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Faculty Association supports ‘any and all job actions’ including work stoppage in contract negotiations

By Theresa Clift on August 15, 2011 8:18 pm in Administration, Featured / 42 comments

 
Faculty Association supports ‘any and all job actions’ including work stoppage in contract negotiations
CMU Faculty Association President Laura Frey speaks with members of the media after 97 percent of the FA voted yes on a job action Monday evening at the Comfort Inn conference center, 2424 S. Mission Street. (Jeff Smith/Photo Editor)

The Central Michigan University Faculty Association voted overwhelmingly to allow its bargaining team to pursue “any and all job actions necessary,” if an agreement cannot be reached on a new contract with the university’s administration.

Possible job actions range from not showing up to teach to not attending meetings, returning emails and holding office hours.

“We trust our bargaining team to make the decision on if there needs to be a job action, what type of job action might that be,” FA President Laura Frey said.

The FA sent the university an invitation to resume bargaining immediately after the meeting was over.

The vote, which received 97 percent support, was taken because of an unfair labor practice charge filed by the Faculty Association.

Although Frey said she has told the faculty to submit their syllabi and get classes ready, she said there is no certainty on what will happen on Aug. 22, the first day of classes.

Frey said the university has proposed removing groups such as counseling, library and athletics from the bargaining unit.

“That is changing up the 42-year history and there’s no evidence-based reason for removing that faculty,” Frey said.

FA also has problems with the university’s plans to decrease its quality of health care, and its plans to add its own “discretionary language” to our promotion and tenure policies, Frey said.

The administration wants to increase the number of years it takes a faculty member to achieve a promotion and at the same time reduce the promotion increment back to 2006-2007 levels, Frey said.

Frey said the administration has indicated hiring a fact finder is the “most expeditious” way to solve the dispute. Frey disagrees because she said the process could take until November.

The administration and FA filed for a fact finder on July 14, but to Frey’s knowledge one has not yet been assigned by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

Once assigned, the fact finder would serve as a non-biased decision maker after hearing arguments and data from both sides. Bargaining and fact finding can occur simultaneously.

“The comprehensive nature of the rollbacks with the current table position by administration will significantly reduce the quality of the workplace for current faculty, and students don’t deserve that,” Frey said.

The FA continues to push for bargain because they believe the university is flourishing financially which is what led to such a high number voting. She also said the salary and wage increase the FA is asking for is far below the average of other Mid-American Conference institutions.

The salaries of FA members engaging in a job action would still get paid regularly, unless they “do not show up at all,” she said. In that case, the Michigan Education Association would provide a salary.

“I have to remain optimistic, and I am, because we have a membership that deserves a fair contract,” Frey said.

There is no deadline for the agreement, as the FA’s contract expired on June 30.

“It all comes down to how the bargaining team feels it’s going,” Frey said. “They’ll bargain as long as it takes.”

The FA bargaining team is comprised of seven faculty members and one MEA member.

At least 500 attendees were expected for the meeting and the room had a capacity of 600 persons, according to the hotel’s front desk.

Several CMU officials released statements earlier that day confirming classes will start as scheduled on Aug. 22, despite the dispute.

For all of CM Life’s coverage on the FA contract conflict, visit our landing page.

 

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  • Anonymous

    Support the CMU Faculty Strike -

     http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-CMU-Strike/111034852331920

  • Michmediaperson

    This is going to be fun to watch.

    You have the unionized, liberal Democrat Party faculty versus the Jennifer Granholm hand-picked Board of Trustees.  Then, the Granholmites picked George Ross to steer the ship.   Democrat vs. Democrat.  Liberal vs. Liberal.  This isn’t a GOP Congress vs. Obama or the unions vs. Rick Snyder.

    This is the same thinking people vs. the same thinking people.  Kind of like watching Stabenow vs. Levin.  If you go back in the CM LIFE archives, you’ll see a letter from a CMU prof in 2002 encouraging everyone to vote for Granholm since she would appoint better board members.  Well, faculty, what do you think now.  Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.  

    It wasn’t just the Administration that walked away but it was the taxpayers of Michigan because the Board of Trustees represent the taxpayers of Michigan.

