Weekend update

Two things I promised to look into.

1.  The FA does indeed propose a detailed procedure for dealing with cases of sexual harassment. You cand find the full procedure spelled out in an appendix to the FA's "supposal for mediation". I don't know the ins and outs of the history of this proposed policy, other than that it has been in the works for years. Two obvious differences are that the FA policy would provide for a clear, in-house way of dealing with complaints that wouldn't bounce up all the way to the Chancellor at once (or require use of a $12,000 outside investigation). The policy would protect the confidentiality of the parties involved, but the added transparency provided by the policy, which outlines procedures and would assign university personnel to judge and revolve complaints, could well result in university investigations having more credibility, and hence being less likely to be appealed to federal agencies and the like.

2. I spoke briefly with Randy Hughes about local expenditures from union dues. He tells me that only $20 of each members' fees come back directly to the SIUC local, though the local is able to get the IEA to pay for many local expenses (food at meetings, printing and duplication, etc.).  One local expense I hadn't ever imagined was reimbursing the student center for rent of rooms for bargaining, which Randy said had cost the FA several thousand dollars during the current round of negotiations. Thus items I linked to in earlier comments, the "Hudson Packet" which gives audited expenses for the IEA, and the more intelligible but less official report put together by our local NEA contact, Jim Clark, ought to give a pretty full picture of what dues are spent on.