Tag Archives: GTFs

Apparently this has been going on for a while. They are asking for supporters to show up at tomorrow’s session. Here’s hoping our new administration is handling it more competently than Scott Coltrane, Doug Park, and Harrang et al did last time. The GTF union web page is here.

The Chicago faculty eventually followed the UO faculty’s leadership on Academic Freedom and Free Speech, by adopting a verbose and watered down version of the UO policies. Now their grad students are following the long established UO GTFF by voting 2.3 to 1 for a union. Colleen Flaherty of InsideHigherEd has the story here.

12/10/2014: The Emergency Senate meeting is on, for 3PM Today, 115 Lawrence.

UO Board committee meetings start at 10AM today, here.

Updated pretty often. Days 1-4 here, Days 5-6 here. Also read the UAUO website here, UAUO Facebook page, here, GTFF website here, GTFF Facebook here. Not to mention Tobin Klinger and the UO PR flacks on their $500K “Around the 0” blog, if you can find it on google.

Dec 9 updates:

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Updated pretty often. Days 1-4 here. Also read the UAUO Facebook page, here.

12/7/2014:

– Senate’s Academic Integrity Task Force takes swift action to revoke Blandy/Altman/Baskin strike grading diktats, here.

– UO redacts HLGR invoices for GTFF work: When you make a public records request to the Oregon Attorney General for copies of invoices it has paid HLGR for legal work, you get complete unredacted documents as on the left. When you ask the University of Oregon President Scott Coltrane’s office, you get heavily redacted invoices as on the right. Oregon’s public records law allows both agencies to redact “legal advice”, if they want, but only UO redacts everything – down to the attorney timekeeper initials that would show how many billable hours Dave Frohnmayer, Randy Geller, and Sharon Rudnick are getting from dragging out the GTFF negotiations:

The complete, almost completely redacted invoices that Dave Hubin charged me $95 for, and then delayed releasing for a month until I petitioned the Lane County DA, are here.

– CAS Associate Dean Judith Baskin has unilaterally decided to ignore syllabi for courses with GTF instructors or assistants, and give students the option of taking their grade as of Dec 1. This will ensure that any Duck football players enrolled in these classes are eligible for the upcoming NCAA football championship game(s):

Dear Students,

I am responsible for ensuring that you receive a timely grade for the work you have done in COURSE.

On the Academic Affairs website (affairs.uoregon.edu/academic-continuity[1]) the Provost has advised that students in courses taught or supported by GTFs may be given the option to forgo the final assignment/exam and take their current grade in the course.

Please be advised that should the GTFF strike continue to Dec. 12, I will enter the grade you achieved in COURSE up to December 1 as your approximate grade for Fall term. This grade will be based on the grading information given to me by your Instructor. If you wish you may accept this grade as your final grade. In that case, you need not complete any further work for this course and the grade I entered will not be altered.

If this is your preference please send me an email to that effect ([email protected]) by date XXXX. Be sure to include your name, student number, and the course number and name; you may include your understanding of what the final grade would be. I regret that, given the large number of courses with which I am working, I cannot give you the grade I will be entering at this time but I assure you that it will be based on the information your Instructor supplied for work competed as of Dec. 1.

OR

You have the option to complete the final exam / assignment as described on your course syllabus and/or by your Instructor. You may submit that work either to the Department of ZZZZ (LOCATION) or electronically (if this was your Instructor’s preference) by the date and time assigned by your Instructor. At such time as your work is graded, the approximate grade will be replaced by a grade based on all your course work, including the final assignment/exam. If you have any questions, please feel to email me ([email protected]) or contact me via Blackboard.

Judith R. Baskin, Philip H. Knight Professor of Humanities
Associate Dean for Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences

– Matt Dennis (History) has an Op-Ed in the RG contrasting the words from Chuck Lillis and Scott Coltrane about rebuilding UO’s academic reputation with the administration’s actions during the strike:

Remarking on the new capital campaign, Chuck Lillis, chairman of the new UO Board of Trustees, said, “This is a new day for the University of Oregon. … There is a strong sense of purpose across the campus.”