    The loser in the end will be the students.  A strike means havoc.  Eventually, higher tuition when the Board caves and gives the faculty what they want.  The students lose.  When student’s parents are losing their jobs, homes, taking pay cuts because of 8 years of disastrous Granholm economics that ran 800,000 jobs out of the state and awful Obamanomics which Obama’s poll numbers have dropped to a low 39 percent approval, it’s hard to justify what the faculty wants.

    There are no Tea Party or Reagan Republicans in this give and take since this is liberal Democrat (Faculty) vs. Liberal Democrat (the Granholm appointed Board and Ross).

    But from a conservative perspective, I’ll tell you where the problem is and I said we would get to this point when Mike Rao  was like Obama and running up the CMU credit card years ago.  This should NOT be a research university.  Get the faculty out of research and paper-writing and book writing and get them in the classroom.  You could then get rid of half the faculty and the adjuncts, pay the 300 (keep the best of the best classroom teachers)  remaining faculty a better wage and have them spend 100 percent of the time teaching about 4-5 classes a semester.  All they would do is teach. All-star faculty in the classroom.  You could bring tuition back down to about $200-240 a credit hour.  Poor and middle-income young people could afford college again.  The admissions department would be flooded with applications from MSU, UM, Western.  But, the Board and the president don’t want to go this route.  We’ve been going down the wrong highway for about 10 years now and echoing Reverend Wright, “The chickens are coming home to roost.”

    Even if  you cut George’s salary and senior officer’s salaries and even get rid of the Medical School (which they should do), you’re still short money. You can’t keep raising tuition.  You need to cut expenses and get the cost structure in line. 

    So, it’s going to be fun to watch Dems vs. Dems.  At the same time, I feel bad for the students.

    The Granholms vs. the Granholms!   It will be a fun chess game to watch!

  • Postmaster1134

    I’m sorry, but having worked with Laura Frey for a number of years – I can assure you that she does not have the best interest of students at heart, let’s just go ahead and get that straight

  • Michmediaperson

    Students should remember it’s the unions and Democrats causing this problem.

    The professors need to sign the contract now and get ready for class.  How are they doing prep time for next week if they’re conducting closed-door union meetings in hotels.  With the lousy Obama economy, they should be lucky to have jobs.

    If students don’t graduate on time, it’s the union’s fault.  

  • student

    what does it matter?  the students won’t find jobs even if they do graduate on time.

  • Adi

    Without “research and paper writing and book writing,” there would literally be no academia. The entire graduate curriculum relies on “research and paper writing and book writing.”
    What a ridiculous thing to say.

  • Vexed_populi

    Thanks for the good coverage, CM Life. You guys are doing work. Keep it up.

    @dc61525bd3b04354a1545328b911c4fa:disqus Please, take your conservative talk radio rants over the the Morning Sun. Bush screwed up the economy and ran up the debt, not Obama. Obama is trying to fix what Bush started, and you can’t do that without spending more money. But national policy hardly has anything to do with this, so I don’t even know why you brought it up. You should be blaming Snyder for slashing funding for higher ed. Also, I don’t want to be taught by teachers who don’t do research. CMU will never ascend beyond the low/mid-tier college level if it doesn’t have faculty who put out decent research. Research brings prestige. Not only that, but it keeps the profs on their toes. A college prof who isn’t both invested in learning for themselves (research) and imparting their knowledge to students isn’t a college prof at all, they’re a high school teacher.

  • Nocoen

    For Any Faculty who participate in job actions (return emails, skip class, refuse to show up for office hours, etc.)…take a hike.  Try and hold down a job in the private sector…yeah…I am sure that there are a ton of jobs out there for Poli Sci Profs…

    You all do not realize how good you have it…but all you can do is follow that idiot FA Pres..like most leaders of organized labor, she will sell you all down the river for a few goodies to help herself.

    Before you accuse me be being a mgmt stooge…I am in a bargaining unit in another state…I am speaking from experience…

    Do you job.  Teach.  There are plenty of folks in Michigan right now who would be more than happy to take your job if your are so miserable.  If you are that miserable, quit and go find something else to do.

  • Foresighted Thinker

    The problem is that increasing teaching loads to 4-5 classes per year will encourage the all-star faculty to leave since they are the ones that CAN get better jobs. All that will be left are those who can’t get other jobs or are too “stuck” to move. Neither of those is good for the morale of university faculty.

