For nearly a year, officers of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have been in negotiations with university administration to develop a contract suitable for both parties. Negotiations took a turn when the Wright State Board of Trustees hired an outside attorney who stepped in and presented a contract that held no negotiations. There is currently standstill as the fact finding is in review, according to members of the AAUP.
“The relationship has eroded between administration and faculty,” said AAUP President, Martin Kich. said. “We always had a collegial relationship prior to years ago.”
Members of the AAUP collectively agreed that there was a stronger relationship between faculty and administration before the financial crisis.
History Professor Noeleen McIlvenna works closely with the faculty and then relays that information to contract negotiations. According to McIlvenna, there is a unanimous feeling of frustration and disheartenment.
“The faculty are concerned about the community, not just the university,” McIlvenna said. “The faculty are not fighting a pay cut; we knew we would not have a raise for a year. The raise was to match inflation. We understand that there are immediate effects.”
McIlvenna explained that the long term effects of the university will eventually affect the community.
“Nursing enrollment is down and eventually nursing jobs in this area will be needed. Social workers are needed to take care of people and that program is being hit hard. We need the researchers like chemists, biologists, and those that make sure we have clean drinking water. When you lose faculty that teaches the future social workers and nurses, you lose the expertise,” said McIlvenna.
Tom Rooney, professor of Biological Sciences, said that the budget cuts has been demoralizing.
“The faculty have been focused on making education more affordable. They are focused on the students still,” said Rooney.
According to Kristine Scordo, professor and director of the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practioner Program, the morale is at an all-time low.
“Potential students have gotten wind of WSU issues and are looking at other colleges,” Scordo said. “My understanding is that administration is not supportive of us starting our own Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. If we do not develop and pass a BSN to DNP program, it is likely we will not have a graduate program.”
Faculty like Scordo expressed concern in their program safety.
“We have an excellent national reputation for our NP programs. I can only hope that will continue in this uncertain climate,” Scordo said.
David Bukovinsky, professor of accountancy at Wright State shared frustrations of morale.
“It is demoralizing and makes one wonder if the administration values the faculty and understands the critical role the faculty plays in the university,” Bukovinsky said. “I cannot speak for the effect the situation has had on my colleagues or departmental operations, other than to say that a lot people are concerned, angry and demoralized that the financial crisis was allowed to happen and how the administration plans to correct it.”
According to Volker Bahn of Biological Sciences, believes that (upper) administration takes no responsibility for the crisis.
“I don’t think that the administration is interested in good faith negotiation,” Bahn said. “They have not treated us as partners at all. Despite lip-service to “being in the same boat” they are not at all, and they are certainly not behaving that way.”
As a way to open dialogue for students, faculty and members of the Raider community administration started a Strategic Planning Forum. The goal was to allow people to communicate their concerns. However, those that attended expressed disappointment.
“We were just supposed to ask “friendly” questions, which they were free to evade as much as they wanted, because there was not supposed to be any follow up either. And that is what they consider ‘talking with us’,” Bahn said. “They talked for about 45 minutes. Then they took questions that were time limited and took as much time as they wanted to answer them.”
According to faculty such as Bahn, Scordo and McIlvenna, departments are stretched thin and class sizes are increasing.
“We teach, we do research, we write grant applications and papers, we advise graduate students, we administer our curricula, classes, and labs, and we are involved in almost all other aspects of administration, even if it is often in an advisory role,” Bahn said.
Scordo said that there is high demands throughout the nursing department resulting in filling in positions.“The faculty have no secretarial support. We were not hired to be secretaries—we were hired to teach. Our time now is taken away from student activities, so we can perform the many secretarial duties required for courses we teach,” Scordo said.
