“Good, solid pay keeps people here”—Councilperson David Prytherch

David Prytherch is a member of the City Council of Oxford, Ohio and professor of geography at Miami University. David was introduced by Cathy Wagner, professor of English and co-chair of the FAM Contract Action Team.

Thank you all, and I have to admit I have a kind of an imposter syndrome situation here — I wanted to decline because the people who really we should recognize are our FAM organizers and particularly our negotiating team — let’s give a shout-out!

What I want to talk about today is the value of a strong faculty and librarians not only to the university but also to the entire community, so I’m going to talk with my city council hat on. 

So we know that without a strong faculty and librarians, there is no instruction at Miami University, right? And then we have no tuition, there is no university, there is no town. We know that.

We know that our research and our innovation drives the community forward. That’s not just lab research, that’s community-oriented research. We help lead our community forward in our institution.

Let’s talk about service. I could just point at all the ways Oxford would not be what it is without the service of faculty members. Just starting with our City Council — of seven people, six of them are associated with Miami University. Two current faculty members, one emeritus faculty member, one graduate student, one alum, and one person who’s a staff member associated with the library, and our former mayor is a librarian who’s now the Dean. The point is, our community would not go around without faculty members.

But what I want to focus on — this is a rally for raises.

Most of us I think did not get into unionization for the money. We got into it for passion for our institution and its future.

And we academics don’t like to talk about money. We take jobs and then we ask how much we’re going to get paid sometimes, right? But the money matters, and not just for us.

Why does the money matter? Well, in our community, our city is paid for by income taxes. And the more we make, the more parks we can have, the more trails we can have, the more we can provide affordable housing, because that’s what funds our municipality.

But it’s not just that. Think about what drew you to Miami. It might not have been the money. But good, solid pay keeps people here. We don’t lose them. It helps us recruit good people here. And the future of Oxford depends on being able to recruit people to a place where they want to be faculty members or librarians.

And money is not an insignificant piece of the puzzle.

Other people will talk more about this stuff but I’m just saying that faculty — we’re the foundation of Oxford, the foundation of Miami.

And I’m a proud union member and I look around at the faces and the people here — you are the people, you are the foundation of our institution. And so I’m proud to stand alongside of you. Thank you to everybody.