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Faculty unions: Promises and pitfalls

Faculty unions: Promises and pitfalls. Gary Rhoades Professor and Director Center for the Study of Higher Education University of Arizona. Academic capitalism & collectively re-centering core academic functions & public missions with faculty unions. Who I am, what I do….

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Faculty unions: Promises and pitfalls

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  1. Faculty unions:Promises and pitfalls Gary Rhoades Professor and Director Center for the Study of Higher Education University of Arizona

  2. Academic capitalism & collectively re-centering core academic functions & public missionswith faculty unions

  3. Who I am, what I do… • Professor (sociologist by training) who studies the restructuring of academic institutions and professions, & who teaches students going into support professions/administration. • Former General Secretary of AAUP (2009-2011)

  4. … & who I work with • Work (talks) with academic advocacy groups & unions (AAUP, AFT, NEA, NFM, SEIU, UAW) • Work with (on task forces, with white papers) American Council on Education (ACE); Association of Governing Boards (AGB); National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) • Work with (talks) provosts/presidents (shared governance) • NACUBO’s economic models project

  5. Where we are & how we got here:Decades of “academic capitalism” • Restructuring the academic workforce (2/3 off tenure track): More contingent “managed professionals” and more non-academic “managerial professionals” (“The revenge of the managers”). • Reduced scope/strength of shared governance. • “Broken” economic models in terms of both staffing and shifting the cost burden, increasing student debt. • Privatization of purpose and practice through new circuits of knowledge production and dissemination. • Heightened social stratification and professional stratification, in an academic survivor game in which research revenue generation is privileged/privatized.

  6. Restructuring the professorial workforce in higher education • Nationally, most faculty are contingent (49.3% pt, 19% ft). In every sector, except private research/doctoral, ft fac share of total faculty declined (Rhoades and Frye, 2015). • So, too, at UW, 64% of faculty are nontt, and lecturer (ft & pt) positions that are growing the fastest, particularly at Bothell & Tacoma. (James Gregory analysis on AAUP site, & Howard Bunsis analysis from IPEDS).

  7. Restructuring the professional workforce in higher education • Nationally, growth category of professional employment is support professionals. In public research univs, the avg # of managers + non-ac professionals per 1,000 students is greater than the avg # of ft faculty. In every sector there was a reduction in faculty’s share of professional workforce and of instructional salaries’ share of total expenditures. (Rhoades & Frye, 2015). • So, too, at UW. Instructional salaries share of expend’s from 2007-2014 declined from 20.7 to 19.6%, and research salaries declined from 12.9 to 10.2% (from IPEDS, Bunsis report to AAUP).

  8. Promises and pitfalls of academic unions • Faculty unions are neither panacea nor a silver bullet--they are a vehicle through which faculty can democratically advance an agenda that re-centers academic/public good. • Bureaucracy in higher education & corporate- like behavior is independent of unions. • Faculty unions are not run by outsiders but by elected faculty leaders.

  9. Re-centering investment in core academic functions, for excellence • Some (esp the tenured) are doing well, but the professoriate is being restructured, in ways that undermine the working conditions and quality work of contingent academics in instruction and research. • National study of adjunct instructors: Vast majority of institutions with the most equitable, commitment-to-quality working conditions have unionized faculty (Kezar and Sam, 2013). SEIU at forefront in this. • National study of full-time non-tenure-track identified 13 best practices. (Baldwin & Chronister, Teaching without tenure). Many are typically found in faculty collective bargaining agreements.

  10. Status anxietyin faculty union campaigns • AAU institutions: Unions and quality. Of the 5 AAU public universities with faculty unions, all but Oregon attained AAU status after the faculty had unionized. • Would you hire as a tenure stream faculty member someone who has been a postdoc at UCLA, UCSD, Berkeley?, or a candidate who had been a teaching assistant at Michigan? All unionized. All faced same arguments about compromising quality.

  11. Shared governance & collective bargaining • Will collective bargaining dramatically alter and weaken shared governance, making the university more like a manufacturing firm? • The view of the national AAUP, the creator and ongoing defender of the shared gov idea. 1988 statement. The answer is, no. Collective bargaining strengthens shared governance. • National study of “The casual effect of faculty unions on institutional decision making.” (Porter, 2013) “Fac unions have a positive effect on faculty influence at public institutions.” (p.1204)

  12. The public good: Public unionscountering academic capitalism • “Be boundless” (with marketing & ventures) as investment in instruction/research declines. • SUNY’s Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, and the role of the United University Professions in keeping it open. • Harborview’s primary care clinics. A public union (Washington Federation of State Employees) working with staff, patients, community to keep medical care for the public interest.

  13. Faculty unions and faculty salaries: Proper comparisons • Salary drivers--why UO is not a good comparison. • The UO contract (11.75% first two years; 8% next three years). Compare against self. • Who are the peers the UW uses in making comparisons? GCS vs OFM and HECB. See the salaries of UConn and UMass. • Influence of field. AAUP data. (Schuster and Finkelstein, 2010). Consistent union advantage in all but two fields (psych, & occupational specialization)

  14. Faculty unions & salaries:Floors, not ceilings, & equity • Are discretionary adjustments possible? Yes “Nothing in this agreement shall preclude the University from providing salary increases to members of the bargaining unit in excess of the amounts specified at any time…” (UIC) • Gender equity & faculty unions. National study that finds unionized univs have > %’s of assoc and full professors who are women. “The results of this study reflect the historical priorities of the faculty union in formalizing tenure and promotion procedures, and suggest that these procedures are especially important for women faculty.” (May et al., 2010)

  15. Takeaways for your decision • It’s an important decision, but it won’t make or break you in the short-term status or salary-wise. • Become more informed: Ask colleagues at unionized univs; surf a few websites to look at tone of site and contracts: http://uauoregon.org/ For many of you, it’s not your (negative) image of “a union.” • My prediction about the choice: Current trajectory or collectively creating an opportunity to change that trajectory in ways that enhance the profession, the university, and its public role/mission.

  16. Thank you… grhoades@email.arizona.edu

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