Greetings, my excellent colleagues,
This new academic year at the University of Oregon brings a bit more change than usual, such as a new athletic league, a new Provost, new programs beginning in UO Portland, and a record number of new faculty.
We've also seen changes to the Executive Council of United Academics:
Kate Mills (Psychology) is our new Executive Vice President. Kate's enthusiasm and can-do attitude will be key for her work on the Contract Action Team to coordinate and ratchet up all of our individual efforts during these final months of negotiations on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Ed Wolf (Music) is our new Vice President of Diversity & Equity. With warmth--and perhaps occasional song--Ed is ready to support faculty who don't feel seen, heard, or supported by their home units or other parts of campus. He will also be a strong advocate for making the structural changes needed to improve our climate at this institution.
Keaton Miller (Economics) is our new Treasurer. Together with staff and the Finance Committee, Keaton will work to keep our union solvent and strong. He has also joined our bargaining team, where he has consistently been a very effective communicator for our values and our asks on salary.
Dan Howard (Business) is the new Chair of the Politics Committee. Dan's backgrounds in both business and law will be assets in the months ahead as Salem embarks on a long legislative session in the new calendar year. The legislature will determine the budget for the coming biennium and consider a wide variety of bills potentially affecting our membership--either as public sector employees or as residents of Oregon. Sufficient support for higher education is far from a given in this state, and there is enormous room for improvement. Together with labor groups across the state, we will make a powerful case about the importance of our mission.
I am thrilled to be working with these colleagues in their new roles, and I am excited for you to connect with them throughout this year and beyond.
Below are blurbs from each of UA's officers about what they do and how they assist in our goal "to enhance the quality of faculty work life and student education".
As vital as their efforts are, and as grateful as we may be for colleagues who devote more of their time and energy for our collective benefit, remember that the officers are not United Academics. We are United Academics. All of us.
Especially in this new year, we will need each other to be ready to step up when and where we can. To attend bargaining sessions in the room or on the Zoom whenever available. To talk with colleagues and invite them to join our efforts--and our union! To follow the lead of the Contract Action Team as negotiations heat up and so our presence will be known, our voices heard, and our needs met.
Some of that might be new for us. Possibly a bit intimidating from time to time. It'll be alright. We are here to support one another: that's why we have a faculty union.
We will always be stronger together than we ever could be on our own.
Let's rise to the challenges of the new year in solidarity.
I want to do what I can to help support you. For anyone who has questions or concerns along the way--about the continuing negotiations, union issues more generally, union issues more personally, campus resources, teaching, or anything else--feel free to reach out to me at any of these channels this term:
- UA President office hours (different from my class office hours):
- Tuesdays: 8:30 - 9:30am on Zoom: uoregon.zoom.us/j/98629805541
- Wednesdays: 8:30 - 9:30am at the ground floor of the EMU, near the O-shaped information desk
- text: (541) 515-5108
- email: [email protected]
I know that our schedules are all different, but I would love to have a chance to meet and talk with folks at these new office hours. I hope they work for many of you!
If you didn't catch them earlier, here are links to campus resources as you prepare for your courses and other logistics.
Good luck. With everything. You can do this. We can do this--together.
--Mike
Executive VP, Kate Mills
As the new EVP, I have been working to integrate myself into various standing committees such as the Communications and Contract Action Team, as well as ad-hoc committees such as one focused on dispersing funds to local childcare providers through the Childcare Community Partnership Investment Fund secured in our last contract. When possible, I'm out knocking on doors around campus to chat with members of our bargaining unit, sharing news and listening to your concerns. As EVP, I plan to dedicate much of my time to organizing efforts, and I hope to connect with many folks from our bargaining unit either in person or by phone in the coming year.
VP of DEI, Ed Wolf
I'm just starting out this year as VP of Diversity and Inclusion for United Academics, following in the big footsteps of Lynn Fujiwara. Over the last several years, Lynn helped enable our caucuses, the communities of colleagues with shared experiences that meet to hang out and talk through shared challenges in a comfortable space. Last spring Lynn held a Faculty of Color caucus meeting to hand over the baton, and I hope to organize a fall get-together soon. I'll be contacting other caucus leaders as well to see how I can best be of service to them.
We're looking to see if the formation of new caucuses might be of interest (Disability? Remote Workers?). To see what caucus might be right for you, visit www.uauoregon.org/caucuses/. Please be in touch if you somehow want to get involved in caucuses or have ideas about other types of actions that can help the union be more aware of voices that need to be heard.
