After several months of hard organizing, Ithaca College’s part-time faculty are going to be voting on whether to unionize in a few weeks.

Publicly, the college administration has proclaimed neutrality on the vote. But their one-sided “information” website and the fact that they have retained as counsel one of the nation’s leading union-busting law firms suggests they are very much opposed to this unionization effort.

Bond, Schoeneck & King have been involved in anti-union work — especially in higher education — for decades.Whether you support the part-time unionization effort or not (we do), all
members of the IC community should be wondering why the college is spending $600–$1,000 an hour (maybe the college will disclose exactly how much, since the new budgeting practices seem to demand complete accountability) on legal counsel. We should all be asking whether the likely tens of thousands of dollars that will go to this firm might be better spent on, say, student counseling services or decent wages for part-time faculty.

Michael Smith, associate professor of history; Don Beachler, associate professor of politics; Chip Gagnon, associate professor of politics