  • Lesley

    You seem to be cinfusing university for high school. People do not become professors so that they can teach 4-5 classes per semester and have no time to do research. And universities require getting published to get tenure. Research even for professors who prefer teaching over research (which is not the norm) are not going to be teaching 5 courses o’er semester. You also don’t see students taking that many course per semester either. What makes a prof an “all-star” is their research. If they havent researched and gotten published, they are unlikely to advance in their career as a professor.

  • Lesley

    The administration should actually negotiate rather than acting like the tea parties in Congress that refuse to budge at all.

  • Schot1et

    Nocoen, are you a student here? Do you know Laura Frey? Because if you went here, took her classes, met her as part of the community that she avidly is a part of, seen her genuinely treat CMU students like the potential colleagues they may eventually be, you wouldn’t be making such rude generalizations about her motives as head of an organized group of workers.

    Michmediaperson, for God’s sakes, why are you so invested in this University (or at least its newspaper comment threads) if you are against everything a liberal education stands for? Too often you are a walking contradiction in terms of intellectualism, like someone who has no choice but to be on welfare and yet somehow still spouts Tea Party lines….

  • Schot1et

    Nocoen, are you a student here? Do you know Laura Frey? Because if you went here, took her classes, met her as part of the community that she avidly is a part of, seen her genuinely treat CMU students like the potential colleagues they may eventually be, you wouldn’t be making such rude generalizations about her motives as head of an organized group of workers.

    Michmediaperson, for God’s sakes, why are you so invested in this University (or at least its newspaper comment threads) if you are against everything a liberal education stands for? Too often you are a walking contradiction in terms of intellectualism, like someone who has no choice but to be on welfare and yet somehow still spouts Tea Party lines….

  • Michmediaperson

    Well said, Nocoen.

    These overeducated professors could never make it in the private sector, the real world!  They’d be making less money in today’s economy, could never sustain the 40 or more hour work weeks, 50-60-70 hours a week, 49 weeks out of the year.  No long Christmas and Spring Breaks and summer vacations.

    They should take a hike if they don’t show for class.

  • Michmediaperson

    Well said, Nocoen.

    These overeducated professors could never make it in the private sector, the real world!  They’d be making less money in today’s economy, could never sustain the 40 or more hour work weeks, 50-60-70 hours a week, 49 weeks out of the year.  No long Christmas and Spring Breaks and summer vacations.

    They should take a hike if they don’t show for class.

  • Michmediaperson

    How about the faculty then conducting a PR campaign through the local media this fall with the 600 professors and their research that has:
    Helped the Michigan economy.

    I’ll bet there is hardly any. 

    Thanks to your unions and your Democrat friends, Michigan is broke.  Either show up to teach or we need to hire more adjunct faculty.

    Conservatives are for the students!  Unions, liberals and socialists aren’t!

  • Michmediaperson

    How about the faculty then conducting a PR campaign through the local media this fall with the 600 professors and their research that has:
    Helped the Michigan economy.

    I’ll bet there is hardly any. 

    Thanks to your unions and your Democrat friends, Michigan is broke.  Either show up to teach or we need to hire more adjunct faculty.

    Conservatives are for the students!  Unions, liberals and socialists aren’t!

  • Michmediaperson

    CMU had “all-star” faculty back in the 1960′s.  They weren’t into all this research.  They put students first, not their foolish paper writing, unions and paychecks.  CMU produced outstanding students.

    We’d be better off with more adjunct faculty.  Students would learn more from a Dow Chemical controller on accounting, a real banker from 5th 3rd Bank on banking, a former state rep or congressional aide on political science, a former big city editor on journalism, etc.  A school superintendent teaching tomorrow’s teachers.
    Get real world people into the classroom teaching.

    Who would you learn more from—the CEO of a Dow Chemical, Ford Motor……………….or some PHD that has never worked a day in the real world!!!!!  I’d take the CEO or some business professor that has spent his or her entire life in school.

    These 600 professors need to go out into the real world.  Reminds me of Rodney Dangerfield in the movie, “Back to School,” when he had that encounter with the snobbish elitist economics professor and said the professor was in “Fantasy World.”

  • Michmediaperson

    CMU had “all-star” faculty back in the 1960′s.  They weren’t into all this research.  They put students first, not their foolish paper writing, unions and paychecks.  CMU produced outstanding students.

