Education News: Faculty at OSU's Marion Camps trying to unionize
Happy 4th of July, Columbus!
Hopefully, you are able to enjoy some fireworks, relax and eat some good food at a cookout. I fondly remember watching the fireworks with my family and playing with sparklers growing up on Independence Day.
As a teacher, my mom always says that the 4th of July is the halfway point of summer. It’s crazy how fast this time of year flies by. I hope you have been able to enjoy the summer, despite the heat.
Review Session: Reporter Sheridan Hendrix recently reported how faculty members at Ohio State University's Marion regional campus are trying to unionize.
Tenured and tenure-track faculty members at the OSU Marion campus submitted union authorization cards with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Ohio Council 8 to the Ohio State Employee Relations Board in early March.
Scot Kaplan, an associate professor of art and a faculty union organizer at Ohio State's Marion campus, said the university is attempting to block the Marion faculty members' attempt to unionize, arguing that professors at the Marion campus are equally a part of the larger university and, therefore, cannot organize separately.
Ben Johnson, an Ohio State spokesman, said the university is "committed to following the rules and regulations of the board as the process moves forward.
OSU Marion faculty are still waiting to hear if they can move forward with an inquiry to start a union.
If the OSU Marion organizing effort is successful, it will be the first faculty employee union at Ohio State, the largest public university in the country and the state's flagship university.
Read Sheridan's full story here.
Extra Credit:
COVID prevented Columbus City Schools' Centennial High School from performing their production of “Little Shop of Horrors” in March 2020, but the show must go on, so alumni in the cast, crew and band returned two years later to perform the show.
Licking Heights selected Kevin Miller as its new superintendent. Miller is currently the director of government relations for the Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA).
The state has ordered Color Coded Labs, a for-profit startup school focusing on training Black workers in computer coding, to stop recruiting new students after it learned that the program was operating without a license.
Thank you for reading! If you don't already, please consider subscribing to The Dispatch. If someone sent you this email, make sure you subscribe to this newsletter to never miss an issue.
Until next time,
Megan Henry
Email: mhenry@dispatch.com
Twitter: @megankhenry
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Education News: Faculty at OSU's Marion Camps trying to unionize.
