Below is part of the BOT's resolution number 11-02-02:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
that while the Board of Trustees of the University of Toledo continues to recognize the three components of faculty workload--teaching, professional activity and service-- The University of Toledo faculty shall be assigned a 15 credit hour or equivalent teaching load per semester as part of their normal faculty workload.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
that The University of Toledo President or his designees shall have the authority to creat faculty workload standards and measurements that may serve to implement or offset the 15 credit hour or equivalent teaching load per semester.
Any reduction in teaching load will constitute a reassignment to engage in other tasks as part of his or her workload, such as research, outreach and/or engagment, approved service, etc., and such workload reduction will be proportionate to the reassignment.
Exceptions to and departures from the faculty workload standards and measurements created by the President or his deignees will require written approval from the President. Approval of excetions to and departures from the faculty workload standards and measurements that have been created by the President or his designees is a non delegable duty of the President.
I am going to make a few comments and then open the floor for discussion. First, no institution I am aware of that has a research component has a fifteen hour requirement. That equates to five three hour classes per semester. I did five three hour classes once. You spend all, let me repeat that, all your time teaching the class, coming and going to the class, preparing for the class or dealing with the students in the class. If I had wanted to that I would have taught junior high school. There is no time for writing or research or even committee activities. What is even more problematic is that there is little time to be creative in the classroom or to develope new classes. At a time when the administration is encouraging the development of new schools, new majors and at the very least a reworking of the curriculum you will have no time to do that. You will be just too busy teaching what is right in front of you to think about anything else. Second, no young scholars will consider taking such a position. It would be occupational suicide. There will not be enough time to write anything and as a result he/she will never receive tenure and have no record of scholarship that will enable them to go elsewhere. Third, there will be favoratism toward particular individuals, particular departments and particular programs. What better way for administrators to take out their displeasure at those who have disagreed with their policies than to have them teaching fifteen hours a week. Let's face it, those that receive outside funding will get release time. The rest of us will not. Fourth, those departments who tend to attract those students who are least prepared will have the least amount of time to personally help those students. We will all be in class. I suggest we create a new college. I even have a name for it: The Community and Technical College.
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31 comments:
This is a typical community college workload. In the transfer or academic areas of community colleges, these are by definition freshman and sophomore level introductory courses only. Faculty will teach 15-16 hours with classes usually capped at 35-40 students per section. There are absolutely no research expectations and minimal service expectations. All evaluations and promotions are based on teching only. Since the vast majority of these introductory sections at UT now are taught in large 100+ sections and many of them are taught by part time faculty,putting full time faculty in these sections could end up costing UT a great deal more. State subsidy on these classes is also ther lowest. But this is what happens when you have unqualified people in charge. And where does graduate education fit in this model? Teaching responsibilities include advising of graduate students, chair graduate programs, responsibility fordifferent types of graduate program exams, and thesis and dissertation committee work. Maybe Grad Council should discuss this issue.
I wondered about this resolution: I don't know a soul on the faculty who teaches 12 hours (4 classes) as it is. What is the 15 hour rule supposed to mean?
Brother Dave. This has been attempted elsewhere recently in a highly publicized case. The professor (I believe it was an associate or full-professor of chemistry or biology)was accustomed to a 3/2 teaching schedule, but suddenly assigned to a 5/5. She filed complaint but to no avail. Then, to the surprise of everyone she agreed to the 5/5 -- but then instituted a rigorous grading curve in all her classes. Not surprisingly, a large proportion of her students failed her courses. She was called on the carpet by her chair then by her college dean and university provost because irate students and parents threatened to do this and to do that to the university unless these failing grades were changed to passing grades. Higher-ups in the administration decided to further abuse their power by attempting to change her students' grades without her permission. On discovering this corruption she threatened to take the story to the press. Some members of the administration out of desperation and frustration threatened to medicalize her or criminalize her for devising and enforcing such high grading standards. Lawyers for the administration stepped in about that time and advised the provost, dean and chair to lighten up on the lady. She is now teaching a 3/2 again.
Add to this: grading. Not running a form through a computer, but actually reading and evaluating student work. Especially in the large classes we are often forced to work in--rather than open another section and hire someone to do it, they raise the cap (or we are expected to sign students in), add more students, and let attrition take over (what an attitude!).
Asking this workload of ANY faculty member--fulltime, parttime, tenured/tenure-track, lecturer, whatever--is absolutely and totally inexcusable and ignorant. Let BOT members, Jacobs, etc., get out of their cushy plush chairs (an unnecessary expense!) and do our jobs for a week. EVERYthing we have to do in a typical week. (Except that it would probably take the rest of the semester to undo the damage they would do.)
