2008 Woodie Awards
Faculty strike imminent
Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Rocket Letters
To the editor:
You may be aware that the faculty contract expires this summer on June 30. Regrettably, negotiations are proceeding glacially. It is not biased to say that this is because the State System is not being very serious: their current offer to the faculty has been to give a 0 percent pay increase for the next four years.
How does this affect you? Here is one instance: money. Make no mistake-the State System will use every tool in their very well paid public relations arm to portray tuition increases as our fault. So, then, what is the relationship between the tuition and faculty salaries? When salaries have gone up, tuition has gone down.
The average management salary increase over the past five years has been 13.7 percent-about twice inflation. The State System Chancellor earns more than $325,000 a year-she is the highest paid state official, earning more even than our governor. Where has your money gone? We would argue to bloated administrative costs. We would argue that the chancellor needs to take on the legislature, not penalize students or faculty.
We have made it clear for the last year and a half that we will not work without a contract. That is, if we have no contract by July 1, we will go on strike. Why? First, note what the Chancellor did in 2003-04: we kept working after July 2003 because we felt obligated to. Professors are, as a rule, highly devoted to their work, but simultaneously not very politically adept. They rewarded faculty devotion by freezing salaries for a year. Second, if they drag this out again, a strike in the fall would hurt many, many more students than during the summer. Sticking to this deadline, therefore, is best for you as well as for us.
Students and faculty both want to work at an institution whose degrees we can be proud of. We would like to thank the SGA for the motion it passed last week in support of our struggle. It is in your best interest to be informed, so please look at our website at www.apscuf.com/slipperyrock for more information. Faculty members are the guarantors of the long-term reputation of this university, and we ask for your continued support.
Derrick Pitard
Dept. of English,
APSCUF member
You may be aware that the faculty contract expires this summer on June 30. Regrettably, negotiations are proceeding glacially. It is not biased to say that this is because the State System is not being very serious: their current offer to the faculty has been to give a 0 percent pay increase for the next four years.
How does this affect you? Here is one instance: money. Make no mistake-the State System will use every tool in their very well paid public relations arm to portray tuition increases as our fault. So, then, what is the relationship between the tuition and faculty salaries? When salaries have gone up, tuition has gone down.
The average management salary increase over the past five years has been 13.7 percent-about twice inflation. The State System Chancellor earns more than $325,000 a year-she is the highest paid state official, earning more even than our governor. Where has your money gone? We would argue to bloated administrative costs. We would argue that the chancellor needs to take on the legislature, not penalize students or faculty.
We have made it clear for the last year and a half that we will not work without a contract. That is, if we have no contract by July 1, we will go on strike. Why? First, note what the Chancellor did in 2003-04: we kept working after July 2003 because we felt obligated to. Professors are, as a rule, highly devoted to their work, but simultaneously not very politically adept. They rewarded faculty devotion by freezing salaries for a year. Second, if they drag this out again, a strike in the fall would hurt many, many more students than during the summer. Sticking to this deadline, therefore, is best for you as well as for us.
Students and faculty both want to work at an institution whose degrees we can be proud of. We would like to thank the SGA for the motion it passed last week in support of our struggle. It is in your best interest to be informed, so please look at our website at www.apscuf.com/slipperyrock for more information. Faculty members are the guarantors of the long-term reputation of this university, and we ask for your continued support.
Derrick Pitard
Dept. of English,
APSCUF member
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Susan Kelley-Stamerra
posted 4/24/07 @ 12:05 PM EST
Dr. Pitard's comments are both insightful and important. Students and their parents must become aware of the value of the professors at SRU and the other state-system universities. (Continued…)
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