Why we support a union at MSU

PHILOSOPHY, CAL

Faculty is burdened by the increasing systemic imperatives that force us to do more with less. Pressures are increasing. We are overburdened by increasing classroom sizes, increasing mentoring duties, and the mental health crisis. We demand less micro-management, less students in our class rooms, childcare on campus, a just and fair salary distribution, an administration that understands that without its faculty the university is nothing - and free parking! We do not want to have guns anywhere near the campus. We need a Union that fights for more democracy, against increasing fascist tendencies in society, and social justice on campus.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Most of us recognize that university administrators are increasingly driving the agenda at Michigan State University. Many of them are well intentioned, to be sure, but I think it is time for faculty to situate themselves closer to the driver's seat. A chart I saw of change in FTE at MSU over the past decade showed the largest growth in "executive managers" (nearly 50 percent!), followed by fixed-term faculty and athletic staff. Tenured faculty positions showed slight negative growth. My hope is this union can help level the playing field a bit in the direction of tenure-stream faculty.

LIBRARIES

As librarians, we don’t just serve the information needs of the students, faculty, and staff of MSU, but researchers from all across Michigan, the US, and the world. But our ability to effectively do so is directly impacted by our working conditions. From unnecessary salary and benefit cuts during the pandemic (which only lined MSU’s own pockets) to the near-constant stream of scandals and controversies from the administration and Board, morale and respect are in short supply. The only way we can change this sad fact is by organizing as librarians and faculty to advocate for our shared needs.

MATHEMATICS

Since I got involved in Academic Governance three years ago, I've borne witness to efforts by hundreds of faculty members to improve the campus experience for every member of our community. Some succeeded and some did not, but what's clear is that positive change always originates from people, who feel vested in the community, who feel that they have a voice, and who feel willing to invest their time to push for the greater good. This is exactly what the Union is about to me: bringing people together, and giving them a collective voice so that they can bring about progress.

LIBRARIES

When I think of the importance and power of unions, I think of a movement on campus that is greater than myself. I believe we, as employees of the university, are much stronger as a collective than we are as individuals. Are you capable of caring for more than yourself? Every American deserves a livable wage.

TRANSLATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE

MSU Faculty deserve a seat at the table, we deserve to have more of a say in how our institution is run. We have seen firsthand the limits of our influence on MSU Administration decisions, from cuts to retirement benefits to how resources are allocated. With a Faculty Union we can work collectively to address unit inequities, improve policies on caregiver support and back up the Faculty Senate. Faculty at most universities in Michigan are already unionized. With a MSU Faculty Union we can work to support the other bargaining units at MSU and create a more democratic workplace.

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

I am in support of unions in general. It is clear to me that they give a voice to millions of people who would not otherwise be acknowledged. As a operatic performer, I am a member of American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). They were very important to choristers. Actually, more supportive than they were for soloist. They seem to suggest that soloist didn't need as much support as chorister. I believe this to be a mistake. This brings me to believing the same for Tenured Professors here at MSU. We should have the same representation.

ROMANCE AND CLASSICAL STUDIES

An educator’s work should always be rewarded within a frame of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Our voices need to speak and be heard and listened to at the table where decisions that impact our work are made. It is time to sit at the table. Research institutions like ours would not be what they are without their faculty. For the first time in our institutional history, a union of TS faculty is positioned to help us achieve this much overdue right. For this reason, I support the formation of UTSF.

HISTORY

As MSU has lurched from crisis to crisis, I have felt under-supported and undervalued, powerless in the face of unilateral decisions, and frustrated by working conditions. But these personal experiences are symptoms of a bigger problem: faculty voice in decision-making has atrophied relative to an ever-ballooning administration. A union gives us the power to push back. It gives our share of governance some legally binding teeth. It can fight to defend tenure and preserve academic freedom. And together with our non-tenure system colleagues, we can work to make MSU a place where all can research, teach, and learn with dignity.

ROSENBERG CHAIR OF NEUROSCIENCE

After more than 20 years here, I have seen the extremely authoritarian culture of the MSU administration, from the Board of Trustees down, ignore faculty again and again, often to the detriment of our campus and our reputation. I am convinced that they will never grant us a seat at the table unless they are legally obliged to do so. That means having a collective bargaining unit of our own, that can hear our voices and represent the views of the people who actually provide the education this institution is supposed to value.