Can someone explain to me how the board of trustees can unilaterally revoke the UT AAUP 2008-2011 contract? (see http://www.utaaup.com/docs/finaltenure.html)
The Board argues that specific Ohio Revised Code sections supersede any union contract and that even if the board went against the ORC and agreed with the AAUP to insert a given provision, that contract provision can be made void because the board wasn't really allowed to grant that provision in the first place.
That's their argument.
It is quite clear that the Board of Trustees do not value the quality of education given to the students. How does this move the University of Toledo from the 4th tier of the USWNR rankings? Why would any capable prospective professor want to come to the University of Toledo under these conditions?
I hear there is supposed to a protest in Columbus this Tuesday concerning the "No Collective Bargaining" legislative bill that has been introduced.
Does anyone know the particulars in case anyone wants to attend?
Readers, The Tuesday Feb 22meeting in Columbus -rally against SB 5 - is at 1pm at the Statehouse, 1 Capitol Square. Be there if you can. Democracy is not a spectator sport. There is also a local meeting tomorrow according to the UT-AAUP facebook site.
Monday Feb.21: Meeting Schedule against Senate Bill 5Speakers
State Representative Matthew A. Szollosi, Senator Edna Brown, Ohio
House of Representatives Teresa Fedor and Michael AshfordWhen: Monday Feb.21, 20011 Time: 7pm.Where: Conn- Weissenberger American Legion Post2020 West Alexis RoadToledo, Oh.43613Upstairs room,
I think it is time that we all re-read the documentation on the Pullman strike that began in 1894. Perhaps bloggie would like to facilitate that reading and discussion? Here's a place to start: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/pullman/primary.html
Let me rephrase the question rightfully asked by Anon 7:38 and put it in another light: Why would any capable prospective student want to come to the University of Toledo under these conditions? What kind of education can we offer them?
Curious RW&B, what a great idea! I have been thinking on this kind of thing myself: We know where most of the problems are, and mostly who's behind them--on both the local UT level and the broader, statewide level. My question is--and I ask this not in a whiny, resigned, hand-wringing voice but with my we-cannot-give-up, we-cannot-give-in voice: What can we do? There must be something! I just don't know what it is. If anyone knows, please post! I know many of us are scared (retribution, etc.)--and I'm as scared as anyone (and more than most, I think), but at some point ww have to stand together against the tyranny and non-benevolent despotism of the Jacobs-BOT and anti-union regimes--for our own sakes, of course, but also for the future of UT and of its students.
On Monday, Feb. 21, 2011, at 7pm, there will be a town hall forum to discuss Senate Bill 5. Let our elected representatives Matt Szollosi, Teresa Fedor, Michael Ashford and Senator Edna Brown know what you think about this bill. Location: 2020 Alexis Road, Toledo, Ohio.
Recommended viewing; "The Salt of the Earth," from the mid-50s. Actors, writers, and others were blacklisted under the McCarthy inquisitions; I think the film itself was banned or blacklisted as well. Still fitting after all these years.
I called the 888 number in the recent notice from AAUP. I found it better to go here:
http://www.ohiosenate.gov/
and get the phone number and/or the email address for your senator. (The 888 number eventually got me to a state representative's office, who isn't involved in this, but they gave me the name and number of my state senator.)
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110224/NEWS0102/302240049/1196/ENT03/Kasich-touts-charter-universities-?odyssey=nav|head
http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/state-and-regional/article_456cd18c-40a0-11e0-89f3-001cc4c03286.html // UW-Lacrosse faculty voted to unionize, in spite of everything going on in Wisconsin. And look, their chancellor openly supports it. In my third year at UT, I'm forgetting what it's like to have administrators who make common cause with faculty.
I have been here 25 years and because of the goings on of Jacobs & Co. and now our new governor I am sending out resumes as fast as I can. Good bye Ohio!
So, as it stands SB5 means I will now have to pay the 14.5% that the state pays for my pension on top of the 9.5% I pay. My share of health insurance will go up 33%. I will lose my rights to bargain over sick leave, working conditions, safety, seniority, overtime, and any job protection I might otherwise have had....
Why don't they just put chains around our necks and ankles?
And any increase in workload will be applied disproportionally. It will have minimal effect or none on the hospital and professors in the fields the administration considers first-tier. Professors working in disciplines considered service disciplines will be hit the hardest (I can't imagine anyone wanting to come to UT if the teaching load is advertised as 5/5). And in this nightmarish scenario new hires, who thought they were entering a research position, will either find their teaching loads bumped up during their probationary periods or after, if they make tenure. And, just imagine professors who have teen teaching 3/2 loads for 20 years trying to cope with 4/4 or 5/5. But one unanswered question: who will be let go if professors have their teaching loads increased so dramatically? The university is covering all its classes under the current system, so if professors have their teaching increased then who gets the axe? are there that many part timers? Does this plan eliminate all or most of the visiting professor and part timer positions or does it go beyond that and impact lecturers?
