Today, President William Kirwan and Provost Edward Ray issued letters to faculty, staff, students, and parents: Message to faculty: http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/cwa/faculty.html Message to staff: http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/cwa/faculty.html Message to students: http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/cwa/students.html Message to parents: http://www.osu.edu/osutoday/cwa/parents.html.
Letters threaten union-busting as well as make thinly veiled threats against instructors who support the strikers. Please write to Kirwan <kirwan.1 at osu.edu> and Ray <ray.1 at osu.edu> in protest!
Yoshie
>Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 15:38:08 -0400
>To: Kirwan.1 at osu.edu
>From: "Keith M. Kilty" <kkilty at pop.service.ohio-state.edu>
>Subject: Your "Message from the President"
>Cc:
>Bcc:
>X-Attachments:
>
>Dear President Kirwan,
>
>I am concerned about some of your remarks in your "Message from the
>President," dated May 7, 2000, as well as the implications of some
>of your statements for a just and equitable resolution to the
>current crisis at the Ohio State University.
>
>While you indicate that you respect our rights to express our
>opinions, you do so within the context of a veiled threat. How can
>you possibly lecture any of us on how we should teach our students
>or what we should teach them or where we should teach, when in fact
>you probably know very little about what most of us teach? I
>sincerely hope you are familiar with the principle of academic
>freedom. As a member of AAUP and chair of the OSU/AAUP Committee A,
>you can rest assured that I take the matter of academic freedom very
>seriously. In fact, it is respect for academic freedom that makes
>the great institutions of higher education in this country as great
>as they are.
>
>Unfortunately, you have not supported that principle, or the general
>principle of freedom of speech, all that well in your tenure at OSU,
>as evidenced by the Yassar Arafat fiasco in your first year here. I
>encourage you to reconsider your remarks and to make it very clear
>to the faculty and staff and students that you do indeed respect
>academic freedom and the rights of faculty and instructors to teach
>what they believe is right to teach.
>
>I am also concerned about your remarks on "restoring normalcy in
>campus services." You have indicated that you are hiring scabs.
>That is outrageous. Is your goal to break the union? That seems to
>be the direction of your policies. You could easily resolve this
>matter by calling for further talks and presenting a fair and
>equitable proposal to the union. Then there would be no need for
>you to hire so-called temporary workers. There is also the matter
>of calling on the working staff, including student workers, to
>assume responsibilities for which they are not responsible. The
>Lantern presented information today showing that various clerical
>and secretarial staff are now performing custodial services. Are
>these individuals actually freely volunteering to do so? I find
>that hard to believe. Many people are fearful of their futures here
>and will do what supervisors supposedly "ask," rather than risk
>facing direct or indirect sanctions. I am aware of a number of
>situations where individuals feel they must perform tasks that they
>do not want to, but feel that they have no choice. That is blatant
>coercion and exploitation - immoral actions that disgrace this fine
>institution.
>
>That leads me to a final concern, and that is your stated commitment
>to diversity. I find any commitment on your part to diversity hard
>to believe, in light of the people you are prepared to exploit and
>oppress - namely, the workers in CWA, many of whom are women and
>people of color. This is a terrible situation for OSU, one that
>little by little is becoming more known throughout the country. I
>saw a message concerning the strike and concerns about racial
>overtones just today on one of the listserves to which I belong. The
>longer you allow this situation to continue, the greater attention
>will be paid to the racist and sexist implications of University
>policies. This is especially true in light of the fact that the
>draft diversity plan you presented recently is toothless rhetoric
>without substance, as the critiques of it by many groups here,
>including OSU/AAUP and various minority organizations, have
>indicated. If you are committed to diversity, then why are you
>prepared to exploit minorities with your labor policies?
>
>Where are you leading the Ohio State University? Into the
>twenty-first century? Or back to the depths of nineteenth century?
>The exploitative and paternalistic labor practices you endorse are
>not going to lead to a positive outcome for this situation. It is
>time now for you to show the OSU community - faculty, students,
>staff, parents, alumni - that you can lead. Instead of putting the
>onus on the CWA, you should be taking positive steps to negotiate a
>settlement.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Keith M. Kilty
>Professor of Social Work and Chair, Committee A, OSU/AAUP
******************************************************************************
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute
rejection of authority.
- Thomas Huxley
Keith Kilty
kkilty at osu.edu ********************************************************************** ********