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Over the last 30+ years, I have watched the silencing of faculty voice, the erosion of our benefits (retirement, medical and dental insurance), a reduction in the number of tenure-stream positions with their replacement by adjunct and fixed-term faculty (no offense meant to these faculty), reductions in salaries in real dollars, a decrease in the numbers of support staff, along with the reallocation of duties of support staff to faculty. The only way this can and will change is for the faculty to join together as one voice! We must unionize now!

CHEMISTRY

I support organizing a union because academic freedom cannot be taken for granted. Academic freedom is the bedrock of the academy. Yet, recent actions by an unchecked administration have shown a willingness to quash the faculty handbook, deny due process, and restrain faculty from exercising their academic freedom. In doing so they have also shown a willingness to sidestep the faculty senate. As such, we must strengthen faculty voice so that academic freedom and all faculty rights are respected, and that faculty, students, and staff are treated fairly. These things are best done collectively. And that means a union.

SOCIOLOGY AND CHICANO/LATINO STUDIES

Higher education institutions have a eurocentric and neoliberal foundation that shape university policies and affect the work and lives of tenure track faculty, especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds. In addition, the COVID 19 pandemic together with the racial and political contexts have created added challenges that underscore the limitations of doing things as usual. Addressing these issues and protecting the rights of faculty, especially those of our junior and historically marginalized colleagues, should be the responsibility of all. It is because “la union hace la fuerza” that I support the union.

CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

As a researcher who has worked in Iran and Germany, I appreciate the U.S. tenure system and strongly support it. Academic freedom, freedom of speech, and autonomy in research are the core essence of the tenure system. It's clear and fair, unlike the challenging situation in many countries with heavy control of government.

I care deeply about academic integrity, integration of new concepts, and the value of working together to achieve it. Faculty should have a say in decision-making at the department, college, and university level. We should be involved and responsible.

MEDIA & INFORMATION

At first I was unsure about the many facets of the decision to unionize, but have decided to support it after I learned that the MSU administration has taken an official stance of neutrality, that the union will advocate for important issues that I don't often think about directly (e.g., academic freedom, research quality ensured by the tenure-system, retirement funding), and that the likelihood of labor action is extremely low given how rare they are in other tenure-system unionized faculty.

JAMES MADISON COLLEGE

As a teaching-focused tenure system faculty member, I believe that our students benefit when faculty are well-supported, earn a competitive salary, and receive excellent benefits. I support a union because it will improve working conditions for tenure-system faculty, allowing us to strengthen our teaching and research. Unions bring broad benefits to the entire campus community, including students!

PUBLIC HEALTH & FAMILY MEDICINE

Throughout my entire life, the rights of the worker have been eroded in our country. Every person who joins a union strengthens the ability of more people to organize and demand better working conditions. Our society is productive enough for everyone to have living wages, healthcare, childcare, vacation time, and a comfortable retirement. Forming this union is one small part of that collective action to take control back from those with unbridled power.

SOCIOLOGY

As a social scientist, I teach and research issues related to gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity from critical perspectives. In this polarizing and fast shifting political climate, I worry that our freedom of expression in the classroom will be increasingly restricted. A faculty union can give us more protection for academic freedom, including the rights to discuss and disseminate educational materials from marginalized voices without any fear of repercussion. It will help our students better understand and respect differences in human society.

JAMES MADISON COLLEGE

We play a key role at MSU. Yet, we are at the mercy of decisions that are made and made poorly, somewhere above our heads. It’s about time we had a seat at the table! Our union will push for faculty voices to be heard, for education to be at the center of MSU priorities, and for all to get the support we need to do our jobs. We will push back against the erosion of tenure and academic freedom, and in so doing we will amplify the power of faculty across the country who are fighting to protect these values.

PHILOSOPHY

Faculty are the heart of Michigan State University and faculty governance should be the most central voice in university governance. The union organizes the faculty so that faculty governance can serve its essential role in running the university, ensuring the strength of teaching and research efforts. The union is essential to bringing together faculty as a counterbalance to administrative power, lack of transparency, and poor accountability. MSU suffers without a strong faculty governance voice; the union will crucially backstop the faculty’s role in the university.

ROMANCE AND CLASSICAL STUDIES

I want to see a fundamental change in how this university is run and contribute to the move from a corporate model to a sustainable and student-staff-faculty focused model that foregrounds teaching and research in a supportive environment where the tremendous work and efforts of faculty are not only recognized and appreciated by the Upper Administration but also appropriately rewarded. I want to see an improvement in working conditions (hiring more staff and TS faculty), better benefits, merit raises and salary, and an increase in democratic participation and faculty voice.

