All posts by Jon Barch

Strength in Numbers

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It was a strong show of solidarity carrying the message that continued wage freezes are intolerable.  At 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 15, Northern Michigan University faculty gathered to bring attention to the present state of negotiations. The contingent of well over one hundred NMU faculty and members from other unions chanted “Frozen Pay is Not O.K.” as they marched from Jamrich Hall to the Cohodas Building. The rally continued with several trips around Cohodas and Speeches featuring Chief Negotiator Lesley Putman, Contract Officer Gabe Logan, and Upper Peninsula Regional Labor Federation Representative Cajsa Maki.

In recent bargaining negotiations, the faculty team has proposed creative and reasonable solutions to the compensation problem, yet the administration’s negotiating team has made only one offer in over a month calling for a pay freeze during the next two years. In a truly unfortunate move, the administrative team said they would not continue talking about the financial aspects of the contract until after the spring Board of Trustees meeting. This is was perceived by the AAUP Executive Committee as a strategic move to stall negotiations until summer when students and many faculty members are away from campus.

Members of the Board of Trustees and the administration have consistently sung our praises this past year. Unfortunately, words only go so far. Bold changes are needed to address the uncompetitive compensation shown in the following graphic.

Compared to the eleven Michigan public universities that report salary data to the AAUP-NMU faculty are next to last in terms of total compensation and nearly 10% below the median.  While the Board of Trustees may congratulate the administration for keeping expenditures low, this rate of pay will erode the quality of instruction at this institution.

The administrative negotiating team needs to return to the table with a bold compensation proposal aimed at fixing this trend.  There are numerous financial indicators suggesting now is the time!  The expected executive order reducing state appropriations for last year ended up not being as severe as anticipated. Recent university investment returns have been higher than expected.  There have been higher than anticipated energy savings from facility closures. Supplies, materials, and services expenditures due to facility closures and remote operations have resulted in savings.  There are approximately $5 million in unspent discretionary CARES Act funds, $8.6 million in anticipated discretionary American Rescue Plan Act funds, over $4 million in healthcare savings the past 2 years, and over $3 million in early retirement buyout savings in 2 years.  Early admissions and enrollment data also point to a rebound in fall 2021.

The NMU-AAUP feels future uncertainty is not an acceptable reason for failing to address the compensation inequity problems. Failure to do so puts NMU at a competitive disadvantage when trying to attract and retain the best talent for our students.

AAUP Summer Teaching Survey Executive Summary

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The NMU-AAUP Summer Teaching Survey indicates 53 AAUP faculty (36% of survey respondents) have declined summer teaching assignments due to the dramatic decrease in summer teaching pay, 56 AAUP faculty members (37.8% of survey respondents) have agreed to teach summer courses despite the pay cut.

Responses to several follow-up questions reveal deep concerns about the quality of the courses, students’ ability to make good academic progress, equal pay for equal work, the morale of NMU faculty members, and ultimately student retention.  

Although faculty members are not “required by contract” to teach summer classes, most who have agreed to teach at the reduced pay feel obligated to do so, and they are upset about the situation.  Categorical coding of statements explaining this feeling of obligation demonstrates how committed NMU faculty are to their students.  The most common reason for feeling obligated to teach the summer courses was students’ ability to make satisfactory academic progress.  Many students rely on certain courses to be offered in the summer, they design their plan of study to include these courses, and they need them to complete prerequisites for the fall classes in order to stay on track for graduation.  In some cases, the degree program requires students to take certain courses during the summer, and certification/accreditation standards, often require instructors to have specific credentials.  This leaves little room for choice when the program requires these courses to be taught.

Some department heads are making special deals with their faculty to bridge the gap; however, the survey shows that most are not. Adjustments include reducing the number of students allowed in courses or increasing faculty compensation in some way to match or bring pay closer to the previous rate.

Comments from multiple respondents show the reduction of pay for summer teaching has caused significant problems with staffing courses. The fear is that reduced or improperly staffed course offerings will lead to frustration for students and eventual reductions in enrollment.

Finally, the open-ended comments from the survey send a clear message that our faculty are feeling angry and underappreciated. Despite the noble efforts of many in our ranks to soldier on for the sake of the students and their programs, we know from multiple studies that disgruntled employees do sub-par work (Oswald, et al. 2015; and Peiró, et al. 2019). Our administration should not be satisfied with anything less than our best.

I invite you to review the full quantitative and qualitative responses to this survey. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this survey.

Citations:

Oswald, A. J., Proto, E., & Sgroi D. (2015) Happiness and productivity. Journal of labor Economics 33(4), 789-822.

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/681096

Peiró, J. M., Kozusznik, M. W., Rodríguez-Molina, I., & Tordera, N. (2019). The Happy-Productive Worker Model and Beyond: Patterns of Wellbeing and Performance at Work. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(3), 479. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16030479

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6388150/