10/28/2014: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has the news, here:
NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2014—In a victory for free speech, New Jersey’s Bergen Community College (BCC) has rescinded its punishment of an art professor it placed on leave and forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for posting a picture of his daughter wearing a Game of Thrones T-shirt.
After learning of BCC’s outrageous actions, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) connected Professor Francis Schmidt with FIRE Legal Network member Derek Shaffer, a partner at the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Gabriel Soledad, an associate at the firm.
In a recent letter to Schmidt, BCC Director of Human Resources Patti Bonomolo acknowledged that the college “may have lacked basis” for punishing him and that doing so “potentially violated” his constitutional rights. “Lest there be any doubt, BCC recognizes and respects that you are free to exercise your constitutional rights, including your right to freedom of speech and expression, even to the extent that you may disparage BCC and/or its officials,” wrote Bonomolo.
“I’m very happy to have my First Amendment rights back. I’m glad to have this thing behind me and would like to get back to teaching animation,” said Professor Schmidt. “I’m happy to know groups like FIRE are out there, protecting my valuable First Amendment rights as an academic. Without them our higher education system would be all the weaker.”
“Saying that Bergen Community College’s punishment of Francis Schmidt ‘may have lacked basis’ is like saying that King Joffrey may have been a less than ideal ruler,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff …
4/17/2014: “I will take what is mine with fire and blood”
No, that’s not a quote from a UO law professor, or Kimberly Espy, (or the faculty union treasurer) it’s from Daenerys Targaryen. The Foundation for Individual Rights has the story on how it got a professor put on leave and sent to a psychiatrist by his paranoid administrators.
This is off-topic, but any insight from UO Matters or its visitors on the Union Hudson Procedure? Are there any drawbacks to non-union members if they object to paying non-germane expenditures (and recover 1/5th of their FS dues)? I would post this in the “Forum”, but there doesn’t appear to be much action over there.
My advice? Join the union and pay the extra 0.22% of your salary, so that you get a vote on the dues and on how they are spent. Send me an email and I’ll bring you a card!
Not to quibble, but it’s 0.22%. Or $220 annually on a 100k salary. That’s more than I pay NetFlix (which we’ve considered canceling to save money).
NetFlix is not going to go to bat for your rights when the Administration oversteps its boundaries, nor is NetFlix going to bargain with administrators to get you salary raises, for starters.
Unless, of course, you wish to return the pay raises…
The Netflix example was of course a point of comparison to show that it’s a non-trivial amount of money. Your “return the pay raises” comment is non-sense for several reasons: 1) it wouldn’t be required if one took advantage of the Hudson procedure, 2) you’re implying the union is the sole reason for raises, 3) you’re implying those that pay dues–just not “non-germane” dues–don’t deserve any of the benefits that union members do. Anyway, it’s not clear to me why someone would not opt out. Why should we be paying non-germane expenses anyway?
United Academics is the only reason there was any raise. If you doubt that, all you have to do is read what the Administration was willing to give without the legal pressure to negotiate. This imagine otherwise is magical thinking.
You’ve already gotten substantially more than that $220 in benefits – monetary and otherwise. Joining the fight increases the probability the union can continue to make gains for faculty. Cancel Netflix and join.
How dare you cancel me without consulting me first!
Given the topic of the actual post I was a little disappointed that the cost of Netflix was used as a comparison instead of an HBO subscription. Ironically, in monetary terms the HBO subscription would be much closer to the marginal dues for full union membership in question–between $180 and $240 per year:
http://hbowatch.com/how-much-does-an-hbo-subscription-cost-these-days/
[And no, the name field for this reply isn’t a veiled threat to campus administrators or fair-share dues payers in the bargaining unit. Or to anyone else for that matter.]