I am fresh back from the Solidarity Rally where a courtyard full of people demonstrated their commitment to following through in the name of respect, in the name of fairness, in the name of transparency and accountability. We are not happy or eager to strike, but we are vigorously resolved. And the mood is high that a strike is what is required.
So you are reading this. Not you who will anonymously respond with doubt or derision. Not you who are weary with the work of it all but still ready to see it through. But you, that colleague who has followed along, hoping like so many of us that it wouldn't come to a strike, hoping it would all just come to an end and we could move on. Hoping most not to get into the muck of it all, to stay above the fray, to teach your classes and do your research and try to remember what you value in an academic life. I am talking to you.
We also hoped, like you, that it wouldn't come to a strike. But, barring some last minute awakening to the importance of compromise by our Administration, it has. And based on the size and energy in that crowd, it is a strike that will challenge any "business as usual" promises from the Chancellor or the President. You will face your colleagues on that line when you try to go to work tomorrow, and you will face a decision. Will you continue to imagine you can stay above it, that it doesn't affect you? Can you cross the line and imagine you are not involved?
There is one last chance to make it go away, but it doesn't involve walking or driving past the picket line and pretending it isn't there. If you really want it all to be over, just turn around. Go back. Take the day off. Or better still, join your colleagues on the picket line. Because that is now your last, best option to make this all end quickly.
I left that rally tonight feeling an energy I haven't felt on this campus in, well, ever. Not a confidence or a cockiness, but a palpable sense of taking ownership of our institution. We are SIUC, not exclusively but so significantly. And we welcome you, colleague, to join us and feel the energy of this solidarity. No jeers, no sneers, no toxic atmosphere -- just welcome. Join us and, by joining us, help us end this thing.
I hope I'll see you on the line tomorrow.
Many (I won't claim most) students posting in response to the chancellor's Facebook post also support you. These messages were and continue to be removed within minutes of their posting. While anyone has the right to censor their own page, as this blog has even done, the university is designed to be a place where diverse ideas are shared and embraced. With one or two exceptions, the removed posts were supportive, not inflammatory.
ReplyDeleteLet us continue this rally now on SIU's Facebook page!
ReplyDeleteSomeone posted this on the Southern:
ReplyDeleteWilson Pickett - Wait for the midnight hour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhOy1wt5lDc
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SIUC-fan-page-Stop-Censoring/196307620443592?sk=wall&filter=2#!/pages/SIUC-fan-page-Stop-Censoring/196307620443592
ReplyDeleteSadly it has come to this, but I felt a lot of camaraderie at the rally, and I will be out there bleary-eyed at 7am with my picket team if it comes to it. Let's cross our fingers and Morteza and the others on the team can reach an agreement in the next hour (or perhaps the next day or two so the strike is short-lived). I've had my disagreements with some of the policies put forth by my bargaining team, but I have always understood also that the administration has been guilty of over a year of bad faith in negotiations prior to a few weeks ago. And that is such a shame.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow, I will do what I have trained 1/2 my life to do; carry out my chosen profession. I have read and listened to what the FA has to say and I just don't get it. I don't hold the administration faultless, but does the method of verification for FE and Distance Education really meet the standard for walking out? I don't think so. I truly hope everyone listens, thinks, and then makes their own decisions. This is not a time for blind faith and loyalty.
ReplyDeleteLate breaking: the NTTFA has extended their strike deadline to 1:00 a.m. It appears that a TA will happen tonight. Word is that a TA is immanent for ACeS and GA United. The FA talks have broken off and there will be an FA strike. See you on the picket line.
ReplyDeleteI have tried to do all I can to get through to the administration today and so many days previous. My heart is breaking and my hope fades with each deleted post, each unanswered email, and each unreturned phone call. I sit perplexed by the hatred placed in the hearts of the administration and their supporters. I hate the "Us" vs. "Them" rhetoric, but alast I have taken it up. Tomorrow I will be morning for the death of higher education as I know it, death of the place I thought would be a utopia for my expansion into critical thought. I stand with those who are on strike tonight. I strike with them. Though I go to class to address those who cross the picket line, to make a visual presence in the classroom; when not in class I will be with you on the picketline. My heart is with you.
