On Friday 2/28/20, President Wilson submitted a letter, copied below, to Faculty and Staff in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in response to the AAUP-AFT Local 6075 Lecturer Steering Committee's rally & march to deliver a public letter of support for Lecturers and Senior Lecturers who received mass notices of non-renewal this year. Currently, this letter has collected nearly 1,000 signatures of support from WSU faculty, staff, students, alumni, community members, and colleagues from institutions around the state and nation.
Our concern is for all Lecturers and Senior Lecturers across the University - the issue is not limited to CLAS Lecturers.
When the administration issues these notices of non-renewal to all faculty, including those it fully intends to renew, this represents a misuse of the non-renewal notice process. These notices have not been issued in good faith, and the administration has effectively turned these notices of non-renewal to notices of conditional-renewal . Accordingly, the Union has filed a grievance demanding the cancellation of all those conditional notices of non-renewal, organized a protest march to register our disapproval, and reached out to the WSU Board of Governors to discuss the matter.
We are pleased that President Wilson acknowledges – as we have argued publicly – that notices of non-renewal are not required when the administration intends to later renew those faculty. However, it is bad policy to leverage Lecturer/Senior Lecturers to meet budget goals: Lecturers' teaching contributes approximately $34 Million in tuition revenue above the cost of their salaries. Why would we sacrifice our teachers when we have no transparency on the rising costs of the WSU administrative class? Why would we sacrifice our teachers when this administration makes no sacrifices of its own?
President Wilson is right that there "may be a better solution" for our current Lecturer system, which plainly does not work. We also welcome Provost Whitfield and CLAS Dean Hartwell's leadership on establishing a forum on the condition of Lecturers at Wayne State. While it is important for us to talk about how Lecturers can continue to contribute to WSU's success in the coming years without the failed system currently in place, we must continue to move towards a solution. Although there is a grievance process underway, the President's assertion that "we will need to allow that process to work to completion before we can finalize any possible solutions" is incorrect. We don't have to wait to resolve this problem! Negotiated solutions often lead to the withdrawal of grievances.
We all agree the structure of Lecturers/Senior Lecturers is broken. So we ask President Wilson to rescind the conditional non-renewals immediately. And we accept his offer to meet with our Union to discuss how we can improve Lecturer job security, pay, and other issues.
Clay Walker, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Department of English
Chair, AAUP-AFT Lecturer Steering Committee
Wayne State University
clay.walker@wayne.edu
======================================
From: CLAS Faculty and Academic Staff <CLASFACACADSTAFF@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU> on behalf of President <president@wayne.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2020 9:23 AM
To: CLASFACACADSTAFF@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU <CLASFACACADSTAFF@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU>
Subject: In response to your petition
Dear colleagues,
I write in response to the petition delivered to my office on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
I also have read Professor Charles Parrish’s letter, and had several discussions on this issue with the provost and other members of academic leadership. First, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind about the importance of lecturers to the instructional mission of Wayne State University. We are a place of scholarship and learning, and the work that you and your fellow lecturers do helps us greatly in fulfilling that mission.
Regarding the issue at hand, your receipt of non-renewal letters: I can certainly understand why this would cause the anxiety and frustration that you have expressed. Uncertainty is a troubling state, and I readily acknowledge that these letters would be difficult to receive, let alone plan life around. I also disagree with Professor Parrish’s assertion that this is purely a budget and not a bargaining issue; it actually is both. The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) clearly states that non-renewal requires three months’ notice prior to expiration of the employee’s current term contract. This requirement, along with the uncertainty of the future budgets and/or teaching requirements, prompted these notices to all lecturers because it is not possible to determine the exact future resources and departmental needs.
Professor Parrish states that the practice of sending these non-renewal letters was not strictly adhered to over the past several years, and this practice was therefore not a requirement of the CBA. I believe that Professor Parrish is at least partially correct in that the contract language does not require that a lecturer whose contract is expiring receive a non-renewal notice if the contract is later to be renewed, though the possibility of that renewal can often be uncertain. However, it is also correct that the sending of non-renewal letters three months prior to contract expiration complies with the CBA and also mitigates the risk of keeping certain lecturers on the payroll unnecessarily in the event that the budget turns out to be insufficient to support them. Unfortunately, it places all lecturers in a state of uncertainty, which is understandably anxiety-provoking.
I believe there may be a better solution, but it will require more discussion among faculty, the union and the administration. Dean Hartwell and Provost Whitfield plan to hold a forum to discuss the status of lecturers, and I encourage you to attend. Since a grievance has been filed on this issue, we will need to allow that process to work to completion before we can finalize any possible solutions.