    We’d be better off with more adjunct faculty.  Students would learn more from a Dow Chemical controller on accounting, a real banker from 5th 3rd Bank on banking, a former state rep or congressional aide on political science, a former big city editor on journalism, etc.  A school superintendent teaching tomorrow’s teachers.
    Get real world people into the classroom teaching.

    Who would you learn more from—the CEO of a Dow Chemical, Ford Motor……………….or some PHD that has never worked a day in the real world!!!!!  I’d take the CEO or some business professor that has spent his or her entire life in school.

    These 600 professors need to go out into the real world.  Reminds me of Rodney Dangerfield in the movie, “Back to School,” when he had that encounter with the snobbish elitist economics professor and said the professor was in “Fantasy World.”

  • Michmediaperson

    Union dues by Michigan K-12 and higher education employees helped elect Obama, Granholm, Stabenow, Levin—-4 Democrats who have screwed up the country, the economy, the auto industry, etc.

    If CMU professors want an immediate pay raise, then quit paying union dues!!!!  Quit subsidizing the Michigan Education Association and liberal Democrat politician campaigns!!!

  • Michmediaperson

    Union dues by Michigan K-12 and higher education employees helped elect Obama, Granholm, Stabenow, Levin—-4 Democrats who have screwed up the country, the economy, the auto industry, etc.

    If CMU professors want an immediate pay raise, then quit paying union dues!!!!  Quit subsidizing the Michigan Education Association and liberal Democrat politician campaigns!!!

  • Michmediaperson

    The CMU Administration is NOT tea party.

    They are appointees by the former socialist Michigan Democrat Governor Jennifer Granholm.  I believe all but one or two.  I think we may have a Snyder appointee but they can be outvoted on everything by the Granholm appointees.

    It was the Granholm-appointed board who hired George Ross.  I highly doubt a Granholm-appointed board would hire a Republican or Tea Party person.   They’re going to hire a liberal Democrat as president.

    When left-wing union faculty fault the CMU Administration—-they are actually faulting their own people.  This is like Obama and Jennifer Granholm in a fight.  Two socialists going at it.

    The John Engler appointees are long gone.  The faculty are dealing with Granholm’s people.
    Back in 2002 and 2006, the faculty wanted Granholm as Governor to get these trustees.  Well, what’s the problem now?  The Granholm trustees aren’t rubber stamping big pay raises and 17 or so other benefits?

    This is what you wanted faculty. Your union money helped elect Granholm.   Granholm trustees appointed by a union-backed Jennifer Granholm.  These aren’t Rick Snyder’s trustees or John Engler’s.  But from union-friendly Granholm!  So, you got what you asked for.  Ross was hired by the Granholm trustees.

    So quit whining.  This is what you wanted union faculty—Jennifer Granholm.  We warned you about her in 2002.  Now, sign the contract and get back to the classroom.

    Again, if you want an immediate pay raise then quit paying union dues!  Make Obama, Stabenow and the other Democrat Party cronies pay for their own campaigns!  It shouldn’t be on the backs of unionized college professors!

  • Michmediaperson

    The CMU Administration is NOT tea party.

    They are appointees by the former socialist Michigan Democrat Governor Jennifer Granholm.  I believe all but one or two.  I think we may have a Snyder appointee but they can be outvoted on everything by the Granholm appointees.

    It was the Granholm-appointed board who hired George Ross.  I highly doubt a Granholm-appointed board would hire a Republican or Tea Party person.   They’re going to hire a liberal Democrat as president.

    When left-wing union faculty fault the CMU Administration—-they are actually faulting their own people.  This is like Obama and Jennifer Granholm in a fight.  Two socialists going at it.

    The John Engler appointees are long gone.  The faculty are dealing with Granholm’s people.
    Back in 2002 and 2006, the faculty wanted Granholm as Governor to get these trustees.  Well, what’s the problem now?  The Granholm trustees aren’t rubber stamping big pay raises and 17 or so other benefits?

    This is what you wanted faculty. Your union money helped elect Granholm.   Granholm trustees appointed by a union-backed Jennifer Granholm.  These aren’t Rick Snyder’s trustees or John Engler’s.  But from union-friendly Granholm!  So, you got what you asked for.  Ross was hired by the Granholm trustees.

