Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

Quebec: Concordia University and Concordia University Faculty Association (CUFA) sign new collective agreement

Posted on June 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Quebec: Concordia University and Concordia University Faculty Association (CUFA) sign new collective agreement

Concordia University and Concordia University Faculty Association (CUFA) sign new collective agreement

Concordia University and the Concordia University Faculty Association are pleased to announce that they have signed a new collective agreement.

The collective agreement will cover the period from June 1, 2007 through May 31, 2012.

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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts

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30 workers, 45 majors to be cut at FAU as school tries to trim almost $17 million

Posted on June 8, 2009 | Comments Off on 30 workers, 45 majors to be cut at FAU as school tries to trim almost $17 million

Palm Beach Post: 30 workers, 45 majors to be cut at FAU as school tries to trim almost $17 million

Florida Atlantic University plans to lay off 30 employees and eliminate 45 majors in its effort to gouge $16.7 million from a budget already ravaged by two years of statewide cuts.

The proposal was released late Friday with an online video presentation by FAU President Frank Brogan.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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Vermont: UVM part-time faculty contract negotiations at impasse

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Burlington Free Press: UVM part-time faculty contract negotiations at impasse

Seemingly evergreen issues of job security, salary and health insurance have led to an impasse in contract negotiations between the University of Vermont’s part-time faculty and administration.
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The university and United Academics – UVM’s faculty union – agreed Thursday to declare an impasse after five months of failed negotiation, according to David Shiman, president of UVM’s faculty union.

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Posted in Campaigns & Contracts

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Michigan: Nontenured faculty to unionize

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The State News: Nontenured faculty to unionize

Nontenured faculty will have the opportunity to unionize this fall after voting to do so on Friday.

The 240 to 113 vote came after the Union of Nontenure-track Faculty organizing committee spent a year gauging union support among employees at MSU, said Richard Manderfield, a committee member and visiting assistant professor of writing, rhetoric and American culture. Now that union support has been solidified, the group plans to create a contract outlining its requests.

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Posted in Organizing

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Brandeis Halts Retirement Payments

Posted on June 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Brandeis Halts Retirement Payments

The New York Times: Brandeis Halts Retirement Payments

Buffeted earlier this year by the outcry over its plans to raise money by closing its art museum and selling the collection, Brandeis University said this week that it would suspend payments to the retirement accounts of faculty and staff members starting in July.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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Massachusetts: Angry UMD union rejects contract

Posted on June 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Massachusetts: Angry UMD union rejects contract

SouthCoastToday.com: Angry UMD union rejects contract

DARTMOUTH — Under the pall of a proposed restructuring that would eliminate 64 full-time union positions, UMass Dartmouth’s largest bargaining unit has rejected a proposed three-year contract agreement.

By a vote of 76 in favor, 161 opposed, with two abstentions, the 600-member Faculty Federation’s Faculty, Librarians and Professional Technicians unit rejected the agreement that had been hammered out earlier this month.

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Wisconsin: MATC unions tentatively OK giving up raises

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Journal Sentinel: MATC unions tentatively OK giving up raises

Unions representing faculty and staff at Milwaukee Area Technical College have tentatively agreed to a plan to forgo scheduled pay raises this year to help close a projected $19 million budget gap.

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Posted in Salary/Economic Benefits

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Florida: Tensions brewing over faculty salaries at UNF

Posted on June 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Florida: Tensions brewing over faculty salaries at UNF

Jacksonville.com: Tensions brewing over faculty salaries at UNF
Administrators get largest hikes; faculty salaries near last in state.

Faculty at the University of North Florida haven’t gotten a pay raise in three years, their average pay is nearly last among state institutions, while UNF deans and administrators are pocketing hefty increases.

The average pay for UNF’s faculty ranked 10th out of 11 state universities last year. When considering total compensation, including benefits, UNF is dead last.

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LAUSD — a day of protest

Posted on June 5, 2009 | Comments Off on LAUSD — a day of protest

Contra Costa Times: LAUSD — a day of protest
Teachers stage street sit-in, marches, sickout instead of daylong strike
Updated: 05/15/2009 10:12:27 PM PDT

Forty teachers were arrested Friday morning in front of Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters after blocking the street in an act of civil disobedience staged to protest thousands of expected layoffs.

Throughout the district, thousands of teachers also called in sick and hundreds of parents and students demonstrated against LAUSD’s plans to cut teachers and increase class sizes.

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Posted in Strikes & Labor Disputes

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Australia: Queensland Teachers Union vows more industrial action

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Courier Mail: Queensland Teachers Union vows more industrial action

THE State Government has been warned it risks six months of industrial strife if it tries to back out of promised pay rises for hundreds of thousands of staff.

Before the state election in March, the Government signed a memorandum of understanding with several unions representing public servants and other state employees.

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UK: Teachers to strike at academies

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BBC News: Teachers to strike at academies

More than 120 teachers at two newly-designated academy schools in Essex are due to strike over fears of increased working hours and reduced holidays.