ReplyDeleteIs Mr. X correct? Is the strategy to isolate the FA and destroy the tenure track?
ReplyDeleteThe Facebook Strike Alert page indicates that the Admin team broke off bargaining with the FA at around 11 p.m.
ReplyDeleteSorry--I should have said the FB Strike Warning page.
ReplyDeleteThis is ridiculous. The FA needs to go!
ReplyDeleteDave - the FSN gets under your skin because you know they are right.
ReplyDeleteHad the FA negotiated sensibly, there would be no strike. Had the FA understood what fairness was, there would be no strike. Had the FA listened to the people it claimed to represent, there would be no strike.
The union's latest e-mail is intellectually void. Saying, "it's not about money" contradicts the facts. The union's proposal as stated in that e-mail, was financially irresponsible - not sensible. A strike, if it gets more participation than I suspect it will, might also harm the university.
The union is exposed as the bully. Now someone has stood up to the bully. Question is, will people side with the bully or with the victims of the FA's antics?
Pick up your marbles and go home. Meanwhile, the reasonable people on this campus will continue to educate.
The Old Saluki
ReplyDeleteThere’s a place along the byways ‘midst the waves of amber corn,
where once stood an institution; where once ideas were born.
Where the good and great had gathered, each to refine their chosen art,
and to pass along their learning as their wisdom they’d impart.
Where those of promise followed to drink knowledge from that fount,
to gird themselves in readiness, life’s trials to surmount.
And the old saluki smiled…
Then discord arose among them, between the great and good,
dividing those who thought alike from those that they thought should.
And as the scission ‘tween them widened so the rancor grew,
until at last it came to pass - the great and good were torn in two.
Some their voices raised to try to stem the spreading blight,
but Reason was unable to prevent the swelling fight.
And the old saluki watched…
So they sapped their trenches deeply and they built their strong ramparts,
and they hurled their words like arrows aiming for each other’s hearts.
Walls they built, of dogma; and barricades of ire;
and Reason writhed in agony as it burned upon their fire.
Those who to this place to learn had come, took flight and fled the fray,
While the wisest of the best just turned their backs and walked away.
And the old saluki cried…
There’s a place along the byways ‘midst the waves of amber corn,
where once stood an institution; where once ideas were born.
The shuttered buildings stand there now like ancient barrow mounds,
and the breezes gently wash across the thistle covered grounds.
The angst that over-boiled there has faded now away,
but the wise will no more tarry there - in the place that went astray.
And the old saluki died…
I support the faculty!!!
ReplyDeleteI find such kindness and hope in this post, as it asks fellow faculty to consider not "Why aren't you out here with us?", but rather, "Do you really see yourself as capable of being uninvolved?" For those who choose to walk the line or stay home, please remember that despite what an anonymous poster or even a fellow colleague might say, classrooms are not the only realms where teachers can teach.
ReplyDelete"I support the faculty!!!"
ReplyDeleteWhich ones? The 100 or so who are strike or the many hundreds of others who aren't on strike and want to do away with the FA/IEA?
9:39, where is your evidence of the hundreds who want to do away with the FA? How many responses to the FSN email have you received?
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that only 100 or so are on strike pretty much answers Anon@9:42's question.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know how many are on strike? And how do you know how many want to do away with the FA? I guess the email I received from Mike Eichholz this morning, imploring me to return my petition card, certainly shouldn't be taken as evidence that the FSN is having trouble getting to the 30% they need for a decertification vote, now should it?
ReplyDeleteI don't really know how many want to do with away the FA. I don't know much about the FSN except that they seem to have quite a bit of support.
ReplyDeleteThe idea to do away with the FA may have even more support.
I surmise that about 100 are on strike based on publicly available FA membership numbers and visual observation of the picketers around campus.
What are YOUR best guess numbers and on what do you base YOUR numbers?