ENGLISH & JOURNALISM

The tenure-stream faculty at MSU are innovative, rigorous, and ethical. Every day, I see evidence of how committed they are to the educational, research, and community mission of our university. My colleagues inspire me and I am constantly learning from them. I truly believe that by organizing a union, we can amplify our voice and thus contribute even more to the success of MSU as a research university that not only helps students thrive but also aims to improve lives beyond its campus.

ADVERTISING, COMMUNICATION ARTS, & SCIENCES

It is frustrating to see how little the administration takes the faculty into account in their decision-making. They prioritize athletics over academics, and I see an erosion of resources for research. A union will force the administration to listen to us. As one of two groups of employees without union representation, we took the hit during the pandemic -- and they never paid back the full amount they took from us! Why do our raises only show up in October? Our contracts start in August! They are stealing 1.5 months of our raise every year! We need a union now!

HISTORY

¡La unión hace la fuerza! Faculty deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. MSU has been under the rule of self-serving power-hungry bureaucracies for too long. We need to take action and activate the processes toward the creation of a democratic, transparent, accountable, and community-oriented public university. A union is a step in the right direction. Only through real participation and real representation of our students, faculty, and workers, we can create a space where democracy, diversity, equity, and justice can become foundational principles for teaching and learning. La hora es ahora.

CMSE & MATHEMATICS

I support a union because as hard-working faculty that keep this university running, we deserve support and stability. I've only been here for 6 years and I've seen 5 presidents come and go. We got through a pandemic, and pivoted our courses and our research to support the new normal, only to see no raises, removal of retirement benefits, and a resounding lack of support. We need a union to ensure our voices are heard because we are stronger together!

MEDIA & INFORMATION

I support a tenure-stream faculty union because collective organizing leads to more equitable outcomes for all. In an era where academic freedom is being chipped away, labor demands placed upon faculty are at an all-time high, and tenure track positions are being replaced by increasingly precarious adjunct positions, it is in our best interest as an academic community to work together in our response. I see a faculty union as the best way to address these (and many other) issues and to work in solidarity with others in our university community.

LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE, AND CULTURES

While I deeply respect the work of the Faculty Senate and was even part of it briefly, I felt, last year when the no confidence vote in the Board of Trustees took place, that the decisions made by the Senate had no teeth and that my vote was just posturing. We need a faculty union whose opinions are both heard and acted upon, and because of which faculty are seen as an important part of the decision-making process by the university. Furthermore, we need a union to protect faculty rights, and to negotiate prioritising inflation-adjustment over merit raises.

MEDIA AND INFORMATION

I am tired of the lack of faculty governance. We have so much to offer this university, but the upper administration wants to ignore tenure-stream faculty. Instead, we hire more and more administrators which further corrodes our voice. The increase in administrators eats up resources that could be used for so many resources for faculty.

THEATRE

Here are two (of many) reasons why I support organizing the union: The hamfisted way the administration handled faculty salary and benefits during the pandemic and begrudgingly "gave us back" less than we earned and deserved. Our Faculty Senate is not listened to. Their thoughtful recommendations are sometimes ignored and a union voice at the table will force conversation.

ART, ART HISTORY, AND DESIGN

Through the union we will be able to negotiate for clearly established standards for tenure and promotion, and protect our wages, and protect the benefits of current and retired faculty during times of apparent crisis.

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

Tenure-stream faculty are (one of) the only non-unionized employees at MSU. We are at a disadvantage when it comes to collective bargaining. I support forming a union so that tenure-stream faculty will have an equal voice.

COLLEGE OF LAW

For me, unionization is empowerment to overcome the injustices and disrespect that can sometimes afflict professors' work lives. I hope I don't sound too corny when I say that there is actually something joyful in this striving of the many of us for the well-being of each and, inevitably, of the MSU academic environment.

COLLEGE OF LAW

During the pandemic, the tenure-system faculty was shown very clearly what happens when you are not unionized. But even before that, the long-term trends in higher education were working strongly against tenure-system faculty. I think that a union gives us the best chance to blunt those trends.

SOCIAL WORK

Challenging injustice is a core tenet of social work values, and forming a faculty union is an important step toward achieving equity in how faculty are both supported and compensated across MSU. As a social worker, I unequivocally support the formation of the Union of Tenure System Faculty.

PSYCHOLOGY

MSU tenure stream faculty need union representation and voice. I've had brilliant mentees who have turned away from academia because at MSU our pay is inadequate, the workload is brutal and the working conditions are demoralizing.

