LEOunion.org

Why are we campaigning for raises in a bad economy?

This has been an important question for us to answer, because 78% of lecturers who responded to the recent LEO survey believe that getting more money for our work should be a key objective in this campaign. Our answer is explained in the talking points listed below.

Here it is in brief: the University has the money, and if it were truly placing the education of undergraduates-a core mission-at the top of its budgetary priorities, lecturers would be much better paid than they are now.

Take a close look at what our talking points imply:

Undergraduate teaching brings in 72% of General Fund revenues; lecturers do 30-50% of the undergraduate teaching at the University of Michigan; compensation of lecturers-which constitutes only 3% of the General Fund revenues-demonstrates that the University of Michigan's current priorities are wrong.

If undergraduates truly matter to the University as much as it claims they do, then the working conditions, the professional support, and the pay of lecturers should reflect this claim.

On the surface, we are campaigning for our own interests. But on a deeper, truer level, we are striving to reorient the culture of the University. As Cary Nelson, current AAUP president, remarked upon the recent settlement of the strike by graduate student instructors at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, "Once again an activist union is working to keep higher education's core values in place."

As LEO Lecturers, we are fighting to expose the distorted agenda of the University, which devalues undergraduate instruction and denigrates the professionalism and expertise of the lecturers, who teach most of the core and entry-level courses.

With this objective in mind, we want to reframe the initial question that people ask in such tough economic times to be: What can we do to best support both undergraduate education-a core mission of the University--and lecturers-the people who deliver that service to our students-in a bad economy?

Talking Points

·         Lecturers are essential to undergraduate education, a core mission of the University.

o   We teach between 30-50% of student credit hours across the three campuses.

o   We are concentrated in core curriculum and introductory courses.

·         Lecturers are underpaid.

o   Our minimum full-time salaries are less than the GSI salary rate.           

o   Lecturer Is are paid 50-53% less than the median salary of Assistant Professors.

o   We make $13-15K less than high school teachers with MAs, in our respective communities.

·         The University of Michigan has money.

o   The $6 billion Endowment, the 7th largest in the country, is growing again.

o   The estimated 2009 Endowment Revenues are $304 million.

o   Tuition increases are always much higher, percentage-wise, than our wage increases.

·         When it comes to spending money, the Administration does not prioritize undergraduate education.

o   Central administration expenditures have increased by 50% in comparison to an 8% increase in the instructional sector (since 2005, taken as a whole across all schools)

o   $30 million has been set aside to hire 100 tenure-track professors by 2010.

o   Capital fund raising for new buildings has been extensive, including stadium renovations at $226 million and the Art Museum expansion at $35.4 million.

o   The football coach is paid $2 million+ per year.

·         When it comes to spending money, the Administration does not value lecturers’ contribution to undergraduate education.

o   While we teach 30-50% of student credit hours, our combined salaries equal $42.4 million which is only a 4-9% share of tuition dollars, and a 2-6% share of General Fund Revenues.

o   The Administration wants to eliminate lecturer salary bumps for passing additional major performance reviews.

o   The Administration wants to raise health insurance premiums for lecturers with 50-79% appointments to levels that will be unaffordable.

o   Last year, the Administration tried to cheat us out of the full raises to which we were entitled, based on our collective bargaining agreement with the University.

·         The cost to pay lecturers equitably is not an unreasonable demand.

o   Over six years (2 collective agreements), we could eliminate the gap between the starting salaries of  LIs and high school teachers with MAs by increasing full-time LI pay by $2,500 each year.

o   Over six years, we could eliminate the gap between the median LIV salary and the median Assistant Professor salary in Flint and Dearborn, and reduce the gap by 68% in Ann Arbor, by raising full-time LIV salaries by $2,500 per year.

o   Salary increases of this magnitude for full-time Lecturers, and proportionately less for those who are part-time, would require an extra 1.2% of the 2009 undergraduate tuition revenues, or an extra 0.9% of the 2009 General Fund revenues, raised on the three campuses.

o   Such an increase, on our current salary base, would bring our share of the 2009 General Fund to 3.9% in 2016 at most.

Given that we do 30-50% of the undergraduate teaching, and that undergraduate teaching brings in 72% of General Fund revenues, a 3.9% share of the pie for 1,400 Lecturers is a reasonable proposition!