The short version is that we met on Wednesday afternoon and again all day Friday. On Wednesday we discussed the visa needs of international lecturers as well as the Union's discussion piece on modified duties for new parents. On Friday morning a smaller group discussed Performance Reviews, and in the afternoon the Union presented yet another version of the Appointments article. We are moving towards agreement in some areas, but still need to talk more about the key issue: what happens after the second major review. Once again, LEO members from all three campuses attended the session and participated in the caucus and the drafting of language. Next session will be this Friday (yes, during our break!) in the School of Social Work from 9:30 to 5, once again open to all LEO members. Since both teams will be missing several members, we expect to be doing some small group conversations again, which have been moderately productive so far.
International Lecturers +/-
On this subject, the conversation was pretty frustrating. The issue is that after 6 years in the country on socalled H-1B visas, a foreign national will either need to leave or get permanent residency. They acknowledge the need for better communication with international lecturers about their long-term prospects (this was one thing that went wrong in last year's grievance), but are unwilling to improve those prospects.
Part of the problem seems to be that compared to other universities, our International Center (which handles visas and employer-sponsored permanent residency applications) seems to take an extremely conservative approach to immigration laws and is unwilling to make the case for permanent residency for most of our members in the belief that few lecturers are "uniquely qualified" to teach their courses. To sponsor any employee for permanent residency, they need to post the position and show that no US citizen was willing, able, and qualified to do the work. The sad irony is, however, that they don't actually hire US citizens to do the work; instead another lecturer is brought in from Spain etc. and the cycle of visa renewals and eventual dismissal starts over. "Roadblocks everywhere," was how one team member characterized the conversation afterward.
New Parents +/-
On the issue of modified duties, we made more progress. Both sides acknowledge that it is disruptive to instruction to have new parents gone for part of the term. We agreed that some kind of waiting
period for new employees would be reasonable, and we will continue to explore what modified duties might look like: release from teaching, part-time load, etc. Lecturer IVs in LSA are currently eligible for tenure-track modified duties program; we are not contemplating changing that.
Performance Reviews +/-
Management clearly gets it that no lecturer should be blind-sided by the outcome of a major review. However, they continue to think that providing feedback on the annual reports they require for the major reviews is onerous, even though they can withhold the annual raise if we don't do them. Other subjects of conversation included the use of instructor-generated evaluations and the problems with the electronic evaluations (mechanical and others). In a nice paradox, they are extremely suspicious of instructor-generated in-class evaluations, and wonder why we don't trust them in their ability to take in the complexities of e and e scores.
Rumored Layoffs +/-
Finally, we are hearing alarming rumors regarding planned lay-offs in several LSA departments in Ann Arbor. We want to emphasize that these are still rumors - very few LEO members have actually had their appointments reduced so far. However, it is clear in some departments that the cuts under consideration (omitting discussion sections, cutting entire multi-sectioned courses) could potentially impact lecturers greatly. Although Phil Hanlon (the provost-to-be for Ann Arbor) told the Union that in his view the anticipated budget cuts could be met without layoffs of Lecturers, LSA appears to take a different view. One is tempted to wonder if the College is using the budget cuts as a pretext for reducing the number of lecturers, who are of course the cheapest labor around.
The contract mandates that the Union is informed about all layoffs; however, compliance is far from perfect. Please call the LEO office (734-995-1813) or email me (fogh@umich.edu) if you hear anything about layoffs.
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