Members of the teacher unions the NUT and NASUWT at Chalvedon and Barstable secondary schools in Basildon are due to strike on Tuesday 19 May.

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Saskatchewan: Supreme Court rules in FNUniv’s favour in academic freedom dispute

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Leader-Post: Supreme Court rules in FNUniv’s favour in academic freedom dispute

REGINA — The First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) says it has been vindicated in the protracted dispute with the University of Regina Faculty Association over academic freedom.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the association’s leave to appeal a decision by Saskatchewan’s highest court overturning an arbitration award that found the FNUniv violated the faculty contract by infringing the academic freedom of one of its professors, Blair Stonechild.

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California: Humboldt State faculty wants to oust president

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Mercury News: Humboldt State faculty wants to oust president

ARCATA, Calif.—The faculty of Humboldt State University is calling on its president to step down over his decision to appoint a top administrator without conducting a national search.

By a 128-4 margin, the university’s General Faculty Association cast a vote of no confidence against President Rollin Richmond on Tuesday night, citing “a pattern of failed leadership.”

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New home, new outlook, new publishing system for Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor

Posted on June 5, 2009 | Comments Off on New home, new outlook, new publishing system for Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor

Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor

The Editorial Team of Workplace is proud to announce the journal’s new home, new outlook, and new publishing system!

We encourage you to browse the Workplace open journal system, submit a manuscript, or volunteer to review http://m1.cust.educ.ubc.ca/journal/index.php/workplace/index. We also welcome proposals for Special Issues; if you have an idea or have assembled a group of scholars writing on higher education workplace activism and issues of academic labor, send us a proposal.

Current preprints include:

John Welsh‘s “Theses on College and University Administration” and “The Status Degradation Ceremony.” As a whole, both feature articles challenge scholars to rethink the administration of higher education and how we frame research into this process http://m1.cust.educ.ubc.ca/journal/index.php/workplace/issue/current.

“The Education Agenda is a War Agenda: Connecting Reason to Power and Power to Resistance” by Rich Gibson & E. Wayne Ross

Reviews by Richard Brosio and Prentice Chandler

Thank you and please forward this invitation to colleagues and networks.
—
Stephen Petrina & E. Wayne Ross, Co-Editors

Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor
Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy
University of British Columbia
http://m1.cust.educ.ubc.ca/journal/index.php/workplace/index

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Another scandal at Alabama community colleges

Posted on June 5, 2009 | Comments Off on Another scandal at Alabama community colleges

Birmingham News: SEC says Alabama two-year college officials used public money for plays, dinners, sporting events on New York trips

Alabama two-year college officials used public money to pay for relatives and friends to attend Broadway shows and sporting events and to dine at upscale restaurants in New York City during bond rating trips from 2003 to 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

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Posted in Ethics

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Two Part-time Faculty Unions Form in New York

Posted on June 5, 2009 | Comments Off on Two Part-time Faculty Unions Form in New York

AFT/FACE: Two Part-time Faculty Unions Form in New York

In back-to-back elections this spring, part-time/adjunct faculty teaching at two private colleges, the Manhattan School of Music and Cooper Union, have voted to unionize. The new unions are affiliated with the New York State United Teachers/AFT/NEA.

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Posted in Organizing

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Houston Chronicle: Chancellor gives A&M president poor score

The last few months have not been easy for Elsa Murano, the first female and first Hispanic president of Texas A&M University.

Last week, the chancellor of the sprawling system, Mike McKinney, floated the idea of eliminating her job and combining it with his.

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Cal State May Cut Enrollment by 40,000, Chancellor Says

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The Chronicle: Cal State May Cut Enrollment by 40,000, Chancellor Says

California State University will probably reduce its enrollment by 40,000 students, the largest single-year decrease in its history, if proposed cuts in state support are adopted, the system’s chancellor said on Thursday.

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Posted in Budgets & Funding

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For Adjuncts Only: A New Literary Magazine Denies Tenure

Posted on June 4, 2009 | Comments Off on For Adjuncts Only: A New Literary Magazine Denies Tenure

The Chronicle: For Adjuncts Only: A New Literary Magazine Denies Tenure

For once, it pays to be an adjunct. Well, wordriver, a new literary magazine, doesn’t actually pay its contributors, but tenured or tenure-track professors need not apply.

Beth McDonald an adjunct professor of English at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, has spent years trying to think of a way to spotlight the literary work of adjunct instructors. She and Susan Summers, a member of the English department’s support staff, found a way this April, when the first issue of a magazine they expect to publish annually came out.

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Posted in Academics

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CANADA: Academics call for greater transparency

Posted on June 4, 2009 | Comments Off on CANADA: Academics call for greater transparency

World University News: CANADA: Academics call for greater transparency

The Canadian Association of University Teachers has called on the country’s universities to open their books so the causes and extent of the financial difficulties facing institutions can be better understood.

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