Ohio Conference AAUP Update

Ohio Members Participate in AAUP Annual Meeting

Last week, Ohio members participated in National AAUP’s 101st Annual Meeting and Centennial Celebration. 

Ten Ohio members took part in the annual Capitol Hill Lobbying Day, during which they met with offices of Ohio’s congressional delegation. This year, meetings were held with the offices of Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, as well as Representatives John Boehner, Steve Chabot, Bob Latta, Jim Renacci, Tim Ryan and Brad Wenstrup. 
Members advocated for greater access and affordability for students, specifically addressing funding for, and requirements of, Pell Grants and Perkins Loans. Additionally, they lobbied for greater oversight of for-profit colleges and also discussed higher education as a public good.

Ohio Conference delegates attended the Assembly of State Conferences (ASC) meetings. At the ASC Business Meeting, AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum presented OCAAUP President John McNay with the Al Sumberg Award, which is given to someone particularly effective in lobbying on issues furthering the interests of higher education or in furthering such lobbying efforts on the state level. 

In his remarks, Fichtenbaum stated, “No one deserves this award more than John McNay.” Congratulations, President McNay!

At the business portions of the full Annual Meeting, delegates voted to remove Yeshiva University from the censure list and to add MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Southern Maine, and Felician College (NJ) to the censure list. 

In addition, delegates passed a resolution denouncing the recent proposals in Wisconsin designed to weaken academic freedom and shared governance, as well as heavily cut funding to the University of Wisconsin system. 
President Fichtenbaum delivered an inspiring address about the need for a bigger and more inclusive AAUP to fight concerted political attacks on higher education. 

The meeting was rounded out with notable speakers including Richard F. Griffin, Jr., NLRB General Counsel, and Juan Gonzalez, columnist at New York Daily and cohost of Democracy Now!. 

Thanks to all Ohio members who participated, as well as to the National AAUP staff and leadership for making AAUP’s 101st Annual Meeting a great one.

Has Your Campus Been “Koch-ed?”

Any organization’s or institution’s behavior can be influenced significantly by its funding sources. Charles and David Koch, referred to as the Koch Brothers, are known for using their foundations to fund campaigns that undermine workers’ right and unions, quality public education, and healthcare expansion.

The website www.unkochmycampus.org lists 390 colleges and universities that have received funding from the Koch Brothers. Ohio institutions that have received money from the Charles Koch Foundation include: Akron, Ashland, Baldwin-Wallace, Bowling Green, Cedarville, Kenyon, Ohio State, and Ohio University.

In addition, http://polluterwatch.org/charles-koch-university-funding-database contains more detailed information about the amounts given to each institution. 

Knowledge is power.

Reminder: Mark Your Calendar for OCAAUP Annual Meeting 

More details, including a registration form, will be made available later this summer. Visit the Events Calendar for more information.

Senate Wants Tuition Freeze, More Funding for Higher Ed

On Monday, June 8, after several weeks of subcommittee hearings, Ohio Senate leadership unveiled their version of the state budget bill, Amended Substitute House Bill 64. 

Amendments to the higher education portions of the bill were among the most notable. 

While the House version of the bill allowed for capped tuition increases, the Senate has proposed freezing tuition over the biennium while adding an additional $240 million to State Share of Instruction (SSI). This change would represent the first real increase to SSI funding since Fiscal Year 2011 under former Gov. Strickland. 
However, Senate Republicans still plan to push colleges and universities to cut in-state cost of attendance by 5% for the 2016-17 academic year. Coupled with the tuition freezes, this likely will neutralize the SSI gains.

Across the board, stakeholders had been calling for additional moneys for the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG), which assists lower income students. The Senate proposal would boost OCOG by $100 million over the next two fiscal years, a good step toward restoring funding for the grant that was cut heavily in 2009. 
There was no language inserted that would impact faculty collective bargaining rights. 

The full Senate Finance Committee will hold hearings over the next week before the bill is formerly voted out of committee and out of the full Senate. It then will be sent to a Conference Committee comprised of members from the House and Senate to work out the differences between the bill versions. Consequently, there could be more changes to higher education prior to the legislation reaching Gov. Kasich’s desk.

Ohio Conference AAUP Update

McNay Addresses Senate Higher Education Subcommittee

On Wednesday, May 20, OCAAUP President John McNay delivered testimony to the Senate Finance Higher Education Subcommittee.