    So quit whining.  This is what you wanted union faculty—Jennifer Granholm.  We warned you about her in 2002.  Now, sign the contract and get back to the classroom.

    Again, if you want an immediate pay raise then quit paying union dues!  Make Obama, Stabenow and the other Democrat Party cronies pay for their own campaigns!  It shouldn’t be on the backs of unionized college professors!

  • Vexed_populi

    Are you seriously arguing against people’s right to assemble? An American arguing against unions? You sure you have an appreciation for the Constitution? 

  • Vexed_populi

    Professors are supposed to be over-educated. It’s their job. If your professors–if you even ever had any–had been over-educated, you would know this. Their career revolves around what they know, if they don’t know anything, they shouldn’t teach.

    I’m assuming you “make it” in the private sector, and you seem pretty ignorant, so I’m quite sure a CMU political science prof would do just fine. The public sector is no less real than the private sector.

    They should take a hike if they don’t show for class? Then who would teach students? That doesn’t make sense. Do you even understand how education works? You don’t sound like you do.

  • Vexed_populi

    We aren’t going to find jobs anyway.

  • Anonymous

    Removing collective bargaining results in pay increases for faculty? Think about that for ten seconds…..
    ….
    That makes no sense.

    As if the University would have a seconds hesitation cutting whatever benefits or pay increases that have been gained through bargaining with the union out of the way.
    I’m sure union dues aren’t cheap, but are probably paid for a reason.

    That is like saying the penguins would end up on top of the food chain if we removed the bars at the zoo.

    Surely you are capable of subtraction
    Gross Wages-Union Dues > Gross Wages with no opposition to cutbacks

    also,
    You use the word socialist way too much. You also compare politicians in ways that make no sense. And I’m sure you have a real firm understanding of all the subjective items you make reference to all the time. Fuming about issues you do not understand is not helping anyone.

    You are deluded by your TV.

  • Anonymous

    Of course we should not research anything in academia.
    We should have private industry come in and teach students how to be like them.

    Here’s my fall schedule:
    Swindling 101
    Concealing Chemical Spills 103
    Screaming the Sky is falling to congress 203
    Ponzi Schemes 306
    Fiat Banking 402
    Cartel Agreements 555
    Manufacturing Consent 604

    I’m getting my Ph.d in being a back-handed liar.

    I plan to never evolve or change the schemes that screwed this state, country or world.
    Let us never learn from our mistakes, but instead implant the failings of our past and present into the young.

    You remind me of a comedy that went straight-to-dvd.

  • Anonymous

    (snore)

    You are a tired old record with a lot of scratches.

  • Schot1et

    Deflection tactics from a tired and repetitive hack.

    Student tuition raises have nothing to do with giving the faculty pay raises. In fact, CMU admin have been arbitrarily raising tuition the last few years, and have turned down the Faculty Association’s offer to take a no cost-of-living increase in exchange for NOT raising tuition this year. All while being fiscally sound. Huh.

    I’ll keep asking until you answer: What special interest group pays you to troll this site, Mich?

  • Is Glenn Beck A Terrorist?

    Michmediaperson is one of Dennis Lennox Jr’s sockpuppets. Nocoen smells like one as well, considering its story looks much like a fabricated acquaintance claimed by Michmediaperson in a months older post.

    For those who don’t remember Dennis, he was a political science major at CMU who distinguished himself here as a stalker, a teabagging bigot and a complete failure in terms of his jihad against Gary Peters getting elected to Congress.

    External to CMU, he campaigned for Cheboygan County Drain Commissioner on the basis of “There is nothing for the drain commissioner to do in Cheboygan County except waste taxpayer money.” Subsequent to election, he proceed to do exactly that, including spending taxpayer money on self-promotion. He managed to avoid conviction in his criminal trial due to (eventually) paying the money back after he got caught and having a jury composed of idiots. This June, he resigned, in order to avoid the stigma being removed from office. These days, he’s a paid partisan liar in the private sector, a.k.a. a political consultant.

