In light of the recent debate on academic freedom on campus, many University faculty members have come out in support of tenure-track unionization. However, more than 300 faculty have gone on record opposing such a union.

On their website, Preserving Excellence at Illinois, Professors Jeffrey Brown, Nicholas Burbules and Joyce Tolliver have collected 334 tenure-track faculty members’ signatures in support of a Joint Statement of Concern About Faculty Unionization, which outlines why they oppose unionization. 

Brown said he doesn’t see a need for a union. 

“Unions are most valuable when you have a group of workers who don’t have a voice,” he said. “I cannot think of another occupation anywhere in the world where individuals have more say and more ability to influence key decisions as tenure-track faculty on campus do.” 

Burbules said that since tenure-track faculty are independent workers and have a great deal of control and influence over University policies, he doesn’t think unionization fits their situation. 

Tolliver agreed, saying the strength of shared governance at the University shapes her opinion that a union wouldn’t be beneficial.

Bruce Rosenstock, president of the Campus Faculty Association and a strong proponent of tenure-track unionization, said 10 years ago he would have agreed that a union wasn’t necessary. 

“Shared Governance was real. I believed in it. Academic freedom seemed not under threat,” he said.

However, Rosenstock said his view has changed because decreasing state funding has caused the University to cut faculty spending, resulting in a decrease in the number of faculty members on campus, while the number of undergraduate students has increased significantly. 

“We have to teach more students in as many classes as we previously taught, which decreases the quality of education for our students,” Rosenstock said. “We need more faculty.”

Rosenstock said a union would allow negotiations with University administration on how money should be divided. The union would also be able to push for more faculty to be hired. He also said that the growth in administration has wildly outpaced the growth in faculty. 

“The faculty senate has no rights to deal with budgetary matters. A union sits together with the administration and deals with how the budgetary income is divided out,” Rosenstock said.

Burbules and Brown said they believe a union would create a more hostile relationship between faculty and administration. 

“Unions have a tendency to take situations and turn them unnecessarily combative rather than cooperative,” said Brown, citing conflicts at the Chicago campus, which is unionized. 

Rosenstock disagreed with Brown and said the administration causes the combativeness more than the unions. He said this is demonstrated by how the administration has fought the recent creation of the non-tenure track union on campus, a group that he says badly needs a union. A number of respected institutions, such as the University of California at Berkeley, have unionized non-tenure track faculty. 

“I believe that the relationship to the non-tenure track faculty that currently exists is typical of how they would treat the tenure-track faculty,” Rosenstock said. “It’s not the fault of the faculty who want to unionize that there are combative relations. It’s entirely — 100 percent — the fault of the administration.”

Brown said unions would codify things that have the effect of reducing flexibility of personnel decisions, so it could be more difficult to recruit and retain faculty members.

Tolliver and Brown also said they were concerned about the financial aspect of union dues. Tolliver said these dues could be significant, totaling from 1 to 2 percent of a professor’s total salary. In similar unions that currently exist, about 60 percent of these dues go to the national union. Therefore, most of this money would not directly benefit the campus.

There are mixed opinions on whether a union and the faculty senate could cooperate and coexist. Rosenstock said there would be a clear separation of powers between the union and the senate. The union would handle workplace conditions and salary issues, while the senate would handle curriculum and academic policy. However, Burbules said he has doubts. 

“In principle, coexistence is possible, … but what the CFA says and does here belies that,” he said. “I don’t believe them when they say they want peaceful coexistence.”

Burbules, Tolliver and Brown said when there is a problem on campus, union supporters claim that it could be solved by a union. 

“They make these claims without any substantiation.” Brown said.

Burbules said the shared governance system is flawed but not broken.

“It’s not a perfect system,” Burbules said. “My goal is to try to make it better, acknowledging its imperfections, rather than try to replace it with something else.”

Eric can be reached at [email protected].