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At this faculty meeting to debate various no confidence motions at the University of Michigan, it's wild how many defenses of the reopening boil down to, like, "They've treated the faculty well, so I have no complaints."
It's the worst of professoriate "I got mine" mentality.
It's the worst of professoriate "I got mine" mentality.
GEO is striking to keep the entire community safe. And I still believe the faculty at large will ultimately act with the same intention, motivation, and commitment.
Welp, never mind.
The no-confidence vote against the reopening has failed.
Hard to express my feeling of betrayal at that vote. It was a very, very close margin, but it's hard to see how that matters. People less powerful, less safe, less protected than faculty are being left out to dry: and left out to die.
There is still a vote of no confidence planned against the university's president. And it's conceivable some faculty may split their votes, which given the tight margin means we can't know how that will go. But, geez geez geez, this sucks so bad.
At this moment of profound crisis, where students are being quarantined in cockroach-infested housing, where testing is being prioritized for football players, where so much is so wrong, nearly a thousand faculty members shrugged.
Faculty have now voted in favor of a toothless motion calling for them to have more of a say in major decisions.
But. Like. What's the point, if you're just going to endlessly defer to administrators who leave nothing but failure in their wake?
But. Like. What's the point, if you're just going to endlessly defer to administrators who leave nothing but failure in their wake?
Now they're holding a vote—not even a joke—against divisiveness, effectively aimed against people who criticize those in favor of turning the university into a death cult.
I am against this motion. I am in favor of divisiveness when one side is siding with mass sorrow.
But I, of course, don't have a vote. And it's hard to feel like grad students even have a voice when faculty are more interested in supporting good feeling than just action.
But I, of course, don't have a vote. And it's hard to feel like grad students even have a voice when faculty are more interested in supporting good feeling than just action.
Based on these conversations, it's clearer to me now than ever that many professors identify more with administrators than with students. And that, THAT, is one of the great crises facing the profession.
Lecturers and GSIs are handling so many of the forced in-person classes. And so many faculty, many of whom have had the privilege of not having to teach in person, just clearly don't care. I'm trying so hard not to cry at this betrayal of precarious workers.
Graduate students are illegally striking, risking the future of our union and spending every ounce of social capital we have, and faculty couldn't even bother to symbolically censure the university's reckless reopening.
Not to mention that if the next vote of no confidence fails, the union's position will be absolutely nuked. Professors, by proxy, have been voting on whether they stand with their grad students. And it was nearly 50/50.
Faculty hoover up talent and potential by accepting grad students—often into fields without any hope of jobs—benefit from being our interlocutors, but in the end as a class will gladly turn their backs when we raise matters of life and death. This is so so so heartbreaking.
Faculty vote in favor of transparency around pandemic data.
Good. That's good at least.
Good. That's good at least.
Now they're holding a vote of no confidence in the president. If he survives this vote, and if he survives it by a larger margin than the campus's reopening did, the betrayal by faculty of our community will be overwhelming.
An important point, here, is that the university's president personally allowed a notorious sexual predator to become provost. He has failed not just in his duty to protect the university from the pandemic, but also fundamentally failed in his duties in the before times.
A professor defended the president, saying how much he likes having an ally at the top.
I'm glad you have an ally, but he won't even take calls from grad students on strike. Instead, he's suing us.
I'm glad you have an ally, but he won't even take calls from grad students on strike. Instead, he's suing us.
A plurality—not a majority because nearly 200 professors abstained—voted in no confidence of the president.
But it doesn't matter. Because nearly 200 professors were too cowardly to hold the moral responsibility of voting one way or another.
We have been sold out. This was black-and-white. And those on the tenure-track, as a class, did not care. Precarious workers, students, neighbors, and all community members: all of us are now without any hope of institutional support.
I am bereft.
I can't imagine how those more vulnerable than myself must feel right now.
I can't imagine how those more vulnerable than myself must feel right now.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who protect sexual predators.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who sue and union bust their grad students.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who put our undergrads at unnecessary risk.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who sue and union bust their grad students.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who put our undergrads at unnecessary risk.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who put roving bands of police on our city streets.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who ignore ethics recommendations.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who ignore all outside expert guidance.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who ignore ethics recommendations.
The faculty have decided they are fine with those who ignore all outside expert guidance.
Speaking in a personal capacity, after the week I've had in academia—with a mentor jeopardizing my funding by rejecting the entirety of my prospectus—with my wider faculty betraying myself, my graduate colleagues, and our undergrads—I just don't know if this job is right for me.
Just gutting. What's the point of any of this, if so many members of this profession can't even pretend to extend duty of care to those under our care.
In this pandemic higher education in the United States has, in so many ways, shown a deep decay. From nearly every angle, our institutions have rejected their basic obligations and revealed in plain sight the gnarly rot of decades of corporatization and casualization.
Oh no.
The faculty have possibly voted to entertain a motion voicing opposition to the university's suit against the graduate student union. Not support for our demands, but support for ending any strike.
The faculty have possibly voted to entertain a motion voicing opposition to the university's suit against the graduate student union. Not support for our demands, but support for ending any strike.
Wait. They may not have voted to entertain that motion. They may need 65% and not 2/3 vote to entertain new motions. Nothing is certain.
This is a good question. And based on the discussion afterward, clearly many faculty did not understand the...basic rules of majority-based voting? Idgi: https://twitter.com/carolyn_guay/status/1306342716234698752
They are now revoting on whether to entertain a motion in which they would ask the university to stop suing GEO.
The revote has passed! They will now (maybe) entertain the motion. I really hope this passes at least, to minimize the harm they faculty have elsewhere done today. I doubt the university will actually listen, but it at least would show the faculty's divided loyalties.
Someone suggests the revote is illegal.
I suspect he's right.
I suspect he's right.
Someone voices support, but only because it can't cause the administration any harm.
They are going to vote on the possibly illegal motion requesting the university to stop suing GEO.
Each moment of procedural tail-chasing is another piece of proof in favor of disbanding the university system altogether.
Each moment of procedural tail-chasing is another piece of proof in favor of disbanding the university system altogether.
The possibly illegal and definitely nonbinding motion has passed. The faculty, from one side of their mouth, would like the university to please stop union busting, but, from the other side of their mouth, not enough to force the regents to make a hard decision on the matter.
They are voting to adjourn.
I can't imagine who else they can betray today, so I assume their business is done.
I can't imagine who else they can betray today, so I assume their business is done.
@zoey_do just messaged me, quoting the chair in her final message about all the people with screen readers who couldn't vote: “’I know there are people that are unhappy and that’s just the way world works,’ is the official U-M faculty stance on accommodations I guess.”
There were like four votes on making this more accessible, and each one failed badly.
It continues to be unclear as to whether abstentions actually count, as @peterjmartel has been pointing out:
If abstentions don't count, then the vote of no confidence in the president should have passed. And many other votes should have passed as well. This is a possible disaster, enabled by professors more invested in following made-up rules than anything else.