The dawning of this new day is ominous, given that the administration’s purpose seems to be to break the GTFF strike and union, regardless of the consequences for academic integrity, shared governance, graduate education, campus climate and the university’s national reputation. So far it has defied the University Senate (the governing body of the university) and its legislation on strike-related degradation of academic standards, and it seems set to ignore the work of the senate’s emergency Academic Integrity Task Force.

12/6/2014:

– Duck football coach picks up $225K in bonuses Friday. More for assistant coaches. His players, who have yet to unionize, get zilch. Ryan Thorburn in the RG, here.

– The latest UO legal expenses. Some for the GTFF bargaining, some for the UOPD, some for things JH really doesn’t want to attach an accounting code to. More here.

– Scott Coltrane resorts to the “Go Ducks” appeal, as his bargaining team refuses to negotiate again until Tuesday. Diane Dietz has the pathetic story in the RG, here:

“Let’s all remember,” interim President Scott Coltrane said in a statement Friday, “we’re part of this shared university community. I hope to be able to take some time, either at the Matthew Knight Arena watch party or at home, to enjoy tonight’s Pac-12 championship game as a reminder of the passion we feel for our University of Oregon.”

Meanwhile his administration has seized control of grading from faculty and department heads who won’t play along with Coltrane’s refusal to put his promises of sick and parental leave into the GTF contract:

“(The administration) politicized the grading system at the University of Oregon in order to limit the tactical leverage of the GTFF. They compromised the core academic integrity of the grading process in order to win in this labor battle,” said Michael Dreiling, sociology professor and president of the United Academics. “They’re using it, at minimum, as a power play or a point of leverage — to say you can’t win this strike. We’ve got grades covered.”

Why can’t grades wait until the strike is over and GTF’s grade final papers or exams? Because the NCAA says that the Duck football players can’t participate in the upcoming championship playoffs unless UO gives them passing grades by Dec 26th, and Phil Knight is starting to get nervous:

NCAA Bylaw 14.1.10.2: To be eligible to compete in a postseason event (e.g., conference tournament, bowl game, National Invitation Tournament, NCAA championship) that occurs between regular terms (including summer) a student-athlete, in his or her final season of competition in the applicable sport, shall have satisfactorily completed six-semester or six-quarter hours of academic credit the preceding regular academic term of full-time enrollment (see Bylaw 14.4.3.1). An institution shall have 14 business days (regardless of the date in which grades are posted or submitted) after the date of the last scheduled examination listed in the institution’s official calendar for the term that is ending to certify completion of the six-semester or six-quarter hours of academic credit. (Emphasis added).

– UO PR flack Tobin Klinger was apparently left off the JH PAC-12 evac flight, but he’s still getting $115K for garbage answers to questions from reporter Alexandra Wallachly, in the ODE here:

The GTFF strike could result in a quite stinky campus. If an agreement isn’t reached between the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation and the university, University of Oregon’s garbage will not be collected.

The Teamsters Local #206 union, which includes Sanipac drivers, issued a 72-hour notice that it will not cross the picket lines.

“The union has notified members and employers of the strike where necessary,” said #206 representative Leonard Stoeher. “We stand in full support of our brothers and sisters of the UO teaching fellows.” …

“The university understands and respects the decision by the teamsters to honor the GTFF’s strike,” Tobin Klinger, UO senior director of Public Affairs and Communications said.

This won’t be an immediate problem for most of campus, where the trash gets picked up weekly. Even the day care center only gets a weekly cleaning – which is a little scary. But it’s going to be tough on our Johnson Hall colleagues, who are used to special service, every night:

Updated way too often:

12/5/2014:

6:11 PM: Lillis calls Coltrane back for 3-day loss on plans for Saturday mediation:

No more talks til Tuesday. The Board of Trustees meetings start Wednesday, and presumably they’re trying to put on a strong offensive show for their most important fan, Phil Knight:

On FridayDec 5, 2014, at 6:11 PM, President’s Office <[email protected]> wrote:

Campus Community,

I’m disappointed to report that we have ended another day of mediation with the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation without agreement. We had hope of bringing this issue to a close prior to finals week, but our next mediation is now scheduled for Tuesday.

