Cathy Wagner to the Board of Trustees
December 12, 2025
Chair Schell, members of the board, happy holidays. My name is Cathy Wagner. Next year will be my 20th year as a proud Miami faculty member. For two decades at Make It Miami events, I told students and parents: “It’s true, Miami faculty really get to know our students. We’ll help you succeed.”
It’s not possible to say that with honesty any more.
Yesterday, a faculty colleague told me about touring Miami with her college-bound son. He loved his student guide, a trumpet-playing SLAM major. And mother and son both loved what they heard.
But my colleague knew the truth: we faculty can no longer deliver what the tour promised.
The tour guide talked about professors getting to know students. My colleague knows that new workload guidelines and a punitive budget model have increased class sizes and course loads. Close relationships with students are increasingly impossible.
The tour boasted 2,800+ undergraduate research opportunities, not mentioning that new rules make supervising research projects something faculty now avoid—no time, no credit.
The tour talked of infusing liberal arts into Miami education. It didn’t mention closing humanities programs, even as employers increasingly demand exactly what humanities teach: critical thinking, strong communication, intercultural understanding.
It didn’t mention the polytechnic push on the regional campuses that hopefully will not deprive regionals students of the well-rounded durable liberal arts skills they need for an economy threatened by AI and automation.
The tour didn’t mention SB 1, the new law restricting our right to speak truth in classrooms and blocking us from addressing our diverse students’ specific needs. It didn’t mention that another law has stripped the Board of its power to delegate curricular decisions to faculty. If the board decides to ignore expert input, educational quality will suffer.
Faculty want to work with administration to survive these challenges. As a member of FAM, our new faculty and librarian union, I’m relieved we have an organization that can hold out a different vision for our university at a challenging time for higher education.
Our union contract preserves faculty’s right to speak truth. It protects against unjust termination. It provides pathways to push back—FAM has already won multiple grievances, including getting faculty their full summer pay.
But our true power isn’t the contract, it’s united action.
Even while political pressure pulls Miami from its mission, our union can build power—here and nationwide—toward a vision for education as a public good, for freedom to teach, learn and research without political constraint. Faculty and librarian power is here to stay. We’ll keep building it alongside our students, toward the education they deserve.
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