The Ithacan

It’s clear that dragging out negotiations with the current administration beyond the grueling 17-month process would have accomplished little more.

Instead of seriously engaging with our proposals, our leadership has tried to clamp down on the prospect of progress at IC through intimidation.

On February 24, the college made a proposal to the part-time unit to increase compensation by 14.3% over four years.

As usual, the administration has released information about the bargaining process that contains several misleading or outright false statements.

The union has decided not to release the total number of votes cast because we do not intend to play into the hand of the administration.

But, the Union leaders broke one of the fundamental laws of the playing field: they made their own rules, and told everyone something else.

We recognize that all labor actions by our colleagues and professors at Ithaca College are actions against the corporatization of higher education in the US.

If it must come down to it, the campus community should support contingent professors if they go on strike.

Our teaching needs, and therefore our students’ interests, are best served by faculty working under just conditions.

Ithaca College and our department depend on their work every semester and this need is not likely to diminish in the foreseeable future.

The following presents a summary of the compensation model for part-time faculty that the union has proposed to the IC administration.

In Women’s and Gender Studies, we are entirely dependent on part-time faculty to cover our primary courses.