[blah, Go Ducks, blah, blah]

Thank you for your continued work and understanding. Scott Coltrane, Interim President

– 5:00 PM. The GTFF website reports no deal yet, mediation will restart tomorrow:

Both parties agreed it’s important for the teams to collaborate in whatever ways might be possible without having mixed and conflicting messages ending up public and having to mend fences in the morning. The teams agreed to confidentiality for this round of mediation. We are still working through things at the moment and where ever we end up, we’ll be taking that to our Executive Council for discussion and for our stewards to take out to our members.

I’m still waiting for Hubin to release the latest data on how many billable hours Coltrane is paying Frohnmayer and Geller’s HLGR law firm for their successful efforts to drag this strike out past the last day for undergrads to get GTF help for finals week.

– I put in a PR request into Dave Hubin’s office for the latest legal and consulting billings on Monday. My guess is he’ll delay these until the GTFF bargaining ends, just as IR is hiding the latest info on raises for JH admins. But bargaining for the faculty contract starts in January, and will be helpful for showing the self-serving priorities of the JH administration:

12/4/2014:

– Scott Coltrane is so worried about revealing excessive athletic donations during the GTFF strike that Dave Hubin is redacting even the most basic information as “trade secrets”. Camilla Mortenson has the story in the Eugene Weekly, here:

Under President Lariviere, UO would release all the records, including the detailed gift contracts, e.g. Phil Knight’s for the athlete-only Jock Box.

– 10:00 PM: Admins panic over JH sit-in, call cops on the undergrads. UOPD officers were called in today to evict undergraduate GTFF sympathizers from Johnson Hall, according to this Kaylee Tornay report in the ODE. The police refused, on the sensible grounds that the students weren’t breaking any laws. But the administration seems to be threatening student conduct code discipline, if I get the story right. Since UO’s Academic Freedom and Free Speech policies cover students, any such efforts would be pure intimidation, or panic, on the administration’s part:

The University supports free speech with vigor, including the right of presenters to offer opinion, the right of the audience to hear what is presented, and the right of protesters to engage with speakers in order to challenge ideas, so long as the protest does not disrupt or stifle the free exchange of ideas.

– 7:45 PM: The RG reports no settlement tonight. Mediation will resume at 11AM tomorrow. Many undergrads will have no final help or lab sessions before finals begin Monday – if there are finals. Faculty will be left to deal with the chaos. Meanwhile the newly established Senate Task Force on Academic Integrity has been working on an legitimate alternative to Doug Blandy and Barbara Altmann’s “Wizard of Oz” grading scheme. And fwiw, here’s official JH strike communique #253:

Date: December 4, 2014 at 7:58:19 PM PST
From: “President’s Office” <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]egon.edu
Subject: Mediation continues tomorrow

Dear Campus Community,

After a long day of mediation with the university and the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation sharing confidential proposals, talks have concluded for the evening.

While I hope for a swift resolution, I’m proud of our bargaining team for staying at the table to work to find a solution and we look ahead to another mediation session tomorrow.

While we continue bargaining, we remain fully prepared to meet the needs of our students going into finals week. A team of volunteers is ready to proctor exams and continuity plans are in place to ensure grades are submitted in a timely fashion.

Both parties have agreed to keep details of today’s exchange confidential, but despite the lack of resolution to date, the university remains committed to the collective bargaining process.

We appreciate the respectful discourse that has surrounded this challenging issue and the thousands of faculty, staff and graduate students who have remained focused on carrying out our mission. They have continued to work tirelessly to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our students.

For complete information on academic continuity planning and negotiations, please visit http://provost.uoregon.edu/gtff-negotiation.

