The Next Four Years

Colleagues,

Last Tuesday, Ohio voters went to the polls and a majority elected Mike DeWine as governor. This is not the result for which we had hoped, as we believed the state and higher education would be better served under a Richard Cordray administration. 

For the last eight years, we have faced attack after attack by a unified Republican government. For example, Gov. Kasich and the legislature tried to completely eliminate meaningful collective bargaining for all public employees, but would have eliminated collective bargaining rights outright for faculty, through Senate Bill 5 in 2011.Subsequently, they inserted into successive budget bills this same “Yeshiva” language that would have, in effect, defined all faculty as managers and thus eliminated our collective bargaining rights.

In addition, funding for higher education still has not been restored to pre-recession levels all while tuition has been restrained. This has left our institutions with difficult financial decisions, and often has led to reductions in faculty, hiring more adjuncts, stagnant wages, benefit reductions, and contentious collective bargaining contracts. They also have introduced language calling for a minimum teaching load for tenured faculty; have attempted to restrict faculty from offering our own textbooks in our classes; and tried to reduce our sick leave.

This is why the OCAAUP Board believed it to be important to endorse Cordray/Sutton, as they would have been a balance on a misguided General Assembly. No monetary donations accompanied this endorsement. All of OCAAUP’s funds are strictly used for operational purposes and not for political donations. 

The next four years will be challenging, just as the last eight have been. The Ohio Conference will continue to be vigilant in monitoring legislation and trying to educate lawmakers about faculty issues and the broader higher education landscape. We will need our members help in reaching out to their own representatives and senators to amplify our messages.

This may start as early as this week, when the current General Assembly enters what is known as “lame duck” session, which is often characterized by swift approval of controversial and contentious bills. In fact, the public sector “right-to-work” bill — HB 53 — will be getting a hearing at 1:00 pm today in Statehouse Room 313. In addition, later this week, several bills will be heard in the House Higher Education Committee, including HB 758, which would force institutions of higher education to host any speaker on campus.

As always, we will keep our members posted.
In solidarity,
John McNayPresident, OCAAUP

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2018 Annual Meeting Recap

Thank you to everyone who attended the Annual Meeting in Columbus this past weekend!

Among the business that took place was approval of our 2019 budget, changes to our “Code of Regulations,” which will make certain positions on the National AAUP Council ex-officio members of our Board, and approval of the following resolutions:
2018 Annual Meeting Resolution 1 – Increased State Funding2018 Annual Meeting Resolution 2 – OCOG Funding2018 Annual Meeting Resolution 3 – Instruction First

Christopher Newfield (pictured), professor of English at the University of California, Santa-Barbara, and author of The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them, delivered the keynote address via video conference. Newfield discussed his book and talked about ways that we might be able to address these issues with legislators, so that universities are once again viewed as public goods and not entities to “corporatize.”

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Call for Nominations for 2019 Elections

In accordance with our Code of Regulations, this will serve as our call for nominations for the 2019 OCAAUP elections. The positions to be elected in 2019 are:

-Vice President-Treasurer-At-Large Member from a public institution with less than 100 members or a private institution

The Vice President serves in the absence of the President and serves as a delegate to the National AAUP Annual Meeting and the Assembly of State Conferences Annual Meeting. The Treasurer also serves as a delegate to the Assembly of State Conferences Annual Meeting and is responsible for overseeing the Conference’s finances.

To nominate yourself or another member, or if you have any questions, e-mailsara@ocaaup.org. Nominations are due by January 15, 2019.

OCAAUP Endorses Cordray/Sutton

Colleagues,

The Ohio Conference AAUP Board of Trustees has endorsed Richard Cordray and Betty Sutton for Ohio governor and lieutenant governor. We urge our fellow members to cast their votes for them and engage in other activities that support their candidacy, such as canvassing, making monetary donations (see last article for information about how to make a “free” political donation to their campaign), phone banking, etc.

This is the first endorsement of a statewide candidate that the Board has made. The decision was made at our September 8 Board meeting, at which Betty Sutton appeared and addressed our group.
Given Cordray’s and Sutton’s strong support of organized labor, as well as Mike DeWine and Jon Husted’s record of supporting measures like Senate Bill 5 from 2011 and other anti-union legislation, we believe it is critical to get off the sidelines and actively support candidates that will be positive for labor and higher education policies.