We must do better as an institution, and we will only have better when the faculty have a seat at the table working with the administration to create the needed changes.

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

I believe our collective voice is always stronger than individual voices and right now MSU does not have any way for faculty to collectively speak against or for decisions that are made that affect our daily work lives. A union will help us give voice to concerns that are shared by the faculty as well as a mechanism for responding to changes the administration decides (often without our voice).

ENTOMOLOGY

I support a faculty union because this will provide a collective voice for MSU faculty to negotiate for their work conditions, healthcare, and retirement benefits. This is long overdue, and I expect it will improve this university through greater retention of faculty to deliver high-quality research, teaching, extension, and outreach programs.

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

I support our union because we all deserve fair and competitive wages, better working conditions, and more support and greater resources for teaching and research. We want to serve the students of Michigan State and the citizens of the state of Michigan well; our union will ensure that we can continue to do that.

HUMAN RESOURCES AND LABOR RELATIONS

I teach MSU students about voice and democracy at work and the power we have when acting together as a collective. As a union of tenure system faculty, together, we can (re)build our institution, working with other groups on campus and having a seat and a say at the decision-making table. Together we are stronger!

MUSIC

Strength in numbers is not just a euphemism for power to change things. It is the collective will of the faculty of this university that can make meaningful changes under the same voice. I believe a union is of the utmost importance to make our voices heard.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Faculty unions are vital for educators' well-being and rights, enabling fair wage negotiations, benefits, and work conditions amid budget constraints. They support academic freedom, diversity, and quality education, preserving higher education integrity. These unions are essential for academic excellence and educators' protection.

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

As someone who has been in a musician's union since 1978 and sat at negotiations representing diverse groups, MSU has no such mechanism for tenure stream faculty voice and empowerment. Faculty Senate is advisory only and that advice is often discounted. As our salaries and benefits have diminished and we sit at the low end of the Big Ten, we must join together for a union that will put the education of our students and the support of those who teach them at the forefront of MSU.

FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE & JAMES MADISON COLLEGE

I support organizing a union primarily for two reasons. First, I think it is important to elevate faculty voices in university governance. MSU has struggled mightily with various governance issues over the past several years and on many of these issues, faculty were ignored or marginalized. We're a better institution with more inclusive governance. Second, I support unionization in order to strengthen the academic mission of the university which means, among other things, putting the education of our students first and protecting academic freedom.

ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

A union is entirely about fairness. When an employer has more than 10,000 employees, that employer has the power of 10,000 and the employee has the power of ONE. I’ve experienced the unfairness of that imbalance. Even if you believe you have a wonderful employer, having a union behind you is a worthwhile safety net, because a union is about leveling that playing field when your rights might otherwise be trammeled. Again, I’ve experienced this first-hand, and it made me a devoted union supporter.

JAMES MADISON COLLEGE

I support the Union of Tenure System Faculty at MSU. As a former member of the United Faculty of Florida (affiliated with both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers) during the 2008 financial crash, our union preserved salary and was even able to negotiate expanded dependent tuition benefits. Over the past few years at MSU tenure-system faculty have faced salary cuts and then raises that have not kept pace with inflation. We have also faced administrative turmoil. It is important that faculty stand together to protect our financial and professional interests.

CHEMISTRY

We, the tenure-system faculty, are the heart and soul of our university. We are researchers creating and disseminating new knowledge that benefits society and brings prestige to our institution. We mentor students and postdoctoral associates and bring research dollars. We educate the next generations and are involved in numerous forms of outreach. And yet, we have witnessed the erosion of tenure and academic freedom at MSU. Our voice is often ignored. We struggle with policies introduced by our expanding administration that do not help MSU’s mission. A tenure-system faculty union will help our voices to be heard and respect restored.

HISTORY

For me, a union is a step on the way to remaking MSU as an intellectual community. I mean by this a place where ideas matter more than budgets, and curiosity matters more than a football scoreboard. I have watched this university become increasingly corporate and decreasingly inspirational over the years. This is not due to a shortage of talent. It is due to a bureaucratic structure that stifles intellectual curiosity. It is time to put the university back in the hands of those who care about ideas and education. UTSF is a meaningful step in this direction.

HISTORY

I think the faculty needs a stronger voice in the administration of MSU and a union will give us more leverage to make our university administrators more transparent and accountable. The missteps of MSU administrators over the last few years has had disastrous consequences for the entire MSU community, and they are telling indicators of the need for stronger faculty governance in university affairs.

ENGLISH & JOURNALISM

United, we stand for causes we believe in––equity and justice!