Today marks the beginning of Campus Equity Week, a nationwide opportunity for faculty to educate the public about the growing gap between tenure and nontenure-track faculty, about the poor conditions under which contingent faculty labor, and how the two-tier system of academic instruction has an impact on the educational quality for undergraduates. It's a chance for us to recognize the enormous impact that adjunct faculty have on the lives of students and to advocate for the supports that adjuncts need to make an even bigger impact. To that end, throughout this week we'll be posting resources for contingent faculty and their allies to use to make the case for equity.

Any wonder why the University of Illinois has been spending so much money on labor relations over the last few years? On top of the other instances we've documented, the university also blatantly violates labor contracts! Fortunately, the teaching assistant members of the Graduate Employees' Organization at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign stood up to fight for the tuition waivers that were guaranteed by their contract - a contract provision, incidentally, that was at the heart of their strike two years ago - and won! Congrats to the members of GEO for standing up for their contract and prevailing! Press release below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TEACHING ASSISTANTS' UNION WINS LANDMARK ARBITRATION CASE AGAINST MAJOR PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

Urbana-Champaign, IL (October 3): The Graduate Employees' Organization at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has won a landmark arbitration ruling in a contract dispute with UIUC administrators over tuition waivers.  

An independent arbitrator has ruled that an attempt by University of Illinois officials to reduce tuition waivers for some incoming graduate employees represents a clear violation of the contract between the union and the Illinois Board of Trustees.    

Tuition waivers are a benefit of employment, which represent no cost to the University.  Preventing reduction of tuition waivers will preserve quality of education at Illinois, organizers say, while protecting vital labor standards.  

In November 2009, over 1,000 Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) members went on strike to prevent the reduction or elimination of tuition waivers for graduate employees. This was the fifth largest work stoppage in the United States in 2009.  They GEO won contract language protecting tuition waivers for current and future Teaching and Graduate Assistants at UIUC.  

In the Summer of 2010, the GEO learned of a policy change affecting tuition waivers for incoming graduate employees in several departments in the College of Fine and Applied Arts (FAA).  Effective Fall of 2010, incoming graduate employees in these departments were no longer granted waivers for out-of-state tuition.  Even with temporary scholarships, many Fine and Applied Arts graduate employees, earning between $7,000.00 and $9,000.00 per academic year, were left with additional fees totaling up to $1,000.00.     

This change in tuition waiver policy was a clear violation of the GEO's contract with the Illinois Board of Trustees.  In 2010, the GEO filed a grievance alleging a contract violation, while GEO members launched a public awareness campaign that included email and letter drives, communication with elected officials, testimony to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, and other events.    

By attempting to charge incoming graduate employees tuition in clear violation of its contract with teaching and graduate assistants, administrators have cost the University of Illinois as much as $100,000.00.  This is yet another example of flawed budget priorities at UIUC, where the most vulnerable members of the University community are frequently asked to shoulder the burdens of budget shortfalls. 

After an arbitration hearing in mid-July, an independent arbitrator on September 20 declared the University's tuition waiver policy in violation of its contract with the GEO. The arbitrator ordered the U of I administration to make whole any harm done to graduate employees.

The arbitration victory marks a significant achievement for GEO members.  According to GEO communications officer Rodrigo Pacheco-McEvoy, "not only does the ruling secure tuition waivers as a benefit of employment for graduate employees, which is absolutely necessary to maintain accessibility to public higher education at UIUC; it also helps protect the arts from budgetary cutbacks."

While the GEO has much cause to celebrate, the story of tuition waivers and the arts at UIUC is not over. The GEO is entering another bargaining year.  According to GEO Co-President Miriam Larsen, "our members are fully committed to protecting the tuition waivers that make a high quality graduate education accessible to a diverse student body."

###

For more information, please contact Rodrigo Pacheco-McEvoy, Communications Officer, at 858-382-2271 or rodrigo.pacheco.mcevoy@gmail.com.  More information can also be found on the website at uigeo.org

Has academic staffing been in the news of late? You betcha!

• Florida lawmakers are once again making noises about imposing changes or outright eliminating the tenure system for that state's public universities (despite the fact that the majority of instructors are already ineligible for tenure). The article correctly notes that tenure is not a lifetime job guarantee, but rather a contract requiring due process to remove a professor, insulating faculty members from the caprices of administrators and politicians. The article also correctly notes the problems that removing these protections would bring, including the ability to attract and retain top-flight academic job candidates. 
  
• Congratulations are in order to the members of Adjuncts United at Syracuse University who just ratified a new three-year contract!
  
• Part-time faculty members at Central New Mexico Community College received a rude surprise (click the free trial for the article) last week: adjunct faculty members were told they'd have to wait until the end of September to receive their first paycheck. Contingent faculty members, who are not making a lot of money to begin with, did not receive their usual mid-month paycheck "to ensure adjunct faculty are not overpaid for classes that were scheduled, then canceled because of low enrollment," according to the school's administration. So, I guess we can surmise that the "flexibility" that the hiring of adjuncts brings, according to most administrators, includes flexibility in actually deciding to pay people.
  
  

The faculty at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center and the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY are hosting a conference entitled, "Defending Public Education," that will be held at the Graduate Center Proshansky Auditorium. The conference, which will take place on Friday, October 7, 2011 from 8:30am until 3:00pm, will focus on the issue of state divestment in higher education. Over the last thirty years, public higher education in the United States has undoubtedly suffered from immense cutbacks in academic programs and student services. From California to Wisconsin, Illinois to New York, there is no question that our public universities are in dire straights.Tuition is expected to continue to grow over the next five years as public universities and colleges across the country rely more on tuition and less on public investments.

The "Defending Public Education" conference will address the issue of state divestment in public universities and colleges as well as other important issues facing higher education in the United States. Come out October 7, 2011 to learn more about this important issue and how you can become engaged in the fight to save higher education!

For more information about the CUNY Graduate Center/Professional Staff Congress/CUNY conference please visit: http://defendingpublichighereducation.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

Questions? Please email defendpubhied@gmail.com

If you're a regular denizen of this blog, it's no surprise to you that times are tough for public institutions of higher education. Our state college and university systems are having to make due with fewer resources from state governments while trying to provide an affordable, high-quality education for their students. Every nickel counts. So if you were, say, a major state university system, how would you prioritize your precious resources to fulfill your mission?

Well, if you were the University of Illinois system, you'd spend over $3 million dollars over the last 10 years on "labor relations" to keep your organized campus workers from getting too uppity. This is on top of the $500,000 UI pays for two on-staff lawyers, one of whom is specifically assigned to deal with labor issues. The University of Illinois has spent over $24,000 to a labor relations firm alone since May 2011 in order to keep from having to recognize the unified bargaining unit of the University of Illinois-Chicago United Faculty - a bargaining unit that has been affirmed not once (through the filing of union authorization cards), not twice (through the ruling of an Illinois Education Labor Relations Board (IELRB) adminstrative judge certifying the whole bargaining unit), but three times, with the full IELRB certifying the bargaining unit just last week. Now, the University of Illinois is appealing the IELRB decision to the Illinois appelate court, diverting even more money to "labor relations" that could be used on providing a world-class education for students instead of actually, you know, engaging in real labor relations.