Treasurer, Keaton Miller
I am an associate professor in the economics department and I serve as United Academics' treasurer. In that role, I manage the financial health of the organization by overseeing budgeting, record keeping, and compliance with our policies. I work closely with our staff to ensure our union can maintain a strong financial footing, and I collaborate with other leaders to support initiatives that benefit our community. I am also serving on our bargaining team for this round of bargaining, where my primary area of focus is supporting our economic proposals with data and analysis.
Chair of Politics, Dan Howard
I serve as the Chair of the Politics Committee. The committee performs multiple functions, including promoting legislation that is beneficial for faculty, working to defeat proposed legislation that would harm faculty interests, vetting legislative candidates for endorsements, and coordinating with our sibling organizations to promote a positive overall political agenda for the educators, researchers, and others who make Oregon's higher education system work. In addition to serving as politics chair, I am a member of UA's bargaining team, which is currently working hard to improve compensation and working conditions for all members of UA's bargaining unit. Finally, I am a member of UA's Grievances & Contract Administration Committee (GCAC), which vigorously enforces and defends the rights that the bargaining team secures in its contract negotiations.
VP for TTF, David Luebke
As the Vice President for Tenure Track Faculty in our union, I serve first and foremost as an aid and ally to all bargaining unit members in the tenure-track category. As a practical matter, this means helping TT faculty with any and all problems they might encounter in the workplace, with the conditions of their work, or in the process of review, tenure, and promotion. Since I was first elected to this position in 2018, I have assisted dozens of tenure-track colleagues to resolve conflicts in the workplace, to advise and represent them in grievance or disciplinary hearings, and to correct unfair or mismanaged mid-term reviews and denials of tenure and promotion – including four cases in which a denial of tenure or promotion was reversed or revised. Working with colleagues on the Executive Committee and with external agencies such as the Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI), we have also succeeded in redressing salary inequities based on gender discrimination. As VP for TT faculty, I also serve on our union’s Executive Committee (EC), the Grievance & Contract Administration Committee (GCAC), as well as the Contract Action Team (CAT).
VP for Research Faculty, Christina Karns
I am an Assistant Research Professor in Psychology with the Center for Brain Injury Research and Training. I also teach Psychology and in the Clark Honors College. As the United Academics VP for Research Faculty, I represent the interests of funding contingent faculty such as research assistants and associates, postdocs, and research professors.
Researchers may work on-campus in wet labs, dry labs, museums, or offices. They may work off-campus in the field, in school settings, or a remote office. Whether full-time or part-time, they bring a wealth of knowledge to our university community. The work environments of researchers are diverse, but we all have similar challenges in navigating our pathway to promotion, accessing professional development opportunities, balancing work and family, and advancing our careers in challenging funding environments. We have made real gains in the past 10 years since we unionized, and we continue to make progress.
If you have questions or comments about your researcher role at UO, reach out and share your experiences, come to a membership meeting, or attend a professional-development event.
Chair of Grievances and Contract Negotiations, Nathan Whalen
I am a Senior Instructor II in Romance Languages. In my role with United Academics, I am the Chair of the Grievances and Contract Administration Committee and currently serve as the Lead Negotiator as we bargain our next Collective Bargaining Agreement. It has been a busy year in terms of bargaining. We assembled a team that represents many colleges and units on campus as well as a cross-section of ranks and classifications. We have made progress on many issues, fine-tuning elements of our contract, but we still have a long way to go to finalize our negotiations, in particular on economic issues.
Our Grievance and Contract Administration Committee meets biweekly to deal with issues that arise for individual faculty members, but always with an eye towards how the individual cases reflect more systemic concerns. We have worked with faculty members on reclassifications, pay concerns (late pay, missing stipends, and pay equity), issues surrounding sabbaticals and other leaves, promotion and review processes, concerns with contracts, and navigating complicated professional relationships. We have been successful in resolving myriad issues for bargaining unit faculty members through informal mechanisms as well as formal grievances.
I look forward to the coming year as we (hopefully!) wrap up bargaining in the next few terms and continue to work with faculty members on campus individually.
Secretary, Chris Sinclair
I rejoined the executive council of United Academics after 3 and a half years as Secretary/Treasurer of the AAUP. I am an associate professor in mathematics. My role at United Academics, in addition to the usual secretary obligations, is to oversee the communications of United Academics and to chair the Contract Action Team. We are bargaining this term, and the Contract Action Team is a group of United Academics activists who support the bargaining team by running events to inform and engage our membership around bargaining. If you are interested in joining the Contract Action Team, or have ideas of how United Academics can better our communications with members and/or the public, please reach out.