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The New Unionism In Higher Education Thank you, Dr. Goldstein [Matthew Goldstein, President, Baruch College.] It's an honor and pleasure to be here. An honor because as keynote speaker for this conference I follow in some very distinguished footsteps--Al Shanker, Clark Kerr, Clifton Wharton, and others. And it is a pleasure because I can report to you this fine spring morning that trade unionism and collective bargaining are alive and well in higher education. Indeed, there has been more union activity in higher education in the past two years than the previous ten. But as a union president, I have to confess to you that I can't take any credit for the surge. This renewed interest in unionism is springing up directly from the grassroots, from the men and women who teach in our nation's public colleges and universities. Why? Well, I think we all know the reasons. Increased reliance on underpaid and sometimes underqualified part-time teachers. Increased infringement on faculty members' intellectual property rights. Increased use of distance education, the so-called virtual university. Increased efforts to undermine tenure and the faculty's role in decisionmaking. Faced with such an onslaught of threats, that old bugaboo -- I am a professional, I cannot join a union -- quickly gets turned into: "I am a professional, therefore I must join a union to protect my professional integrity." Indeed, such an onslaught of threats gives new meaning to Shakespeare's admonition in Henry VI:
Or as one of our more blunt member-organizers likes to tell his fellow faculty members: "Hey, without a union, we're chopped liver, baby." The parallels between unionization in higher education and in health care grow more striking by the day. Under the guise of holding down costs, health care professionals -- doctors and nurses -- are being pressured, by HMOs and hospital privatizers, to cut corners in patient care and compromise their professional integrity. This is happening every day all across the country, and it is a disgrace. Consequently, more and more health-care professionals -- yes, even doctors -- are unionizing. Most of the threats to the professional integrity of faculty members are also justified in the name of holding down costs. The tenured and tenure-track faculty at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale two years ago voted overwhelmingly to join NEA. Why? Because of the university's increased hiring of underpaid and underqualified part-time teachers and the administration's growing habit of ignoring the faculty's voice on quality-of-work issues. Professional integrity versus holding down costs. At Ferris State University last fall, the faculty union had to strike to protect their right to participate in governance of the campus, including peer review. Professional integrity versus holding down costs. At the University of the District of Columbia, NEA had to go into court to overturn a decision to layoff qualified and dedicated tenured faculty members. Professional integrity (and basic human decency) versus holding down costs. At the risk of ruining your morning, let me sketch for you my worst nightmare for American public higher education. In the name of holding down costs, the management of all public colleges and universities will be turned over to EMOs -- Educational Management Organizations. These companies will be well financed because venture capitalists who made millions in HMOs and privatizing health care will invest in them. So will publishing and software giants. So will the entrepreneurs who figured out how to reap profits in the $400-billion-a-year public K-12 market. In the name of holding down costs, all faculty members will become contract employees. What could be more American? Individuals sitting down with an employer to cut the best deal they can! Oh, and incidentally, the EMO will hold the intellectual property rights of faculty members' work. EMO investors will insist on it. Conservative state legislators and governors, with a wave of approval from a conservative Congress, will have paved the way for this new higher education landscape by simply abolishing the collective bargaining rights of faculty at public higher education institutions. In the name of holding down costs, most undergraduates will spend precious little time on campus, especially during their first two years. The curriculum will be conducted through the computer and video conferencing. The virtual teacher with a virtual classroom, virtual office hours, and virtual tests will become very much a reality. That's my nightmare. Sound farfetched? If the cost of higher education keeps on rising, I think the siren call of a market solution, embossed with a high technology gloss, will prove irresistible. The ever ebullient Speaker of the United State House of Representatives has already proposed a future much like the one I just described for higher education. Ah, you ask, but what about the ancient rights and privileges of college and university faculty? What about academic freedom? What about tenure? What about peer review? My friends, they will become a historical anachronism like the traditional doctor-patient relationship is becoming today. The market is a fearsome and very unsentimental force once unleashed. So what do we do? The Danish prince agonized over
