If the collective speculation about the future of higher education by various higher ed policy types over at Inside Higher Ed yesterday didn't make all who care about higher education feel the need to get (even more) involved in that debate, then perhaps today's launch of the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education will.  The campaign, which AFT is supporting, is being launched to:

• Guarantee that affordable quality higher education is accessible to all sectors of our society in the coming decades; and
• Include the voices of the faculty, students and our communities-not just administrators, politicians, foundations and think tanks-in the process of making change. We must ensure that the emphasis, curriculum, pricing, and structure of our nation's higher education systems are good for our students and the quality of education they receive.

There are all kinds of ways you can connect with the campaign launch:

• Watch the launch news conference live today at 1 p.m. EDT via webcast;
• Text questions during the news conference to 916‐281‐8785; and,
• Follow the launch hashtag (#cfhelaunch) on Twitter

For more details read the full press release.

At the rate we're going, Gov. Scott Walker deserves at least a fruitbasket for all of the work he's done in helping organize the University of Wisconsin system. Today, the faculty at UW-Green Bay overwhelmingly voted to unionize with AFT-Wisconsin. Welcome to the AFT family!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 13, 2011
David Voelker, Associate Professor of Humanistic Studies, and chair of the History program
UW-Green Bay
(920) 246-2559 (cell)

Aeron Haynie, Associate Professor of English and Humanities
UW-Green Bay
(920) 655-3967 (cell)

Jill Bakken
Communications Representative, AFT-Wisconsin
Bakken.Jill@AFT-Wisconsin.org
(608) 770-0498

In a landslide, UW-Green Bay faculty vote "Union Yes"

Hostile political climate galvanizes faculty to make a stand for higher education in Wisconsin

Green Bay, Wis. - Earlier today, faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay voted 117-2 out of a unit of 167  in favor of union representation through AFT-Wisconsin, a statewide labor federation affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

The vote occurred despite the introduction of Gov. Walker's "budget repair" bill that would eliminate academic staff and faculty's right to collectively bargain. Although the bill is currently held up in the court system, Republican lawmakers have indicated that they intend to include its anti-collective bargaining provisions into the state budget-a budget that already calls for drastic funding cuts to the UW System.

According to David Voelker, an associate professor of Humanistic Studies and chair of the UW-Green Bay History Program, forming a faculty union is about preserving the integrity of higher education. "UW-Green Bay is now the seventh campus in the UW-System whose faculty have voted 'yes' for a union," stated Prof. Voelker. "Soon, UWGB faculty will have the ability to take collective action to protect and promote quality public higher education in Wisconsin."

Aeron Haynie, an associate professor of English and Humanities at UWGB, believes that the faculty vote ties in to the burgeoning labor movement in Wisconsin-a movement that has seen incredible momentum since the announcement of Walker's anti-union bill in February. "I'm proud to vote for a faculty union at UWGB," said Prof. Haynie. "As we have seen this past year in Wisconsin, it is vital that working people join together and fight for our rights-our right to make decisions which affect the quality of education here in our state and our right to decent benefits. Working together, as a union, makes our voices stronger."

UW faculty and academic staff were extended the right to collectively bargain in June of 2009. Since that time, faculty at six other campuses - UW-Eau Claire, UW-Superior, UW-La Crosse, UW-Stout, UW-River Falls, and UW-Stevens Point - have voted in favor of collective bargaining representation. UW-Superior academic staff will also vote on union representation next week.

As we mentioned in our last post, the University of Missouri system was reviewing unedited video footage of course lectures by two adjunct labor instructors after right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart posted a video which purported to show these professors advocating violence to their students. In a letter to the University of Missouri academic community, the chancellor and provost of that institution concluded what folks who have been following Breitbart's recent career already suspected: the videos were highly edited to completely misrepresent what was actually occurring in the classroom. The letter is below.

Academic institutions will always claim that academic freedom is a central value to their enterprise and that all of their academic employees, be they on the tenure-track or otherwise, are free to pursue whatever lines of inquiry in their research and classes that they choose with accountability determined by their fellow academic professionals. The recent case of labor educators in the University of Missouri targeted by right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart belies the claim of academic freedom being a core institutional value when it comes to contingent academic labor.

Simply put, without job security, contingent faculty members have no meaningful academic freedom. And without academic freedom, contingent faculty members are easy targets for partisan hucksters or disgruntled students with cell phone cameras and elementary video editing skills. The situation in Missouri is still playing out - it appears that the university system is withholding any judgement until it reviews all of the recorded materials (the Breitbart tapes were edited down from several hours of classroom lectures), but other institutions without the resources available to a major research university may not have the ability to withstand political pressure brought to bear on a faculty member - especially an adjunct.

The real value in higher education is in helping to push students past their comfort zones, to help them confront and evaluate new ideas and expose them to the broader world. This cannot happen if the majority of the instructors in higher education are afraid that their jobs will be in jeopardy for teaching the "wrong thing." It's clear that partisans are willing to degrade the quality of higher education for political ends. Are academic institutions willing to protect the quality of their educational offerings by giving contingent faculty members meaningful guarantees of academic freedom?

Faculty at Ferris State University to Occupy Administration Building

Sit-In Tomorrow at President's Office

Big Rapids, MI- The Ferris Nontenure-track Faculty Organization (FNTFO), a union of Ferris State University (FSU) professors, is in the midst of a contentious first contract negotiation with the FSU administration. The union and its supporters plan to occupy President David Eisler's office tomorrow in protest of the lack of movement on the fundamental issues of job security, health care, and low wages. 

Months of stonewalling has led members of the FNTFO Executive Committee to question FSU's "Core Values" of dignity, respect, and fairness. Members from the FNTFO want to know how these values are conducive with the administration's intransigence in the bargaining room, and they hope to get an answer from Eisler tomorrow.  

"Many of our members do not have health care for themselves or their children, they have no job security, and they can't afford to pay the rent " said Anna Rizzo of the FNTFO Executive Board. "If the FSU administration isn't taking these very important concerns seriously at the bargaining table, then we must question their commitment to dignity, respect, and fairness."

"Any time I get sick, I'm afraid that it will cost me my job," said Beth Reynolds from the FNTFO.  "Without job security and sick-time, we must risk our health to protect our jobs. I've rushed back from extensive surgery early,  and I have endured physical and financial hardships because I was terrified about not being rehired"  

WHAT: Sit-in at FSU President David Eisler's office
WHEN: Thursday, May 5^th at 11:00 a.m
WHERE: Timme Student Services Building, on Ferris State University campus in Big Rapids, Michigan

Across Michigan, thousands of nontenure-track faculty have formed unions, including faculty at the University of Michigan, Central Michigan University, Henry Ford Community College, Wayne State University, Michigan State University, Eastern Michigan University and Western Michigan University.

The following faculty will be available for comment:

• Anna Rizzo, FSU Biology-231/796-7781
• Beth Reynolds, FSU Languages and Literature-231/591-3077
• Tracy Nichols Busch, FSU History-231/250-4829