July 10, 2024

“We have the experts here, and we don’t believe that having an additional joint health and safety committee is needed. And that someone can just say they don’t think it is safe here and not return to the building … we refer to that as pulling the fire alarm.  I don’t feel like teaching so I’m going to say the building is unsafe.” Mark Bennett,  Administration Spokesperson

”When Bennett said that we would be pulling the fire alarms so we don’t have to work, it is very insulting to even suggest that faculty would not want to do their job. And he is suggesting that we would risk our students' health and safety by stating there is an issue going on in order to avoid having to work”. Dr. Kim Fisher, Associate Professor, Department of Special Education

Today’s afternoon session began with UFISU’s Lead Spokesperson, Ashley Farmer, presenting a counter on Union Rights, that focuses on changes about members not leaving their scheduled duties (i.e. teaching, faculty meetings, etc.) to attend union activities. This article also includes adapted language that the union can meet with newly-hired employees during Faculty Prep Weeks. Ashley then presented another counter-proposal on Academic Freedom and Intellectual Property. Our Academic Freedom proposal is a mechanism to hold ISU to their own Academic Freedom policy, 3.3.13. It emphasizes that instructors hold the rights to their teaching materials, and the rights to select the materials they teach with, though there may need to be coordination between multiple sections of the same course. 

Our Intellectual Property proposal states that employees are notified if certain tasks they do are considered “works for hire,” where they will not hold copyright, or if the University will hold copyright of any work using University grants. 

Admin Spokesperson Mark Bennett then presented counter-proposals on Grievance Procedure, Non-Discrimination, Gender Expression and Transition, Personnel Files and Records, Disability Accommodation, and Shared Governance. Changes in Grievance Procedures includes making a mediation plan as an optional step dependent on the needs of the current grievance. Non-Discrimination includes a section on Gender Expression and Transition that states that a prior ISU committee will be re-convened in order to assess current University policies, processes, and procedures. They are still rejecting other provisions from this proposed article, stating that they don’t want to change current processes and claiming that it would be unenforceable to prevent supervisors and administrators from outing queer and trans faculty. Personnel Files and Records notes that all records will be dated, either at time of completion or when placed in a file. Their Disability Accommodation proposal states that they will follow the law, but will not entertain our requests because (from their perspective… NOT ours) it does not allow them to have enough flexibility in an interactive process with faculty needing accommodations. In actuality, what we have proposed is a highly flexible and adaptive process for accommodating disabilities.

Administration then presented two guest speakers: Adam McCrary, Director of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS), and Kristie Toohill, Executive Director of Facilities Services, who described their areas and the responsibilities, mitigation processes, and current projects on campus. We learned that their offices are well staffed and that they have experts on a range of EHS and Facilities issues on hand, so implementing provisions from our proposals should not be as burdensome as Bennett made doing so seem. They took our questions, left to discuss them in a separate room, and returned to present their answers. Question topics included the findings from the space evaluation that was performed across campus, when were air quality tests last performed (they are only performed if someone reports an issue), and if we can access that data. 

To end the day, Bennett presented their counter-proposal on Health, Safety, and Facilities that states that the university will do their best to provide a safe working environment with needed equipment and facilities, with the following statement: 

“We’re not aware of ongoing issues, as they are reported, we address them.  We don’t believe it is as necessary as you have put in here” [the steps to address Health+Safety/ Facility issues and communication in our proposal]. Mark Bennett.

A major concern of faculty is issues with door locks across campus, particularly in the case of an active shooter event. There are grants available to help fund lock updates, yet the message we received at the table is that it is a process that is not necessary to include in the bargaining agreement. Instead, Bennett suggested that faculty attend active shooter training and workshops. Some of our members have attended these sessions and reported that the information they learned was outdated (with all information cited 1998 or earlier, pre-Columbine) and traumatizing. We want ISU to commit to addressing locks because it will make us feel safer now, and save countless lives if a tragic event like a shooting ever happens on our campus. The administration seems to care more about maintaining university operations than addressing health and safety issues.

We want to have a more transparent process about the way major health, safety, and facilities issues that affect our members are managed and communicated. 

While we hope you are enjoying your summer, we really need to see our members at bargaining to show the administration how serious we are about our proposals. Let’s show the administration that you want a fair contract and you want it now!