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Dear Colleagues,
This is my 16th and final year at the
University of Akron. Even though I am leaving and will not
personally benefit from Akron-AAUP representation, I've opted to pay
my full year's union dues. For what it may be worth, I wanted to
explain why I did this. Since coming to the university, I have been
a participant in making our dietetics program one of the best in the
state (we were recognized by UA administration in its television and
print Akron Advantage advertisements). I want to see all our
programs remain strong at the university.
I paid all my dues because:
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I want to see the University of
Akron remain an integral and valuable part of this community,
the community where I reside.
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I want the faculty who have given
their professional careers to the institution to have a say in
the decisions that profoundly impact our mission, faculty, and
students.
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I want to safeguard the union's
effectiveness in negotiations and give power to our faculty
voice.
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I want to support my colleagues of
years who remain at the university and will continue to advocate
for quality programs and the best education for our students.
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I don't want my 16 year investment
in our university to go unprotected after I'm gone.
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Like so many of you, I've seen
multiple administrators come and go, and have come to understand
that the faculty is the "glue" that holds the institution
together. Faculty and staff are the only constant factor we can
count on.
Because of our administrators' short
time here at UA (they seem to be always looking for a position at a
“better” university), faculty always seem
to be playing catch-up to our sister schools. The faculty
provides the knowledge, loyalty and institutional memory that make
excellent programs possible. We also become the advocates for the
students we work with one-on-one in our classes, through student
organizations, and as our advisees. We are the links the university
has to the community and have secured the internships and other
placements for our students (and long before this administration
decided it was something the university should do). We, the faculty,
are the avenues of transmission for the delivery of the university's
mission. And yet we are considered only in
passing when important decisions are made.
The University of Akron is an urban
university where most of our students are non-residential and almost
all pay to finance some or all of their education. We provide an
excellent educational opportunity to many students who might not
otherwise afford a college education. But, with each successive
administration, we have been asked to adopt additional or
alternative roles for our university, depleting our energies in the
process. Meanwhile valuable, increasingly limited resources have
been used to pay for visions of what we should be -
visions that often fade as soon as the current
administrator departs for a new position. We've all seen
this happen with each new administration - a new mission for the
institution, a new budget plan, a new way of distributing resources
- always different from the previous version with one striking
similarity - implementation of such a short duration as to make
little real difference in the long run.
By distracting
us (and our resources) for each new plan to reinvent the university,
our transient administrations have made working conditions for the
faculty - who were here before and continue to be here after each
administrative change - much more difficult. We have seen our
salaries fall in comparison to other institutions in the state and
we've found little administrative interest or planning to address
faculty concerns. We have seen top down decisions that have greatly
impacted our workloads as administrative tasks done by support areas
have been transferred to faculty. And, we have seen faculty
positions go unfilled with no real plan to decide in any objective
way to return them to productive units.
The frustration of the faculty at these
worsening conditions ultimately led to the vote to bring collective
bargaining to our campus. Having our own means to negotiate will
ensure us a forum to air our concerns with the administration - a
means that cannot be ignored and will, I am certain, get results.
Interestingly enough, there have already been results - even the
threat of unionization was enough to make the administration
suddenly aware of our needs. We were given a 3-4% raise, the
highest in years, and additional monies in some areas to help
rectify compression and unusually low salaries in some areas as
compared to other institutions.
Will such a dramatic change in the way
we operate fix everything? Not likely - and most certainly it will
require long hours and hard work to realize benefit. Fortunately,
we have a faculty that has never turned away from difficult tasks.
I paid my dues because the union has the
promise of consistency of leadership that our university community
needs.
Cordially,
Isabelle Stombaugh, Ph.D.
Nutrition and Dietetics
The School of Family and Consumer Sciences |
