We, the undersigned continuing full-time faculty in the Department of Chemistry, support our part-time and contingent colleagues across campus in their collective union efforts to forge a mutually beneficial contract with Ithaca College. We feel it is in the interest of our students to have all their instructors compensated and treated fairly.

We deeply appreciate our highly-qualified contingent faculty’s dedication to teaching and all their invaluable contributions to the student’s whole college. Ithaca College and our department depend on their work every semester and this need is not likely to diminish in the foreseeable future.

We support the determination of part-time instructors to improve their wages and working conditions at the college and to achieve a reasonable level of parity with their colleagues. While we are hopeful that a mutually beneficial agreement can be reached without disruptions to our students’ education, we do understand the factors that are causing the newly formed contingent faculty union to consider the legal strike as a last resort. In that case we will respect their decision and continue to support their cause.

Respectfully,

Mike Haaf, Professor
Vincent DeTuri, Associate Professor
Anna Larsen, Associate Professor
Janet Hunting, Associate Professor
Jamie Ellis, Assistant Professor
Akiko Fillinger, Associate Professor
DJ Robinson, Lecturer
Steven Russo, Lecturer
Scott Ulrich, Associate Professor