    Under his own name, he’s chronically dishonest. Under his Michmediaperson alias, he spews forth an unending torrent of lies, distortions and idiocy. Trying to find facts of substance in his posting history as Michmediaperson is about as productive and healthy as panning for gold in your toilet. The odd post that appears to be sane and rational is either posted by someone else as a joke, or posted by him in order for him to later post a claim that someone is impersonating him. It takes a truly deranged mind to cry out in protest against (allegedly) being falsely portrayed as reasonable.

    It’s a blatant example of his gross hypocrisy that he attended a public university while screeching against socialism.

    That Denny didn’t major in education or business is transparently obvious in the crackpot ideas he proffers on such subjects. He majored in political science and spent his time at CMU in an unofficial internship in propaganda. He’s managed to make that pay off for himself, but it only serves to amplify his scumminess.

    To highlight some of the garbage he posted on just this article:

    “overeducated”
    There’s no such thing as overeducated. Those who make accusations of people being overeducated are either ignorant or would prefer that others be ignorant, the more easily to be exploited.

    “Conservatives are for the students!”
    Snyder and the other Republicans in Lansing massively cut funding for education in order to give away huge tax cuts to businesses. (They also RAISED TAXES on pensioners.) It would be more accurate to say they’re for screwing the students to pay off their pals.

    “Liberal vs. Liberal.”
    Union busting isn’t liberal, and that’s what the Administration is trying to do.

    “Who would you learn more from—the CEO of a Dow Chemical, Ford Motor…”
    As if they’d bother to teach for what CMU is offering. Never mind whether they’d even show an advantage at actually teaching the related subjects.

    “Get the faculty out of research and paper-writing and book writing and get them in the classroom.  You could then get rid of half the faculty and the adjuncts, pay the 300 (keep the best of the best classroom teachers)  remaining faculty a better wage and have them spend 100 percent of the time teaching about 4-5 classes a semester.”
    The “best of the best” wouldn’t stick around under the conditions Denny proposes, as it’d be career suicide. Strip CMU of research and one might as well formally change the M to stand for Mediocrity.

    “The admissions department would be flooded with applications from … UM…”
    People aren’t going to leave one of the world’s very best research universities to come to a no research university just because it’s cheaper. If they were that cheap, they wouldn’t be at U of M to start with. As it is, in general, there’s far more prestige in a U of M degree than a CMU degree, and Denny’s proposed changes would only increase the gap. CMU also isn’t experiencing a lack of applicants.

  • Michmediaperson

    First, I am not Dennis Lennox.  I have been commenting on disastrous CMU management decisions ever since Leonard Plachta, a Republican, retired as president.  Leonard was the best president we’ve had since the 1960′s.  He was a great president.

    Then, the downhill started with the arrival of liberal Michael Rao.  Tuition skyrocketed!  Political correctness arrived.

    Now, with that out of the way…..let me answer one of your questions and ask a question again.

    First, the socialist Granholm ran 800,000 jobs out of Michigan in 8 years and the state is broke.  Rick Snyder had no choice but to cut higher education.

    What compounds Snyder and Michigan’s problems and it was announced this by the press, those 2 million dollar buses we bought for Barack Hussein Obama so he could campaign through white farm towns (he won’t show up in an urban area where unemployment is at record highs), were BUILT in QUEBEC, CANADA……….NOT MICHIGAN, not USA.  Our auto employees need work….and he goes to Canada to do business.  Lost tax revenues!!!!

    SO HERE’S THE BIG QUESTION:

    The teacher’s unions in Michigan spent a fortune getting Jennifer Granholm elected twice in 2002 and 2006 so she would get a union-friendly Board of Trustees at our universities and union-friendly presidents.

    So, why is the FA having so much trouble with this Granholm-appointed Board and the Granholm-appointed president, George Ross?????

    Could some liberal and union lover tell me that please.

    In the end, I still think the Granholm-board and the Granholm president will cave……and raise tuition to cover the $10 million.  I have a hard time believing these folks have the guts and courage to stand up for the students so tuition doesn’t have to be raise.  Hard time believing these folks have great minds like the new Wisconsin Governor and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who aren’t letting the unions run the show.

    Go back to 2002 and read the letter encouraging the vote for Granholm so we would get better trustees.  Well, you union lovers did that.  So, why are you having so much problems with your board and this administration.  You wanted them there.

    Would someone please answer this about the Granholm Board and the Granholm president and his Granholm administration.

