UIUC AAUP report

President's Biannual Report

Spring 2013

President’s Report to UIUC AAUP Chapter for 2012-2013
Leslie J. Struble
1. The main representation of the local AAUP chapter is its policy committee, and it has been remarkably active this year. The officers this year are myself as president, Bettina Francis as vice president, and Bill Williamson as secretary/treasurer. The chapter has a web site, http://www.aaup-ui.org, where minutes and other documents are posted.
2. Last year’s annual meeting featured a panel discussion on shared governance. The panelists concurred that shared governance at the University of Illinois is functioning very well, even in the face of strong challenges in recent years (starting with the admissions scandal in 2009 and ending with the resignation of Michael Hogan as president in March, 2012). This year’s annual meeting features a panel discussion on shared governance and faculty unionization.
3. The committee on governance, chaired this year by Lew Hopkins, sponsored a workshop in the fall on faculty roles in governance at the department and college level. There were not many attendees, but there was good discussion that helped us focus on the issue and showed that governance effectiveness varies considerably across the university. The committee subsequently undertook to assess unit by-laws when so requested, and that work will continue.
4. The committee on academic freedom and tenure, chaired by John Prussing, reviewed one case, whose outcome has still not been determined. We wrote to President Easter on issues of process raised by this case and recommended that he more closely follow AAUP policy in the case. We also wrote to the faculty senate on the issue and recommended that the statutes be revised to provide more detailed guidance on the process of dismissing tenured faculty. President Easter replied to our letter but declined to discuss the matter while the case is outstanding.
5. The policy committee sponsored its regular workshop in the spring on achieving tenure and promotion. This was very well attended and participants indicated that information provided by the panelists was very helpful.
6. The policy committee devoted one meeting in the fall to the issue of pension reform. Guests were Avijit Ghosh (Senior Advisor to the President), Fred Giertz (Director, Institute for Government and Public Affairs), and Amanda Vinicki (Statehouse Reporter for Illinois Public Radio). They provided us with much helpful information. They agreed that the changes proposed at this time will negatively impact hiring and retention, both in the short term and the long term. They indicated that no resolution on pension reform was expected until the January legislative session, and in fact has still not occurred. We ended the meeting rather discouraged about the prospects for effective action by the state legislature and with no clear strategy about how AAUP might help the situation.
7. The policy committee met with Ilesanmi Adesida (Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost) in November. He spoke of his focus on undergraduate education and his plans to share best practices in education across campus and to increase on-line educational activities. We discussed with him our role in shared governance on the campus.
8. The policy committee met with Christophe Pierre (Vice President for Academic Affairs) in December. He described the role of university administration as supporting the campuses and representing the university, especially in state and federal governments. He is actively seeking to strengthen connections between faculty and administration, he discussed plans for assessment of units in university administration, and he is expanding his relationship with the Board of Trustees to increase their academic perspective.
9. The policy committee met with Peter Schiffer (Vice Chancellor for Research) in February. He spoke of compliance issues that affect faculty and he noted the need to clarify the roles of the VCR and the VPR.
10. Our main focus during the year was the ongoing consideration of faculty unionization. The policy committee approved a resolution on faculty unionization at its April, 2012, meeting that stated, “The Policy Committee, . . . an advocacy chapter, . . . recognizes the importance of the faculty collective bargaining issue . . . and is committed to 1) providing balanced, factual information to the UIUC academic community on what it means for a faculty member to sign or not sign a membership card, and 2) exploring the implications of . . . a faculty union on shared governance . . .” This year we held special meetings on the topic and next year we are planning to sponsor a workshop on unionization to inform interested faculty about the process by which this critically important decision will be made.
11. The Campus Faculty Association (CFA) in collaboration with the national AAUP are currently exploring whether a faculty union might be formed on our campus. The UIUC AAUP policy committee this year held a number of meetings in which we discussed this issue with people advocating for and against collective bargaining, mainly faculty from our own institution but also administrators involved in collective bargaining and faculty from other institutions with unions. A key focus of our discussions was to consider how faculty unionization impacts shared governance. The purpose of this report is to summarize these activities and what we learned. I have attempted here to provide a balanced summary of these discussions and not to advocate either for or against unionization of our faculty.
12. The people who spoke or are planning to speak with us are the following: Joyce Tolliver, Nick Burbules, and Don Chambers (UIUC and UIC faculty who have spoken against faculty unionization); Ernst Benjamin and James Barrett (national AAUP consultant and UIUC CFA president, who have spoken many times in favor of faculty unionization at UIUC); James Stukel and Steven Veazie (retired UI president and current UI counsel); and Timothy Cain and Monica Bielsky Boris (UIUC faculty who have studied faculty unions).
13. Advocates for faculty unionization cited a number of potential benefits. As a democratic body, a union would not be all that different from the faculty senate, but it would negotiate salary and benefits and would help the administration lobby the state on behalf of the university, activities not currently done within shared governance bodies. Perhaps more important is that a union would negotiate terms that are then legally binding, whereas under shared governance only the statutes are binding. The national AAUP has found that faculty unions strengthen faculty governance bodies (e.g., senates), that unions negotiate process but not outcome. For example, a union might negotiate the process by which deans and department heads/chairs are evaluated but faculty committees do the evaluation.
14. Opponents of faculty unionization raised a number of concerns. Probably the most important is their view that unionization establishes an adversarial relationship between faculty and administration, whereas shared governance relies on good will and transparency. Opponents assert that faculty unionization is not necessary given our tradition at Illinois of strong and effective shared governance. Finally, some argued that unionization would severely weaken our ability to recruit and retain strong and effective faculty, that we would be unlikely to retain our world-class status with a faculty union.
15. We also discussed the process by which faculty make the decision to form a union. This may be done by an election or a card campaign. The CFA is currently speaking with faculty to gauge their interest in forming a union and is asking interested faculty to document their interest by providing a signature. This is not a card campaign. The uncertainty between expressing interest and voting to establish a union reflects uncertain language in the governing statute [Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, Section 7(b), codified at 115 ILCS 5/7(b)]. The CFA is expected to decide later this year whether to try to form a union and whether to make that effort by an election or a card campaign. In the event of a card campaign, faculty need to understand that then their signature would constitute a vote in favor of unionization.
16. The policy committee discussed other issues during the course of the year. We examined the process by which our Coursera courses are approved and were satisfied that the faculty senate is providing sufficient oversight. We heard about the national AAUP reorganization and concerns that there is increasing focus on collective bargaining and diminishing focus on advocacy. We discussed SB1900 on open access publishing and are in the process of drafting a statement in opposition to the bill.
17. As always, the policy committee welcomes new members. We meet once a month during the academic year to deliberate on issues important to AAUP, mainly issues of shared governance. If you are interested in joining, contact next year’s president.