Labor and public higher education have suffered tremendously under the leadership of John Kasich and a right-wing General Assembly for the last eight years. We cannot afford another four to eight years of more of the same, if not worse.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 6, but you can request that an absentee ballot be sent to your home or vote in-person at your county’s designated early voting site.
Sincerely,
John McNayPresident, OCAAUP

2018 OCAAUP Annual Meeting: Nov. 9-10

Newfield will discuss how to undo “The Great Mistake”

The 2018 OCAAUP Annual Meeting will be held Friday, November 9 through Saturday, November 10 at the Renaissance Columbus Westerville-Polaris Hotel. Events will kick off with a reception and dinner beginning that Friday at 6:00 pm. Saturday’s events will commence at 9:00 am with a breakfast. The full agenda can befound here.

Christopher Newfield, professor of literature and American studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them, will deliver the keynote luncheon address entitled “Undoing the Great Mistake: How to Get Public Universities Back on Track.”
Registration is open and costs $25. Hotel rooms for November 9 are available at a reduced block rate of $119.

Will Wright State faculty be forced to strike?

Financial mess caused by administration has held up faculty negotiations

Recently, the Wright State administration announced that it would be cutting 40 positions and reducing its budget by $10 million. This is just the latest news from a university that has faced troubling finances in recent years, much of which was brought about by reckless and controversial spending. The Dayton Daily News outlined some of these spending gaffes in a February article. It should be noted that faculty had nothing to do with these decisions; and yet, as our AAUP-WSU chapter negotiates its latest contract, the administration wants faculty to make major concessions to cover its bad spending habits.

The administration has asked faculty to give up the right to bargain over health benefits and simply accept whatever they give to other employees, making changes with short notice at any time, even in mid-year. Those changes are equivalent to a 4% cut in pay for bargaining unit faculty—and make Wright State’s health care the most expensive for employees among all of the public universities in Ohio.

Moreover, the administration has proposed language which will allow it to retrench (fire faculty with continuing appointments and with tenure) if the University receives an SB-6 score of 2.4 or less for two consecutive years. In 2016 the administration got WSU an SB-6 score of 2.2 and in 2017 a score of 0.8. On the day on which the CBA goes into effect, the administration would then be able to start layoffs of tenured faculty and faculty with continuing agreements—without even eliminating programs or departments.

The administration’s position is that the faculty’s Workload MOU’s, which are not part of our contract, are illegal and must be eliminated. They want to be able unilaterally to increase teaching loads for all faculty or selected faculty. Also, the administration has proposed to strike the language that gives BUFMs the right to teach in the summer, ahead of non-BUFMs. Currently, there is a rotation system.

The administration is proposing three years of flat salaries and has stated in all likelihood there will be no raises for six years: for this collective bargaining agreement and the next. They also want to do away with the merit raise formula, instead giving chairs and deans total discretion over the distribution of merit raises to anyone receiving an annual evaluation of adequate.

The administration wants to be allowed to “furlough” faculty. Since they admit that faculty will have to teach all of their classes and continue to engage in scholarly activity and service, their furlough proposal is really a cut in pay. A loss of 10 days’ pay would amount to an additional 5.1% cut in pay with no reduction in work.

The administration wants to make it harder for non-tenure eligible (NTE) faculty to obtain a continuing appointment and to make it take more time, nominally extending the length of service needed to get a continuing appointment from 6 to 9 years. But in reality, for nearly everyone it would take 12 years, because only Senior Lecturers and Clinical Assistant Professors would be eligible for a continuing appointment.

Lastly, the administration has put on the table an early retirement proposal that would allow for a phased retirement. The major concern is that with retrenchment the administration will be laying off faculty and then hiring back retirees to take the place of those who have been laid off.

Enough is enough. Wright State cannot cut its way to prosperity, especially by making cuts to the faculty that carry out the mission of the university. AAUP-WSU hopes that it will not have to strike, but may be forced to do so if the administration continues to push untenable proposals that threaten academic quality. We will continue to update you on this situation.

