Today at the FAM-T bargaining table, we presented a reworked proposal on Academic Freedom, which is of paramount importance for our members and is essential for preserving Miami University’s primary educational mission. The four traditional aspects of academic freedom include freedom of research, freedom of teaching, freedom of extramural speech, and freedom of intramural speech; our article protects these and assures that disciplinary expertise and academic standards will be paramount, not extraneous political or ideological considerations, whether in evaluations, course content, or public speech by bargaining unit members. Similarly, responding to member concerns about online teaching policies, our proposal on Intellectual Property, Copyright, & Online Course Content provides that management must respect faculty and librarian expertise and disciplinary knowledge when applying policies affecting course creation or presentation.
Our proposals on faculty evaluation, promotion, and re-appointment seeks fairness, transparency, and accountability in university policies and procedures. Job security is a top priority of our members, and we’re working hard to ensure protections in the contract.
Management countered on Discipline & Discharge, Grievance & Arbitration, and Appointment, Promotion, & Renewal of TCPL Faculty. This last counter is a concerning retreat from current policy, negotiated over 18 months through the shared governance processes of Faculty Welfare and University Senate, that would undermine job security for TCPL faculty. We are not interested in throwing out these hard-won job security provisions and setting TCPL faculty backward!
You can read all proposals in full at our website.
Help us to keep making progress on our first contract! Come to our next bargaining session, July 10 (location to be announced soon). Today we have our first post-bargaining happy hour to debrief with our members over free drinks, and we hope to have another in July!
Say NO to SB-83, the Higher Education Destruction Act, may be back on the docket (or they may try to sneak it into the budget bill. Here are some resources to take action, since SB-83 is BAD for Students. BAD for Higher Education. BAD for Ohio.
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