McNay expressed that faculty have grown weary of being scapegoated for driving up costs at Ohio’s public colleges and universities. 

He told legislators that less than 24 percent of institutional operating budgets is spent on professors’ salary and benefits, also known as “instructional compensation,” and that instructional compensation actually has declined by over 4 percent over the last 10 years when adjusted for inflation.

“As college costs have continued to rise, faculty compensation has dipped below inflationary levels. Clearly, other factors need to be examined,” he stated. 

McNay went on to discuss how administrative bloat, athletics, and never-ending building projects are driving up costs for students. He also pointed to the direct relationship between state support and tuition costs, noting that tuition has risen as state support has declined.

In addition, he urged the committee to investigate the effects of the new funding formula, to examine the College Credit Plus program critically, and to reinvest in the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG).  

Chairman Randy Gardner (R-Bowling Green) thanked President McNay for his testimony and said that the Legislature is trying to take positive steps to reinvest in higher education. 

 Various students testified at the hearing, including several members of the Ohio Student Association.

They wore swim floats and goggles as a sign that they are “drowning in debt.” They gave compelling accounts of their personal struggles to afford college and now pay back their loans. 

We will continue to monitor House Bill 64 as it moves to the full Senate Finance Committee.

E-mail Your State Senator

We successfully beat back the language House members inserted into HB 64 that would have reclassified faculty as managers and thus denied us of collective bargaining rights. 

Nevertheless, we want to make sure that our State Senators know why such provisions are misguided and focus their attention on the real problems plaguing Ohio’s institutions of higher education.

Click here to be taken to an Action Network page where you can easily send an e-mail to your State Senator.

Additionally, there still are anti-labor provisions remaining in HB 64, and we want to show our labor allies the same support that they showed to us.

You can find more information about these provisions and send a message to your Senator through this Ohio AFL-CIO action page.

Welcome, Miami University Members!

On April 29, over 100 faculty at Miami University of Ohio gathered to launch an AAUP advocacy chapter. 

AAUP President Rudy Fichtenbaum spoke to the crowd about the value of the AAUP in protecting academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance.

OCAAUP President John McNay was also in attendance.

Chapter Co-Presidents Karen Dawisha and Keith Tuma welcomed their colleagues in establishing this new chapter and expressed their hopes for amplifying the faculty voice on campus.

We are pleased to welcome our new Miami members into the Ohio Conference. Together we are stronger!

About the Ohio Conference AAUP

The Ohio Conference AAUP (OCAAUP) serves as a hub for the 24 AAUP chapters in Ohio. Collectively, we represent approximately 6,000 college and university professors at both public and private institutions of higher education across the State of Ohio.

The mission of the OCAAUP is to preserve and advance academic freedom, shared governance, the general welfare of college and university professors, and to promote the greater social good that comes from a dynamic, active professoriate.

OCAAUP is overseen by a Board of Trustees comprised of officers, chapter representatives, and at-large representatives, all of whom are uncompensated volunteers. Executive Director Sara Kilpatrick is the organization’s sole staff member and works out of the OCAAUP office in Columbus. She is responsible for the day-to-day operations and serves as the association’s state lobbyist. 

Thank you to those who have spent time sending messages to members of the House Finance Committee. Your activism is absolutely critical. This is an extremely serious situation, as our collective bargaining rights are being threatened.

We now need to refocus our efforts on contacting only the Republican members of the Finance Committee AND House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger. Their offices need to be inundated with calls and e-mails so that they realize these provisions are strongly and widely opposed.

The bill will be voted on in committee on Monday, and the full House will vote on Wednesday. Place calls and send e-mails through Monday.