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Become a Media Liaison!

The Ohio Conference AAUP is seeking volunteers to serve as media liaisons.

Ideally, we would like to identify at least one person to cover each of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Each media liaison will monitor the news coverage of higher education in his or her county and will make comments on and/or submit op-eds and distribute news releases as appropriate.

We are establishing a Dropbox account to which PDF copies of published articles on higher ed topics and issues, as well as copies of OCAAUP- and liaison-authored op-eds and news releases, can be shared and stored. This Dropbox account will allow for both some continuity in our messaging and some individualized content, while reducing duplication of effort.

The establishment of this network of media liaisons will expand on OCAAUP’s efforts to enhance our communications with our members and more broadly. Those efforts took a big step forward with the establishment of a Communications Committee during the Senate Bill 5 fight and have subsequently been extended with our regular newsletters to members, our regular testimony before legislative committees, and our timely submissions of op-eds to major newspapers.

Since two further efforts to “Yeshiva” Ohio faculty at public colleges and universities have subsequently been introduced into bills in committee (actions that we have been able to beat back), we think that it is likely that such attacks on our collective bargaining rights—and on academic freedom, shared governance, and tenure—are likely to continue. It seems prudent to enhance our ability to respond to those challenges in the broadest ways possible by taking advantage of the fact that we have members in most of Ohio’s 88 counties.

If you wish to serve as a media liaison, please contact Marty Kich atmartin.kich@gmail.com.

Marty Kich
Vice President, OCAAUP

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Scholarships Available for Summer Institute

From July 19-22, the AAUP Summer Institute will take place at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. The Summer Institute is a great event that brings together AAUP members from across the country to participate in a wide range of workshops and special programs. To view the complete program and for other information, click here.

If you are interested in sponsorship to this event, first get in touch with your chapter leadership to see if funding is available. The Ohio Conference also will be providing “scholarships” to members from chapters with fewer resources. For more information about scholarships from the Conference, e-mail sara@ocaaup.org.

On May 8: Yes on State Issue 1

OCAAUP Board endorses Issue 1

On the primary ballot this May 8, Ohio voters will be asked whether to approve Issue 1. The Ohio Conference AAUP Board has endorsed a YES vote.
Issue 1 would end the partisan gerrymandering process for congressional districts in Ohio. Gerrymandering is the practice that allows one political party to draw districts in a way that favors their party. This is why there are so few competitive congressional elections in Ohio and, consequently, very lopsided representation in Congress.

The amendment needs a simple majority of votes to become part of the Ohio Constitution. The proposed changes would take effect for the next redistricting process and be in place for the 2022 mid-term elections.
Issue 1 has received broad bipartisan support, with endorsements from both the Democratic and Republican Parties, as well as major Ohio newspapers. We encourage our members to vote in the primary election on May 8 and to vote YES on Issue 1.

For the text of the ballot issue, click here.

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Reminder: Vote by May 3 in STRS Elections

By now, you should have received information in the mail about voting in this year’s State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) elections. Two Retirement Board positions are to be elected for four-year terms starting in September.

We are encouraging the election and re-election of Ben Pfeiffer and Dale Price, respectively.

Mr. Pfeiffer and Mr. Price are members of the Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT). They understand the fiduciary responsibility that the Retirement Board has to the system, but believe those interests must be balanced with the real-world impact these decisions have on STRS members.

We hope that you will take the time to vote in these important elections to help diversify the voices on the STRS Retirement Board. The balloting period is open until May 3.

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Two National AAUP Events This Summer

The National AAUP Annual Conference will be held June 14-17 in Arlington, VA. The conference will focus on the theme of free speech on campus. More information about the event can be found here.

From July 19-22, the Summer Institute will take place at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. The Summer Institute is a great event that brings together AAUP members from across the country to participate in a wide range of workshops and special programs. To view the complete program and for other information, click here. If you are interested in sponsorship to this event, first get in touch with your chapter leadership to see if funding is available. The Ohio Conference also will be providing “scholarships” to members from chapters with fewer resources. For more information about scholarships from the Conference, e-mail sara@ocaaup.org.