  • Anonymous

    “The teacher’s unions in Michigan spent a fortune getting Jennifer
    Granholm elected twice in 2002 and 2006 so she would get a
    union-friendly Board of Trustees at our universities and union-friendly
    presidents.

    So, why is the FA having so much trouble with this
    Granholm-appointed Board and the Granholm-appointed president, George
    Ross? [Number of question marks limited for aesthetic reasons]”

    Well sir/madam,

    Assuming this is true (which I won’t waste my time verifying) only provides the undoing for your entire sick and twisted little microcosm which is then projectile vomited all over THE FORUMS OF A COLLEGE NEWSPAPER. But I digress.

    I’ll tell you why the administration does not want to give teachers the benefits and pay they previously have had and deserved.

    GREED KNOWS NO IMAGINARY BOUNDS.
    I know that might be hard to understand because I’m sure you could insert the words ‘tea party’, ‘socialist’, ‘democrat’ or ‘conservative’ in any sentence that has ever been written.

    These words exist to close off minds tuned like yours.
    The world is not as simple as false dichotomy.
    But your TV will not explain that to you.

    The truth is these words have virtually no meaning today.
    Everybody takes stock in a blend of many different ideologies.
    But If you have an expense account, a mansion and make hundreds upon thousands of dollars a year (partially from the state budget)- The most pronounced ideologies are probably:
    ME FIRST and SCREW THE POOR.
    Millionaires want to keep being Millionaires and doing as little as possible.
    No matter how many hard working civil servants and vulnerable young adults are in the way.

  • Anonymous

    “The teacher’s unions in Michigan spent a fortune getting Jennifer
    Granholm elected twice in 2002 and 2006 so she would get a
    union-friendly Board of Trustees at our universities and union-friendly
    presidents.

    So, why is the FA having so much trouble with this
    Granholm-appointed Board and the Granholm-appointed president, George
    Ross? [Number of question marks limited for aesthetic reasons]”

    Well sir/madam,

    Assuming this is true (which I won’t waste my time verifying) only provides the undoing for your entire sick and twisted little microcosm which is then projectile vomited all over THE FORUMS OF A COLLEGE NEWSPAPER. But I digress.

    I’ll tell you why the administration does not want to give teachers the benefits and pay they previously have had and deserved.

    GREED KNOWS NO IMAGINARY BOUNDS.
    I know that might be hard to understand because I’m sure you could insert the words ‘tea party’, ‘socialist’, ‘democrat’ or ‘conservative’ in any sentence that has ever been written.

    These words exist to close off minds tuned like yours.
    The world is not as simple as false dichotomy.
    But your TV will not explain that to you.

    The truth is these words have virtually no meaning today.
    Everybody takes stock in a blend of many different ideologies.
    But If you have an expense account, a mansion and make hundreds upon thousands of dollars a year (partially from the state budget)- The most pronounced ideologies are probably:
    ME FIRST and SCREW THE POOR.
    Millionaires want to keep being Millionaires and doing as little as possible.
    No matter how many hard working civil servants and vulnerable young adults are in the way.

  • Schot1et

    So please tell me, who is paying you to troll this website?

  • Is Glenn Beck A Terrorist?

    No surprise you’re denying your sockpuppet, Denny. No surprise either that you emit another gigantic spurt of santorum rather than addressing your previously highlighted bullshit.

    New highlights:

    “the Granholm-appointed president, George Ross”
    False. And based on the screwing every bargaining unit got since he got here, he’s not even remotely “union friendly.”

    “his Granholm administration”
    False.

    Never mind that it’s not been shown that Obama was involved in the selection of the buses, which were purchased by the Secret Service in order to save money compared to past practice of leasing, and that much of the work on the buses was done by a company in Tennessee, where’s your outrage for Bush having campaigned in 2004 using a bus from the exact same Canadian manufacturer?
    Anything Bush did only becomes outrageous to wingnuts such as yourself when done by Obama. Same thing with the debt; Bush is responsible for vastly more of it than Obama, but bigoted wingnuts choose to ignore that and blame it all on the black man.

    “…great minds like the new Wisconsin Governor and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie …”
    Great minds? Like Snyder, those corrupt liars are selling out the majority of their citizens for personal gain.

  • Anonymous

    I think he just copy/pastes most of his replies, with a few tweaks here and there. On the internet, we call people like that a “lulzcow.” 