I have no idea how many people are on strike, but I assume that it is more than the people who are standing in picket lines.
ReplyDeleteThis is very sad. I support the FA so I am sad to see evidence that this strike is weak, far weaker than we have been led to believe it would be by union leaders. Less than 100 of over 600 faculty striking? This is the end of the union, and the strikers will probably not get paid for the strike days under whatever contract they force us to accept after the strike collapses.
ReplyDeleteWhere are people getting the numbers of faculty on strike?
ReplyDeleteA strike was always an "all in" bet for the FA. If/when it collapses/ends, if the FA cannot show that it has forced the administration to make major concessions (i.e. sufficient to justify the sacrifices of the strikers and the disruptions to students, so the longer this goes on, the greater the concessions they will have to demonstrate) then the influence of that group is essentially finished.
ReplyDeleteSouthern Illinois reports that 90 faculty are on strike.
ReplyDeletehttp://thesouthern.com/news/local/education/article_c88138b8-0627-11e1-8172-001cc4c03286.html
I've heard a nasty rumor that the FA plans to picket at this Saturday's Open House event that will bring hundreds of prospective students to campus. I'm hoping that someone from the FA will refute this. Anyone? Anyone?
A picket at the Open House would be REPREHENSIBLE! But it would clearly demonstrate that the FA is really about doing as much harm as possible to this university (as if today's strike does not already do that!)
ReplyDeleteCan someone at the FA PLEASE say that they will NOT be picketing the Open House? This is not in their best interest. Or are you trying to get people to think the FSN makes "sense"???!!!
ReplyDeleteRandy, Morteza, Dave -- please let public know it is a false rumor. At least I hope it is false.
The FA has yet to finalize its plans for picketing on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteThe figure of 90 comes from a Southern guesstimate of how many picketers were on the line this morning. We had rather more than that at the end of the day at Strike HQ for a meal kindly donated to us by Pagliai's (FSN, stay clear of Pags). As people shifting in and out of the picket lines over the (cold, rainy day), the figure of 90 obviously underestimates the number of those who were on the picket line over the course of the day.
There are many people who are willing to honor the strike but are not willing to picket, some of whom help out behind the scenes.
"The FA has yet to finalize its plans for picketing on Saturday."
ReplyDeleteCan I take that to mean that the FA really is thinking about picketing the Open House? Dave, if that is the case, I urge you to reconsider.
Such an action could have a drastic effect on next year's enrollment and precipitate the very job losses that you and the FA are supposedly trying to prevent.
Please be reasonable.
The purpose of a strike is to exact costs on the other party that they wish to avoid. It would be folly not to use the power of the strike in the context where it would be most effective.
ReplyDelete"The purpose of a strike is to exact costs on the other party that they wish to avoid. It would be folly not to use the power of the strike in the context where it would be most effective."
ReplyDeleteAnd you don't care who gets caught in the crossfire.
I guess I finally know what the FA stands for.
"And you don't care who gets caught in the crossfire."
ReplyDeleteI think we all realize that the victims here are the students. However, that doesn't mean that the FA should shrink from doing what they can to do what they believe is in the long term best interest of the University, themselves, and yes, the students.
Or do you believe that simply accepting what the administration has been doing in silence is what is best for our students?
There is a video on the Southern Illinoisan site where Randy Auxier says that the FA has "special plans for the weekend" with a sneer. I could be wrong, but I think Dave Johnson is being disingenuous when he says above that the FA is still finalizing plans for the weekend (and effectively skirting the question). He is smart enough to know that such action would push even more marginal FA supporters toward FSN and contribute further to the demise of the FA on this campus.
ReplyDeleteLord Scab,
ReplyDeleteThe last I heard, there were no plans for picketing on Saturday. Dave the FA Spokesperson may be hedging because he doesn't want to be held responsible if he says that there are no plans to picket and someone (especially a supporter who isn't part of the FA) "goes rogue" and pickets on Saturday.