Here is the contact information:
Speaker Cliff Rosenberger: (614) 466-3506; rep91@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Ryan Smith: (614) 466-1366; rep93@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Kirk Schuring: (614) 752-2438, rep48@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Marlene Anielski: (614) 644-6041; rep06@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Tony Burkley: (614) 644-5091; rep82@ohiohouse.gov
Rep.  Robert Cupp: (614) 466-9624; rep04@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Timothy Derickson: (614) 644-5094; rep53@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Mike Dovilla: (614) 466-4895; rep07@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Mike Duffey: (614) 644-6030; rep21@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Doug Green: (614) 644-6034; rep66@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Cheryl Grossman: (614) 466-9690; rep23@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. David Hall: (614) 466-2994; rep70@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Stephanie Kunze: (614) 466-8012; rep24@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Ron Maag: (614) 644-6023; rep62@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Jeff McClain: (614) 644-6265; rep87@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Rick Perales: (614) 644-6020; rep73@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Bill Reineke: (614) 466-1374; rep88@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Mark Romanchuk: (614) 466-5802; rep02@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Gary Scherer: (614) 644-7928; rep92@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Barbara Sears: (614) 466-1731; rep47@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Robert Sprague: (614) 466-3819; rep83@ohiohouse.gov
Rep. Andy Thompson: (614) 644-8728; rep95@ohiohouse.gov

For purposes of sending one e-mail message to all of these representatives, here is a list you can simply copy and paste: 
Rep06@ohiohouse.gov; rep82@ohiohouse.gov; rep04@ohiohouse.gov; rep53@ohiohouse.gov; rep07@ohiohouse.gov; rep21@ohiohouse.gov; rep66@ohiohouse.gov; rep23@ohiohouse.gov; rep70@ohiohouse.gov; rep24@ohiohouse.gov; rep62@ohiohouse.gov; rep87@ohiohouse.gov; rep73@ohiohouse.gov; rep88@ohiohouse.gov; rep02@ohiohouse.gov; rep92@ohiohouse.gov; rep48@ohiohouse.gov; rep47@ohiohouse.gov; rep93@ohiohouse.gov; rep83@ohiohouse.gov; rep91@ohiohouse.gov; rep95@ohiohouse.govMany of you may call these offices over the weekend when no one is there. That is fine. Leave messages. Whether or not someone answers, you can say:

“I’m calling to express my strong opposition to the language in Substitute House Bill 64 that is aimed at taking away collective bargaining rights for faculty. I hope that Representative (their name) will work to remove this language in the House Finance Committee.”

And here is a revised, sample e-mail message:

Subject: Please remove anti-faculty language from HB 64

Representative,

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the language in Substitute House Bill 64 that is aimed at taking away collective bargaining rights for public college and university faculty.

The language would reclassify faculty as management, and contends that they are managers because of basic functions they perform in their jobs, like choosing curriculum. 

If faculty had true decision-making power at our institutions of higher education, our institutions would be run much differently. There would be more focus on instruction and research rather than on a construction arms race and deficit-spending on athletic programs.

Apparently, this language has been included to help institutions “control costs.”

Faculty are not driving up costs at our institutions, and the data proves that. Over the last 10 years, faculty salaries and benefits have failed to keep pace with inflation. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, instructional compensation has declined over 4%. The real problem is that administrations are prioritizing spending on things that are peripheral to the educational mission of our public institutions. That is the issue that needs to be addressed.

In addition, if faculty were elevated to management status, wouldn’t that imply they would earn more, not less? If staff were hired for the service work that faculty volunteer to do, employment costs at our universities would soar. Faculty service provides exactly the kind of efficiency the legislature is always demanding. Why undermine it?
This language is a thinly-veiled attempt to strip faculty of their collective bargaining rights and is no different than the attack that was in SB 5 four years ago. We do not need another divisive collective bargaining battle in Ohio. 

Please do the rational and right thing and push for the removal of these amendments from Substitute HB 64.

Thank you,

[Your Name]

Thanks in large part to the activism of our members and allies, the House Finance Committee passed Sub. HB 64 this evening without the language that would have stripped faculty of their collective bargaining rights.

The synopsis of the omnibus amendments can be found by clicking here.

The bill is slated to be voted upon by the full House of Representatives on Wednesday.

We cannot thank those of you who took action enough for helping to flood the representatives’ offices with calls and e-mails. It made a difference!

In addition, we thank the House Democratic Caucus, in particular, Minority Leader Fred Strahorn, Rep. Denise Driehaus (Ranking Minority Member on Finance), and Rep. Dan Ramos (Ranking Minority Member on Finance Higher Education Subcommittee).

Without our legislative allies drawing a line in the sand on this issue, we couldn’t have been successful.

Of course, we greet this development with cautious optimism. There is a chance that this language could reappear in the Senate. We will be diligent as the budget process continues to unfold.

Stay tuned for more information. And great work. We couldn’t have done it without YOU.