Division and delay. Those were the principles of the administration ever since the university faculty began to organize. The Cartwright administration tried to divide tenured from non-tenured faculty before the vote to organize took place. Then, after the faculty strongly approved the BGSU-FA, the Cartwright administration fought to delay the time when a contract would be negotiated with the university faculty, even collaborating with Governor Kasich in his ill-fated union-busting legislation.

The Mazey administration employs the same principles of division and delay in the contract process, delaying even tentative agreements on their own proposals until May of this year, far too late to meet the administration’s own contract-deadline of July 1st. And some of their proposals are clearly meant to divide the non-tenured from the tenured faculty, suggesting that NTTF’s contracts not be renewed, without cause, under notice as short as one month.

We reject the tactics of division and delay. The BGSU-FA stands as one, representing the interests of all full-time faculty, and we call on the administration to bargain in a timely and straightforward manner.

In contrast, we offer these principles:

• DIGNITY. The administration must treat all full-time with the respect which is due to their profession. The university does not exist to employ administrators. It exists to educate the next generation of citizens, to preserve and extend the cultural legacy of our civilization. It is the faculty who do that work. If the university deserves to exist, its faculty, tenured and non-tenured, merit respect, meaning professional treatment and support for all full-time faculty.

• OPPORTUNITY. All faculty members deserve the opportunity to advance in their profession. It is unconscionable that 40% of the university faculty find BGSU a professional dead-end, without hope of promotion or meaningful advancement. The BGSU-FA stands for a reasonable path to promotion for all full-time faculty.

• SECURITY. Our various processes of professional certification were long and arduous. Our opportunities for employment are annual or semi-annual at best. Our need to speak, in and out of the classroom, on topics which are central and controversial to our culture, is inherent in our responsibility as educators. If we can be fired with short notice, fired without cause, fired even after the granting of tenure, the threat of firing will silence many of us, and may be used to silence all of us. We can not permit that. All of us, tenured and non-tenured, need the freedom to speak in order to do our work. Just as importantly, all full-time faculty engage in activities that serve long-term goals of the university – like curriculum development – and establish intellectual relationships with students. Rather than the administration’s desire to be able to non-renew contracts with the slimmest of justifications, we deserve to have the university make the same type of long-term commitment to us.

What can you do, as negotiations drag on?

• Count the days and count out loud. When will the administration take seriously its legal obligation to bargain in good faith with the university faculty?

• Follow the negotiations. Faculty have the right to know what’s being said on their behalf—and what’s being proposed against their interests.  Continue to consult our bargaining page, http://bgsu-fa.org/wp/bargaining/.

• Join the BGSU-FA. The more of us stand together, the louder we can speak on our behalf. And it is the membership of the BGSU-FA who will have final say over any negotiated contract.