Or he and Randy may be playing the same game as the chancellor -- saying threatening things just to intimidate, regardless of whether the threat (e.g. "qualified substitutes") is real or not.
ReplyDeleteI don't see why an informational picket at an Open House would be a big deal. I'm not at all involved in any planning and only read about it here. But you can just give out info and encourage people to call the BOT etc. I certainly cannot imagine the point would be to disrupt the event.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is why won't the BOT's team meet with ours?
Paranoid, I do hope you are right, and 10:09, yes, I honestly do believe that accepting the chancellor's offer is better than engaging in an activity that is clearly self-destructive. If you win, it's a Pyrrhic victory at best.
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteI am not as adept at satire so maybe I'm off base, but are you really suggesting that a group of faculty the FA represents are not welcome at a local business because they are voicing their opinions and exercising their legal rights? Even after they offered you a hot dog? Even Mike said the FSN had better food.
Seriously, how we as a faculty treat each other at a time like this largely defines us as a University. Words are real and have consequences. It is possible to strongly disagree collegialy (notice the root of that word). At some point in the hopefully near future we will all need to work together to repair the damage that is being done...no matter who you blame. Lets make sure we all behave like the highly intelligent and educated people we are, else we justify the disdain held way too prevalently by the general population.
Mike, are you sure the BOT is refusing to meet? I heard it was up to the FA to request a new meeting at this point. Have they done this and been refused?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:44 PM:
ReplyDeleteReally?
Telling the FSN to avoid a business that supports an organization that they disagree with is some kind of threat against the FSN. Have you never heard of a boycott?
Boycott? Sure, I have heard of them. Seems a little absurd to me to miss out on pizza because the business happens to support a group I disagree with. Hold my opinion and eat my pie, I can. Seems a rather sensible approach. Must be difficult keeping up with so many enemies.
ReplyDelete"Must be difficult keeping up with so many enemies."
ReplyDelete"Words are real and have consequences. It is possible to strongly disagree collegialy (notice the root of that word). At some point in the hopefully near future we will all need to work together to repair the damage that is being done...no matter who you blame. Lets make sure we all behave like the highly intelligent and educated people we are, else we justify the disdain held way too prevalently by the general population."
Did these statements come from the same person within 20 minutes of each other?
The pizza was likely better than the FSN hot dogs, although I misses out on the pizza. Needed to rest up for today. But I think Dave's boycott remark was just satire.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that BOT did not counter our last proposal. Nor did they make a "best & final offer." Bargaining should have continued until dawn. That a BOT team member has been told to teach other people's classes means to me that they are refusing to bargain. Maybe a strong showing today will change that.
Great job. You have embarressed yourselves, the university, alumni and students. I'm sure those "on the line" are spending most of their time trying to convince each other how smart they are. None oy the strikers now how good they have it. Based on whats happening on campus and once students get used to going back to class you'll discover just how unnessary you really are. count your blessings and go back to work-or quit!
ReplyDeleteTo the FA.
ReplyDeleteGet back to what you are paid to do. Teaching! Get out of your make believe world and get in the real world. People are without jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. You make a decent wage in what you love to do. I doubt most of you would survive outside your enclosed kingdom.
A Saluki
Satire or not, I am sure that Pag's was thrilled when the official spokesman for the FA thanked them for their generosity by suggesting other customers stay away from them! One more example of FA reasonableness and diplomacy at work!
ReplyDeleteIf Pags was offended by your (Anon 11:34) inferred insult in what Dave said, they didn't show it when they catered the dinner tonight after a second day of picketing.
ReplyDeleteFree Pag's? Really? Maybe I will join the picket line!
ReplyDeleteSo what's the final outcome going to be? I think we all lose! Lets face it this the FA really wants to run SIU ( God help us). they want "transparency"-love that word. Transparency defined by who? the longer this goes the bigger chance we have it will turn ugly-real ugly. SIU was already in trouble in a lot of areas and now this! Who is going to repair the damage already done? The FA-I don't think so! GO BACK TO WORK!!!
ReplyDelete