  • Anonymous

    Michmediaperson, this is my general reaction to your silliness: the Double Face Palm. 

  • Shaudame

    Right I am one of those people who supposedly could be so easily replaced. I have been just offered a job in the private sector that (calculated out) is $58.00  an hour. *Way way more* than I get for teaching at CMU. My department is short on faculty and we have trouble finding people who meet the requirements. I love teaching. I am willing to have a flat renumeration package. I am willing to share health care increases. I am not willing to roll back salary, retirement, health care, promotion steps  and lose my rights to be part of a union. I am a teacher who has been rewarded by students, told repeatedly that I am good – I think at least part of that was true because it came after the last course I taught them.

    So I should take a massive hit in short and long term pay because times are tough? I’ve heard that through every negotiation in the boom years. I walked for OPs at CMU, and for students for the GA union. It is not about me but about re-creating a middle class in America.

    George Ross got a $50,000 bonus this year. He wants me to sacrifice. How about he leads by example – Mr 83% pay increase when he came here? I thought he would be a great president who advocated for students. Boy did I misread that one.

    Yes I can quit. And yes I sure can find something else to do. And I know that my particular skill set will not be easy to replace. And I will have more money if I do so – even if I insist on teaching and stay in Michigan, which is really looking unlikely. Other places in Michigan will pay me more than I get here.  But I, like lots of my students I am looking elsewhere. CMU has colleges that are woefully understaffed. They do job searches at great expense and they fail. Even at senior administrator level – check it out. People are not coming here and they are leaving as fast as they can. CMUs rep is going down nationally. 

    I can walk away from CMU tomorrow and have a job the day after. With better health care, pay and benefits. In the private sector. Or in the public sector. I am a decent teacher. I have been told “the students need you because you work for them  – you can’t leave.” But this round of negotiation has shown me that I not only can leave but  but I should.

    I had a professor like that when I went to university at 16. He cared, He helped me beyond the classroom when I had other problems. He is why I have a PhD. It is why I teach the way I do. I have spent my life trying to live up to his example.

    I did my 10 month teaching and then did my research in the summer instead of getting a job at the rates I quote above.

    Thanks for making my decision about leaving easier – and BTW I would bet my last ten years salary that you would not be able to do the job I have been doing for the last 15 years.

  • Anonymous

    You are useless.
    What a blatant hijack of a comment that had nothing to do with your nonsense.

    Provided an imaginary course on “presidency” exists – why are those blood suckers be equipped to teach it? Our political leaders are groomed and chosen. Nobody just grows up and becomes president. What do you think this is? A free country?

    If by “Bill Gates invented the computer world” – you mean: “constructed it from lies, manipulation and theft” – then yes, he did. He dropped out of Harvard to luring the Inventor of the Altair into a licensing agreement for BASIC. Not before selling software to IBM that he did not have. Then bought it of some surprised lonely nerd in Seattle for 50,000 dollars. He made millions of that deal and still does. That’s how the largest fortunes in the world are made.

    Perhaps Dow could teach a class on corporate responsibility. As in: “It is our responsibility to handle everything with the utmost decency – provided it does interfere with the sale of our stock.” (Bhopal COUGHCOUGHCOUGHCOUGH) (Chippewa River COUGHCOUGH)

    Go away.

  • Anonymous

    Get rid of teaching requirements? You’re delusional. You must be one of those nuts that wants to do that for public schools. Except, maybe you want to get rid of public schools entirely. 

    Have you even attended college? You write well enough, but you’re talking like you haven’t. Or you have, and have never done anything but sit in a classroom. You’ve certainly never built any relationships with educators, nor have you ever taught a class, because you clearly have *no concept* of what it means to be a teacher. 

    Just because someone can come up with and implement an idea does *not* mean they can teach. Teachers/Professors do both, because a teacher must be capable of doing anything and everything they teach. However, they have *chosen* to stay in the Educational field because they *love teaching.* 

    You want to make WalMart style schools and colleges, staffed by the cardboard cutouts, the lowest-skilled individuals possible so they can also be the lowest-paid. If you get what you and your Fascist Republican anti-intellectual masters want, the U.S. will continue its slide towards a mediocrity labeled as “conservative fiscal policy.”