Contingency Plans and Faculty Governance

Dear Colleagues,

As you are no doubt aware, the University Administration’s decision not to negotiate a new contract with GSOC means that graduate student employees are very likely to go on strike this semester. Faculty will face a difficult decision if a work action occurs. Should I cross a picket line? Should I cancel classes? Should I hold classes in alternative space off-site? These are questions that ultimately must be answered by you, and you alone, as a full time faculty member. Knowing this, administrators across the schools are trying to undermine the principles of faculty autonomy on which higher education rests. Those of us who hold the position of Chair, Director of Graduate Study (DGS) and Directors of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) may face strong pressure to implement contingency plans that involve faculty in the administration’s efforts to ensure that the strike fails.

Faculty Democracy is a group of concerned faculty that came together to protest these and other attempts to wrest power from professors. We call upon departments to develop contingency plans of their own, working with GSOC to secure alternative classroom spaces (see phone number below) and, crucially, to ensure that untenured junior faculty are protected from administrative reprisals if they choose to support the strike. We believe that it is time faculty recognize and act upon our rights to govern ourselves and our classrooms. The decisions we will face in the event of a strike are directly related to our roles as educators.

Are you legally or contractually obligated to comply with the administration’s response to the strike? The policy is vague on that count, suggesting that there may be strength in numbers. The faculty handbook warns, “unless special arrangements have been made through the department or school, all officers of instruction are duty-bound to meet all their assigned classes at the place and hour scheduled.” This affirmation of the power of departmental officers to make special arrangements should be taken seriously. For faculty members serving as Chair, DGS, and DUS, it represents a crucial choice: are departmental officers merely conduits for top-down power, or are they part of the department’s self-determined educational mission? We think that departmental officers are the latter, and that they are far more beholden to their colleagues and students than to the Administration. Forming an alternative contingency plan, one that grants decision-making power to faculty, allows departmental officers to serve their colleagues and departments.

Ultimately, the strike is an opportunity to exercise our power as faculty. Some of us are not sympathetic to the cause of graduate student unionization, but we are all concerned that the tensions and divisiveness that are building around the issue of graduate student unionization are part of a broader process of dismantling structures of shared governance and faculty autonomy. We believe that faculty must move to protect faculty interests, creating proactive policies and contingency plans to preserve academic freedom.

To make alternative space arrangements, please contact GSOC at 212-529-2580, or fill out a Class Relocation Form . If you would like to discuss this matter further, feel free to contact one of the members of the Faculty Democracy Education Committee (listed below). You should also know that there is an NYU chapter of AAUP, an organization devoted to the protection of academic freedom and to principles of shared governance. To join, contact membership director Stephen Duncombe (Stephen.duncombe@nyu.edu)

Faculty Democracy Education Committee
allen.hunter@nyu.edu
Dana.Polan@nyu.edu
Lisa.Duggan@nyu.edu
Elaine Freedgood (ef38@nyu.edu
kristin.ross@nyu.edu
Molly Nolan (mn4@nyu.edu)
Marita.Sturken@nyu.edu
Jim.Uleman@nyu.edu
anna.mccarthy@nyu.edu