There goes the neighborhood...

[eeboater]

Well the college I attend, Carroll College, is pretty much on its way to forming a Faculty Union. The UAW has been working to get it's grubby little hands around the piddly 90 faculty members at our school. On top of that, the board has been in search for a new president.<br /><br />Personally, I'm disgusted. The school is great, teachers are great, campus is wonderful and for the first time in my unfortunately long college career, I am walking away from classes with the feeling I have learned something from people who actually look forward to sharing their knowledge. I think this is all going away. In my opinion, unions are an old and antiquated way of getting things done. A cop-out of sorts. With a change of the presidency and the faculty potentially "Union-based" faculty I see a quality school spiraling out of control.<br /><br />The idea to form a union all began when a select faculty were denied tenure. You know what, its just another case of inconveniencing the majority with a small minority is being a bunch of crybabies. I don't know all the details as to why the faculty was denied tenure, but fact of the matter is - get over it and get on with life. <br /><br />I envision rising tuition and faculty that don't work as hard because they have that "umbrella." You see it everywhere the grubby UAW is involved. Other than influencing elections this is the first time the UAW is directly affecting me. IMO, they are a bunch of quabbling *******s akin to the ACLU.<br /><br />They're trying to fix something that isn't broken. That never winds up with a positive end result.<br /><br />Sean

 

[KaGee]

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

Sorry for you EE.

 

[Barbee Q]

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

I bet if you look into it some more.. You'll find out someone is making money on this UNION thing.. I would do some digging on the subject.. It is nice to find a school where teachers can speek threir minds and share thier thoughts.. Its now being controlled to much by politics and money and teachers are getting the shaft.. Keep us posted, I'm curious if you are able to get some wage numbers of the saleries.. That will tell you alot right there..

 

[JB]

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

If the majority of the faculty is, as you believe, dedicated educators with no axe to grind, there will be no union, ee.<br /><br />It must be voted in by a majority.<br /><br />Even if it is, a "conversion" to lackluster hangers-on is not a sure thing at all. It could well be that dedicated professional educators with organization can influence the school to become an even better provider of education.<br /><br />To be sure, I personally worked to defeat unionization at a couple of private colleges where I taught or administered, but that was because of the goals that the union touted, not because a union was automatically a bad idea for the students.<br /><br />If your faculty has the same motto I had they will do the right thing. "The students come first, the faculty next, and everything else comes last."

 

[eeboater]

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

I kind of hope that is the case, JB. If not, I guess the only positive thing is that I am only a year away from graduation. It's the people 5 years down the road I am concerned about. And if the quality of the education and environment on campus degrades, they can wave goodbye to any kind of Alumnus contributions from me.<br /><br />Sean

 

[QC]

Re: There goes the neighborhood...

Originally posted by Barbara Dee:<br /> I bet if you look into it some more.. You'll find out someone is making money on this UNION thing..

Yup. And it is probably the Union. Someone usually less wise once said to me "Unions are in the Union business" makes things a little clearer for me . . .