ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
“I’m sorry to see the President dismiss the union’s effort to ask for more consistent application of hiring standards as an attempt to prevent “positive relationships with administrators.” In my view, the union has provided a useful vehicle in this instance for faculty in precarious positions to publicly weigh in on a shared governance issue that is normally dominated by tenure track faculty and administrators. ” .. UW faculty member
Recently UW President Ana Mari Cauce appointed Jerry Baldasty as the UW Provost. Despite general respect for Professor Baldastry, the appointment angered some faculty because the appoinment was done without a national search and without review by a faculty committee.
President Cauce , a former Provost herself, wrote “It is simply NOT fair to ask someone to do the job of Provost this long – he’s already completed one year and would complete at a minimum about 2 1/2 if I started a national search now – with an “interim” title… interims have no contracts and can be terminated at any time. I do not think it’s fair for me to be asking him [ Jerry Baldasty] to assume the FULL role of Provost, which he is doing in a position where he could be terminated at any time, rather than with a 2 year contract.”
If we are all faculty .. and the Provost’s job is to be head of the faculty … then why do we hire a huge number of UW faculty on annual contracts that may not be renewed for any reason. Shouldn’t these be more permanent positions– similar to the three year contract being offered to the Vice Provost?
The faculty member quoted above went on :“President Cauce’s stand on Baldastry contrast with the appointment process for lecturers at UW Tacoma. This also appears to be part of the message delivered to President Cauce on 5/12 by lecturers from all three campuses who are active in the effort to form a union.”