Oakland University AAUP

To the OU-AAUP negotiating team, chapter officers, faculty and (especially) student supporters, a lot of concerned people have been watching you, and you’ve done them all proud. The lessons learned by watching faculty standing on principle is easily worth a few missed classes.

You’ve also emboldened faculty across the country by sticking to your principles.
Best to all of you.
Dave Witt
Akron-AAUP

http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/blog/eic_blog/2009/09/emuaaup_supports_ou_faculty_strike

Press release from the Eastern Michigan AAUP in strong support of the faculty at Oakland University, as published in the Eastern Echo.

The Eastern Michigan AAUP strongly supports the faculty at Oakland University as they hope to achieve a fair contract.

The Oakland University AAUP fully understands that even though the State of Michigan is struggling economically, Oakland University is in extremely strong financial position. Rudy Fichtenbaum, the treasurer of the Collective Bargaining Congress (CBC) of the National AAUP, and Howard Bunsis, chair of the CBC, made a presentation to Oakland faculty and students this week concerning the financial situation of Oakland, which clearly demonstrated that Oakland is thriving in the current economic environment.

Susan Moeller, president of the EMU-AAUP, attended a rally for Oakland faculty this week, and she stated that “If Michigan plans to evolve from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy, we need support to higher education by paying our university professors competitive salaries and benefits.”

[letter to Karen Miller, Professor of History at Oakland University]

Dr. Miller,

I was a student of yours several summers ago (I took your course on the history of the Vietnam War) and would like to let you know that I think it’s great that the faculty is finally taking the administration to task. Administrators need to realize that there would be no university to administer without students and faculty. Sadly, both are regularly treated as little more than revenue streams and variable annual costs, respectively. For this reason I left Oakland University and will be graduating from James Madison College at MSU this December with a B.A. in International Relations and History. I think it’s absolutely tragic that I will likely be making the same (or more) than many of the professors who taught me while I was at OU. Keep fighting the good fight and I think you folks will finally get what you’ve earned through all the wonderful contributions you have made to the education of students and the university as a whole. In the meantime, I think it’s important that you know current students are not the only ones who support you and all the other professors’ efforts for a square deal(enjoy the T.R. reference)!

Friendly Regards,
–
Michael X

I just learned that you are on strike. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Serving as a union president, I understand how difficult a strike can be, but, unfortunately, they are necessary when an administration does not seem to recognize the role faculty play at the University. I hope that your administration quickly learns that the faculty and the staff are the university and that excellence in education occurs because of what you do in your offices and classrooms and not what the administration does.

I wish you good luck and hope that this strike ends favorably and soon,

John Miller
Chapter President
UPI Local 4100
Western Illinois University

Just a quick word of support and thanks to all of you for your willingness to stand up to the administration. This is inspiring to many faculty who are watching similar administrative shenanigans getting floated on campuses around the country. Keep up the good fight!

In solidarity,
Ray

Raymond B. Craib
Associate Professor
Department of History
450 McGraw Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853