The Jacob administration's strategy has been this: cause an uproar, then back off and appear to compromise. The Jacob administration wants faculty teaching 3/3. Floating the 5/5 will make it appear that a 3/3 is a huge compromise on the part of the administration. This is part of their strategy for negotiating the next contract. Now that we have the 5/5 horror planted in all of our heads, we will sigh and be thankful when the admin agrees to something less. It's all a head game, which they are very good at.
I think you should put this up on the front page:
"These are the values inspiring those brave workers in Poland ... They remind us that where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost."
—RONALD REAGAN, Labor Day Address at Liberty State Park, 1980.
And follow it with these:
"In terms of accepted collective bargaining procedures, government workers have no right beyond the authority to petition Congress — a right available to every citizen."
--AFL-CIO exec council, 1959
"Meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the government. All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service....The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives....
"Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees. Upon employees in the federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people....This obligation is paramount....A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent....to prevent or obstruct...Government....Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government...is unthinkable and intolerable."
--FDR, 1937
But the situation has markedly changed today as business and for profit sharks continue to push for the privatization and businessification of higher education. If we were being run by impartial and fair bureaucrats whose common goal is to keep the ship afloat and steady for the tax payers I would not feel the need for a union. However, these days we are run by rapacious and greedy leaders whose goals are filling their own pockets and those of their friends by whatever means possible, whether it be by slaughtering the sheep of collective bargaining or whatever. The board and the administration is a revolving door for business men who line their own pockets not comitted civil servants. I say hell yeah, we need strong unions really bad.
Besides, AAUP, CWA and AFSCME have been about the most docile unions ever. I cannot remember any strike ever occurring and usually they just roll over and do what the administration wants.
By the way, I'll bet plenty of the unclassified and PSA people think SB5 has nothing to do with them. Won't they be surprised when thei PERS contributions double and their health insurance goes up by 33% because there are no unions to set the baseline!
The fundamental nature of Jacobs' bullying can easily be seen here. To get us to take on ONE extra course he wants the Board to bloviate regarding a 5-5 load. Why? Either he wants to protect us from Columbus politicos who really do want us to teach 15 hrs a semester--ha! Or he wants us to know that he really does have the Power to turn us into community college faculty. OK, so Jacobs is a bully.
But the counter-bloviation is hardly any more persuasive. Face it, public employee unions are fundamentally anti-democratic. Their whole reason for being is to thwart the will of the people--because it's their representatives on the other side of the bargaining table. Our union protects plagiarists and flattens out the pay structure to encourage scholars to leave and deadwood to stay so they can soak up a nice six figure pension when they finally get around to officially retiring. The faculty it represents wants to provide a watered down "education" that will trouble them as little as possible, and that is politicized as much as possible. It is completely believable that the average Ohio voter really does want the universities to be reined in.
Unfortunately the blunt instrument they've indirectly chosen to do it is the thug Jacobs. But in the battle between thugs and lazy, political, whining professors, it's really hard to pick a side.
Who are these lazy, political, whining professors? And are there no lazy, political, whining administrators? How do we trim the deadwood in the administrative levels where there are no unions? Did everyone who got a bonus in December truly do such outstanding work that he/she deserved a bonus? The economy didn't disintegrate because of unions: it disintegrated because of corporate greed and lack of regulation of corporations such as Lehman brothers, for which our governor worked.
As for the comment about a watered-down education being the desire of the unionized faculty: take a good, long look at who is proposing the watered-down curriculum. It is NOT faculty.
Anon 2/26, 6:41--They've also been very successful at "divide and conquer," in breaking up A&S. We used to be able to work together to save ourselves--now it's each mini-college for itself.
I hardly agree that Jacob's will and Kasich's will or the state senate are fulfilling the will of the people. 61% of the state is against what they are trying to do.
Hoping for some clarification - one of the "Anonymous" postings referred to "plagiarists" (plural) and "deadwood."
What plagiarists (S) are being referred to? I follow the Union actions carefully (to see where my dues go) and I don't recall seeing a plagiarism case go to arbitration in recent memory. And I have not heard about any grievances on this recently either.
As far as "deadwood" making 100k. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the fast majority of professors who end up making outrageous salaries do so because they had administrative positions and were then put back into the teaching faculty? I think we recently had one or two "failed" presidents who were punished by being placed back into the faculty with their former salaires and many departments have professors who have salaries 1/2 as much or more higher than their peers because they did stints as Provosts, Deans, etc.
That's the corporate model at work, a university golden parachute as it were.
There is no getting around: while the recent reorganization has INCREASED the number of administrators and their minions, the cost cutting plans will DECREASE the number of faculty and departments/ programs (if the admin can ever figure out which is which). There will also be fewer students.
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