IU Bloomington faculty urge Board of Trustees to intervene in grad worker union fight
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify faculty comments made at the May 9 all-faculty meeting and the April 12 Bloomington Faculty Council special session.
Indiana University's Bloomington faculty have officially endorsed graduate workers' unionization efforts, calling on the Board of Trustees to become involved in resolving the labor dispute.
In April, many student graduate workers went on a labor strike for four weeks, requesting union recognition from the IU administration and an official process to discuss benefits, higher wages and fee reduction. Several faculty members became concerned about how the labor dispute could impact graduate student recruitment and IU's standing as a research university, signing a petition to trigger an emergency, all-faculty meeting.
Between 650 and 740 faculty members attended a May 9 emergency meeting at the IU Auditorium, falling short of the 800 in-person voting members needed for a resolution to officially pass at that time. After the meeting, an electronic ballot was distributed via email to other faculty; that voting period ended Monday. About 1,900 faculty voted in total, approximately 67% of the eligible faculty.
More: IU grad workers suspend strike, hundreds of faculty gather in emergency meeting
The faculty overwhelmingly passed two resolutions centered around the faculty's authority in appointing graduate workers and a call for senior campus administrators to begin meeting with the graduate workers coalition.
Grad workers should not to be penalized for strike, faculty say
The first resolution, passed 1,604-308, asserts faculty control over graduate worker reappointments.
Earlier this spring, Vice Provost Eliza K. Pavalko explained to faculty via email that her office would hold final approval of summer and fall graduate worker appointments, specifying they would confirm graduate workers satisfactorily met their responsibilities before approving.
Referencing Graduate Academic Appointees Guide, the majority of voting faculty claimed departments and schools — not the provost's office — assess the criteria for reappointments. Within the same resolution, the faculty decided graduate workers should not be at risk for non-appointment due to their participation in the strike.
More: IU graduate student group votes no confidence in provost, withdraws from campus committees
At the May 9 meeting, Bloomington Faculty Council President Marietta Simpson explained why some of the petition's items did not make it on the agenda, such as the proposal for what actions or events would trigger a call for a vote of no confidence in Provost Rahul Shrivastav. In their petition, faculty members sought to define when a vote of no confidence would be called for Shirvastav, but a related resolution was not presented at the meeting. Simpson explained the faculty would need to call for a vote rather than identify a triggering event.
IU faculty support grad worker union
The other resolution, passed 1,404-509, calls on the Board of Trustees to work on a "permanent resolution to the labor dispute on campus," which includes arranging elections on union representation for eligible graduate workers. The resolution references a process described in HR-12-20, which details how IU employees can form or join a labor organization in order to speak with the senior administration about working conditions.
The policy applies to all staff members of the university. Currently, IU administrators do not consider graduate workers as staff because their work is tied to their education. Conversely, the student coalition has asserted graduate workers are university employees and should be able to unionize.
Media personnel were not allowed inside the May 9 emergency faculty meeting. The Herald-Times has requested a transcript or recording of the meeting.
Bloomington Faculty Council secretary Rebecca Spang instead provided a document that included sections of a secretary's report for the April 12 special session of the BFC. At that meeting, some faculty members noted their stance against graduate student unionization and the strike.
Student body president Ky Freeman commented in support of the graduate worker strike, stating past good faith protests had culminated in positive additions to campus, such as the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.
In response, law professor Steve Sanders claimed many advancements on the Bloomington campus, such as the LGBTQ+ Culture Center, came not from protests but from "strategic and visionary administrators working with students" and behind-the-scenes work, according to the meeting's report.
"This is not an Amazon warehouse. Students, faculty and administrators work together," Sanders said, adding it was “irresponsible” for faculty members to support unionization.
Jim Sherman, emeritus professor of psychology, spoke against graduate student unionization at the BFC special meeting as well.
“I know what you will say. You’ll say I’m old, I’m out of touch. Maybe I am. But I know IU,” Sherman said.
Sherman said IU's shared governance is especially strong and its community is tight-knit, concluding, "A union will change things."
Criminal justice professor Miriam Northcutt Bohmert brought up a version of the neutrality pledge, expressing her concern faculty members were caught in the middle of a labor dispute between students and administrators. The pledge was not voted on because it was not a resolution from the faculty body but an individual statement.
By the May 9 meeting, the majority of voting faculty pledged support of the graduate workers' union.
While waiting in line for the all-faculty emergency meeting, Selene Carter, associate professor of theatre and dance, expressed her support of graduate workers based on her own past experience.
"Having been a graduate student, I really support the graduate student workers and their requests. All of their requests are humane and realistic and are about creating equity in this institution and all the other institutions in higher education," Carter told The Herald-Times.
As part of this resolution, the faculty also voted for the campus administration to immediately have "sustained and meaningful dialogue with the IGWC-UE."
IGWC members voted to end the strike and submit semester grades earlier this month after faculty expressed preliminary support.
The IGWC has scheduled another vote on Sept. 26 to decide whether to resume striking. Union members are also set to move all courses off Canvas, the online course grading system, for the fall semester to ensure graduate employees have full control of the grades for the classes they teach. This opens a door for IGWC to pick the strike back up in the fall.
What's next? Board of Trustees meet in June
Though passed, the resolutions make no change to current policy nor create new policy. The resolutions simply indicate what the official faculty response is to administrators and the campus community at large.
The IU administration will keep the faculty's official stance in mind, according to IU spokesman Chuck Carney.
"IU remains committed to a strong system of shared governance, which provides many avenues for our community to address pressing challenges together. Ultimately, we will seriously consider the advice faculty provides through this process and will balance it against our current academic obligations and governance structures," Carney said in a written statement. "Our highest priority will be maximizing the educational experience for both our undergraduate and graduate students."
It is unclear whether the faculty voting results will be discussed at the next Board of Trustees meeting, which is June 16-17 at the IU Northwest campus. The agenda is slated to be available approximately 48 hours before the meeting.
From grad worker strike to faculty vote of support: How we got here
The IU Bloomington campus has about 10,000 graduate students, of which about 2,500 are student academic appointees (more colloquially known as graduate workers). About 1,750 IU graduate workers are part of the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition, a labor organization seeking recognition from the IU administration and an outlined process on how to discuss benefits, higher wages and fee reduction with administrators.
IGWC members voted to strike in mid-April. Many graduate workers, including those who are instructors of record for undergraduate classes, ceased working on campus for four weeks.
According to IU spokesman Chuck Carney, only a handful of classes were impacted by the strike. However, many faculty members were concerned about how final grades would be submitted for the spring semester, leading to a faculty-held townhall on April 26.
More: IU graduate workers continue strike, faculty float vote of no confidence in provost
At the townhall, over 200 faculty members signed a petition for an emergency, all-faculty meeting. Amongst other items, the petition called for a faculty-wide discussion of the provost's ability to terminate or not re-appoint graduate workers without relevant faculty approval, union recognition from senior administrators and an outline of the specific conditions that would formally trigger a faculty-led call for a vote of no confidence in Provost Rahul Shrivastav for his leadership during the labor dispute.
Contact Rachel Smith at rksmith@heraldt.com or @RachelSmithNews on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana University faculty endorse graduate student union efforts
