment to the university; they should be able to make a commitment to us,” said Beth Reynolds, who teaches English at the university. Others cited salaries and health insurance.
Overall, however, the central issue for these faculty was recognition: "We need a union to have a voice," said Anna Rizzo, an instructor in biology and a member of the union's organizing committee. “Non tenure-track faculty are currently left out of the decision-making at the university.”
Like the non tenure-track faculty unions at Eastern Michigan University, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Henry Ford Community College, and Western Michigan University, FNTFO is affiliated with AFT Michigan, AFT, and the AFL-CIO. Non tenure-track faculty at Central Michigan University recently reached an agreement with the CMU administration about which faculty will be eligible to vote in a representation election to be conducted later this month.
Last week, we posted on the recent Senate hearing on for-profit colleges. In that post, we promised to talk this week a bit about, among other things, how we got to the point where for-profit colleges now enroll close to 10 percent of the undergraduates in this country.
Sharon Thomas Parrott, senior vice president of government and regulatory affairs and chief compliance officer for DeVry Inc., provided one answer to that question at Sen. Tom Harkin's hearing. As the Chronicle of Higher Ed reported, Parrott
said that for-profit colleges "empower students to achieve their career goals" and serve students who have been underserved by nonprofit colleges. "Institutions like ours grow for a reason," she said. "There is an enormous unmet need, especially among nontraditional students."
The implication of such statements is that this unmet need was, and is, "unmeetable" in the nonprofit sector, and that without the for-profit colleges, many nontraditional students in particular would not have an opportunity to pursue higher education. Now, there is little doubt that the for-profit sector meets the needs of some students (questions about its educational model will have to wait for another post). However, before we completely buy into the narrative that for-profit schools have found some great new and innovative educational approach to meet this so-far unmet need-and serve this untapped student population-leading to for-profits' explosive growth, let's take a look at what happened during the period of that growth.
Today at the National Press Club, Senator Durbin (D-IL) added his voice to an ever-growing number of Senators who are concerned about financial aid abuses among for-profit colleges. In a 30 minute press event, he outlined his primary concerns about the rapid growth of for-profit college enrollment, and the number of students who finance their degrees with federal financial aid in the form of Pell grants and federal loans.
After congratulating Senator Harkin for taking on big business for-profit interests in his recent Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee hearing (hearing), Senator Durbin outlined the key policy changes he would like to see Congress address:
Change the 90/10 rule that currently caps at 90 percent the amount of revenue a for-profit institution can receive from federal sources.
Consider reigning in "slick marketing campaigns" that are financed using federal dollars, especially considering that for-profits spend a larger percentage of revenue than McDonald's on marketing.
Examine the regulation of risky private loans that students rely on to pay for these expensive colleges.
To conclude, the Senator also threw in a line about the absurd accreditation system in which companies can effectively buy accreditation by buying non-profit, accredited colleges-another policy he believes needs addressed.
On a day that was to see Michigan labor activists descend on Mount Pleasant for a rally, marching, a sit-in, and pickets, an agreement on the composition of the bargaining unit was reached between the Union of Teaching Faculty and Central Michigan University. Responding to the agreement, English professor and UTF Organizing Committee member Mary Ann Freling said:
"We are ecstatic about the opportunity to vote for union representation, and we look forward to a collaborative relationship with President Ross and the CMU administration."
In place of a day of actions, UTF members and their supporters are rallying on the Mount Pleasant campus to celebrate the agreement.
The newly minted agreement makes contingent faculty teaching quarter-time or greater eligible for union representation. The agreement came after four months of sometimes rancorous negotiations between the CMU administration and the UTF. With this hurdle behind them, both UTF and CMU are looking ahead to building a more positive relationship. Said Ray Christie, vice provost for academic administration, "Central Michigan University has a long-standing and well-established positive relationship with collective bargaining units and values the dedication, contributions and commitment of our faculty and staff toward the success of our students."
The next step for the UTF will be a union recognition election, held under the auspices of the Michigan Employee Relations Commission. An election date will be forthcoming, but in the meantime, this agreement represents a huge victory for adjunct faculty at CMU and for the students they teach: "The process that resulted in this agreement took time as the administration and the union gathered all of the information necessary to craft an agreement that both parties found acceptable," said AFT Michigan President David Hecker. "What counts is that we were able to reach this agreement. We look forward to a successful election and joining with the administration to further enhance this great University."
FACE Talk 