One of the good things about being a trade unionist is that you don't waste a lot of time or angst over such a question. You take arms against a sea of troubles. Staying with Hamlet for just another moment, let us recall that the Norwegians, led by the ambitious Fortinbras, would never have sacked Elsinore if the Danes hadn't been fighting each other. I think it vital that higher ed faculty and administrators address the question of rising costs. Together. Let us find ways of controlling costs without devaluing our currency, that is, without reducing the quality of the education we provide to students. Notice, by the way, I used that traditional term "student," not "customer." If we, as educators, buy into the faddish idea that "students" are really just "customers," we will have cooked our own goose. You do not demand of a customer what we demand of our students. You do not challenge a customer to stretch his or her mind like never before. You do not flunk a customer. Student is a noble word, dating back to the Latin and meaning one who studies. Let's use it, proudly. Now, back to controlling costs. I commend to you the report of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education. It found that while faculty's salaries and workloads have not driven up costs, higher ed institutions have not managed their finances well. The commission warned that public concern about the cost of college was real. If colleges and universities do not address the issue, the report said, it could lead to "a gulf of ill will between higher education and the public they serve." And that is exactly what is happening. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association issued a joint statement regarding the Commission report. We agree. We want to be at the table when campuses deal with these tough issues -- and it is our goal to make sure that a gulf of ill will does not form between the public and its colleges and universities. I am convinced that our unions can do justice to our traditional union concerns of seeking better pay and working conditions for our members and work with administrators to improve the quality of education. I am convinced we can and must do it. At Springfield Technical College in Massachusetts, the faculty union and administration have worked together to create a governance document to insure quality education for the students. At Oakton Community College in Illinois, the faculty union and administration have forged a long-term, cooperative labor-management partnership. At Eastern Washington University, the faculty union and administration have negotiated a contract that directly addresses the quality issue. Under the heading of "improving productivity," for example, the union and administration agree to take steps specifically aimed at increasing graduation rates, reducing the dropout rate among new students, and improving the quality of instruction. And in Florida last year, NEA's United Faculty of Florida and the State University System Board of Regents negotiated a contract without all of the prolonged posturing and rancor that characterized previous negotiations. Both sides came together as colleagues. They focused their energies on issues rather than on staking out positions. It worked. They call it "interest-based" bargaining. Both sides emerged from the process in a positive rather than embittered frame of mind -- eager to keep their problem-solving focus throughout the duration of the contract. Working together, we should make tenure more of a quality of education issue and less of an academic freedom issue. Instead of resisting distance learning, we should work together to ensure that the virtual university is a quality university. And working together, we should help college instructors improve their teaching skills through peer assistance and review and through serious professional development. The other great issue for the faculty union and administrators to work together on is access to higher education for minorities and low income students. Sixty-two percent of high school graduates now go on to either a two- or four-year college. But for minorities that number is much lower. While 83 out of every 100 African Americans now complete high school, only 40 attend college. Worse yet, only 12 African Americans out of every 100 earns a bachelor's degree by age 30. And only ten of every 100 Hispanics earn a degree. The percentage of Hispanic high school graduates attending college has actually declined in recent years. We don't have similar figures for low income whites, but I would guess they are equally dismal. These statistics describe an extremely unhealthy situation. Our society is growing more and more diverse ethnically and racially. A time will come in the next century, in fact, when there will be no majority -- everyone will be in a minority. Our economy demands an ever growing supply of college-educated people. High tech jobs are going begging today in the Washington, D.C. area, in Silicon Valley, and in the Pacific Northwest. Race and class should have absolutely nothing to do with access to higher education. It makes no sense, pragmatically or in terms of the democratic ideals we espouse. Our nation was built by people who could never have gotten into Europe's fanciest universities--Cambridge, Heidelberg, the Sorbonne. Faculty unions and administrators need to work together to keep the doors of academe open to every student who is qualified. We need to work together to increase the amount of financial aid available to students. We need to work together to help our colleagues in the K-12 schools improve the quality of education they provide. We need to work together to do a better job of holding on to the students we already have. The drop out rate for minority students is much higher than for white students. As a matter of fact, we are doing a poor job of holding on to the students of all races who are the first in their families to attend college. Let's acknowledge that college is an alien planet for many young people, especially for young people from families who have never experienced higher education. Those students need mentors. They need our active support. There is a wonderful Chinese proverb: "You can't prevent birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair." Of course this new path -- this new unionism I am advocating -- unions and administrators working together to control costs while improving quality -- comes with certain risks. We risk incurring the wrath of the ideologues, both right and left, who don't think we can or should work together. We risk having our very integrity challenged. Worst of all, we risk failure. Incidentally, AFT President Sandra Feldman and I run the very same risks in pursuing the unification of our two organizations. For me, these are risks well worth taking. After all, it is only by taking risks that we'll keep the birds' nests out of our hair. Thank you, and may we have a challenging conference. |
