Last week, Ohio Senator Fred Strahorn dropped some important testimony on the Ohio Senate committee that deals with labor issues. Strahorn is the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 129 that would "eliminate an exemption from the Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Law for specified educational employees" in Ohio.  Translation: it would put an end to the exemption that prevents part-time faculty and graduate employees from having the right to collectively bargain with their employer regarding working conditions.

"Part-time faculty and graduate employees play a crucial role at Ohio's colleges and universities. Unfortunately they receive neither the financial or professional support they deserve," says Sue Taylor, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.  "They should have the right to form a union and collectively bargain to improve their working conditions, just as their full-time colleagues do."

As Senator Strahorn testified, Ohio's exemption of part-time faculty and graduate employees is an anomaly, noting that of the states that represent Big Ten schools, only Ohio and Indiana do not provide collective bargaining rights for these employees.  For Strahorn, it is a matter of fairness:

S.B. 129 seeks to bring fairness to higher education.  It professes that all those who play an important role in the education of students in Ohio should have the same right to bargain for benefits as their colleagues at other Big Ten schools.

Indeed-and perhaps that will be one of the topics that comes up at tomorrow's Ohio Summit on Academic Staffing that is being sponsored jointly by the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors.  The day-long summit will include faculty from around the state, administrators, Ohio legislators, and representatives from the Ohio Board of Regents.  Participants will examine how to address the question of academic staffing within the framework of Ohio's strategic plan for higher education.

"Governor Strickland and Chancellor Fingerhut want Ohio's higher education system to be the best it can and we do too," says Taylor. "But all of our organizations believe that faculty must be central to that goal, which is why we are jointly convening this summit."

We will be at the summit to see how the conversation unfolds.  You might even hear a chirp from us now and then through out the day if you are following us on Twitter and we will have a full report after the summit.