In conclusion, let me restate my belief in the important contribution lecturers make to Wayne State University. You change minds and lives, and I thank you for the critical role you play in the education and development of our students.
M. Roy Wilson
President
Our concern is for all Lecturers and Senior Lecturers across the University - the issue is not limited to CLAS Lecturers.
When the administration issues these notices of non-renewal to all faculty, including those it fully intends to renew, this represents a misuse of the non-renewal notice process. These notices have not been issued in good faith, and the administration has effectively turned these notices of non-renewal to notices of conditional-renewal . Accordingly, the Union has filed a grievance demanding the cancellation of all those conditional notices of non-renewal, organized a protest march to register our disapproval, and reached out to the WSU Board of Governors to discuss the matter.
We are pleased that President Wilson acknowledges – as we have argued publicly – that notices of non-renewal are not required when the administration intends to later renew those faculty. However, it is bad policy to leverage Lecturer/Senior Lecturers to meet budget goals: Lecturers' teaching contributes approximately $34 Million in tuition revenue above the cost of their salaries. Why would we sacrifice our teachers when we have no transparency on the rising costs of the WSU administrative class? Why would we sacrifice our teachers when this administration makes no sacrifices of its own?
President Wilson is right that there "may be a better solution" for our current Lecturer system, which plainly does not work. We also welcome Provost Whitfield and CLAS Dean Hartwell's leadership on establishing a forum on the condition of Lecturers at Wayne State. While it is important for us to talk about how Lecturers can continue to contribute to WSU's success in the coming years without the failed system currently in place, we must continue to move towards a solution. Although there is a grievance process underway, the President's assertion that "we will need to allow that process to work to completion before we can finalize any possible solutions" is incorrect. We don't have to wait to resolve this problem! Negotiated solutions often lead to the withdrawal of grievances.
We all agree the structure of Lecturers/Senior Lecturers is broken. So we ask President Wilson to rescind the conditional non-renewals immediately. And we accept his offer to meet with our Union to discuss how we can improve Lecturer job security, pay, and other issues.
Clay Walker, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Department of English
Chair, AAUP-AFT Lecturer Steering Committee
Wayne State University
clay.walker@wayne.edu
======================================
From: CLAS Faculty and Academic Staff <CLASFACACADSTAFF@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU> on behalf of President <president@wayne.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2020 9:23 AM
To: CLASFACACADSTAFF@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU <CLASFACACADSTAFF@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU>
Subject: In response to your petition
Dear colleagues,
I write in response to the petition delivered to my office on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
I also have read Professor Charles Parrish’s letter, and had several discussions on this issue with the provost and other members of academic leadership. First, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind about the importance of lecturers to the instructional mission of Wayne State University. We are a place of scholarship and learning, and the work that you and your fellow lecturers do helps us greatly in fulfilling that mission.
Regarding the issue at hand, your receipt of non-renewal letters: I can certainly understand why this would cause the anxiety and frustration that you have expressed. Uncertainty is a troubling state, and I readily acknowledge that these letters would be difficult to receive, let alone plan life around. I also disagree with Professor Parrish’s assertion that this is purely a budget and not a bargaining issue; it actually is both. The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) clearly states that non-renewal requires three months’ notice prior to expiration of the employee’s current term contract. This requirement, along with the uncertainty of the future budgets and/or teaching requirements, prompted these notices to all lecturers because it is not possible to determine the exact future resources and departmental needs.
Professor Parrish states that the practice of sending these non-renewal letters was not strictly adhered to over the past several years, and this practice was therefore not a requirement of the CBA. I believe that Professor Parrish is at least partially correct in that the contract language does not require that a lecturer whose contract is expiring receive a non-renewal notice if the contract is later to be renewed, though the possibility of that renewal can often be uncertain. However, it is also correct that the sending of non-renewal letters three months prior to contract expiration complies with the CBA and also mitigates the risk of keeping certain lecturers on the payroll unnecessarily in the event that the budget turns out to be insufficient to support them. Unfortunately, it places all lecturers in a state of uncertainty, which is understandably anxiety-provoking.
I believe there may be a better solution, but it will require more discussion among faculty, the union and the administration. Dean Hartwell and Provost Whitfield plan to hold a forum to discuss the status of lecturers, and I encourage you to attend. Since a grievance has been filed on this issue, we will need to allow that process to work to completion before we can finalize any possible solutions.
In conclusion, let me restate my belief in the important contribution lecturers make to Wayne State University. You change minds and lives, and I thank you for the critical role you play in the education and development of our students.
M. Roy Wilson
President