Sincerely, Scott Coltrane, Interim President

– UO Alumna donates $10K to the GTFF strike fund. Heartfelt letter of support and link to the donate button, here.

– 1:00 AM: Was “X” grade flip-flop about football players eligibility?
The original “confidential” Academic Continuity Plan recommended that faculty consider assigning “X” grades until the GTFF strike was over, final work could be graded and legitimate grades could be assigned

A few weeks later, the admin’s changed their mind, and we got this message:

Academic Continuity Planning Update 11/25/14:

Colleagues,

Thank you for your ongoing engagement during the preparations for the upcoming GTFF strike. Below you will find additional information about grading options, pre-strike polling, changes to Blackboard, and attendance tracking.

Sincerely, Barbara Altmann, Doug Blandy, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

X Grades

As stated in the November 21, 2014, message, university leaders believed earlier that X grades might be a viable solution; however, upon further investigation with the registrar and financial aid staff, it was determined that X grades would be viewed as non-passing grades for financial aid purposes. Depending on each individual student’s situation, the X grade may imperil that individual’s financial aid. …

During the Senate debate Wed, John Bonine (Law) quoted wording from UO’s own financial aid website that conflicted with the administration’s statement above. So what’s really going on with this X flip, and the discipline that CAS Dean Marcus now threatening for those that use the X?.

The NCAA football championships. It turns out that the X does not meet the “satisfactorily completed” standard the NCAA requires for athletes to play in the post-season football championship game. UO’s last regularly scheduled exam is Dec 12. The NCAA then gives UO 14 days to certify that post-season athletes have satisfactorily completed their (minimal) academic requirement of 6 credits for the fall quarter. No satisfactory grade, no play.

This does not affect the Dec 5th PAC-12 Championship, but it does matter for the Jan 1 Football Championship playoffs and, should it come to that, the championship game on Jan 12th.

Here’s NCAA Bylaw 14.1.10.2:

To be eligible to compete in a postseason event (e.g., conference tournament, bowl game, National Invitation Tournament, NCAA championship) that occurs between regular terms (including summer) a student-athlete, in his or her final season of competition in the applicable sport, shall have satisfactorily completed six-semester or six-quarter hours of academic credit the preceding regular academic term of full-time enrollment (see Bylaw 14.4.3.1). An institution shall have 14 business days (regardless of the date in which grades are posted or submitted) after the date of the last scheduled examination listed in the institution’s official calendar for the term that is ending to certify completion of the six-semester or six-quarter hours of academic credit. (Emphasis added).

12/3/2014:

– New RG report from Diane Dietz here, with many interviews with undergrads. She gives Coltrane enough rope to say a few things he’s probably already regretting, but the undergrad quotes are what make it well worth reading. And in other news, SANIPAC apparently told UO today that its drivers (Teamsters Local #206), will honor the GTFF picket lines and stop picking up UO’s garbage. Game over.

– “Coltrane lauds “respectful discourse” as Marcus calls in dissident Dept Heads for discipline.” New massmail from Interim President Coltrane lauds the Senate and GTFF for “respectful discourse” – his definition seems a little different from the one UO’s English composition instructors use – as rumors fly that department heads who refuse to cooperate with the “voluntary grading suggestions” in the now public Johnson Hall “Academic Continuity Plan” are being called in by Interim CAS Dean Andrew Marcus, and told they will face discipline. Respectful discipline, I’m sure.

The UO Senate isn’t going to let this happen easily. They voted unanimously today to use their authority over academic matters to create a Senate “Academic Integrity Task Force” to rewrite Coltrane’s ACP, ASAP.

At the same time he’s on the respect thing, Coltrane is claiming the strike is not causing much disruption, and telling instructors that “staff volunteers” (some rumored to be UOPD) will be checking up on classes again tomorrow.

The good news? The GTFF president has flown to DC to meet with Pete DeFazio, Governor Kitzhaber (who controls UO Board appointments) is ramping up the pressure on Coltrane and the Board to end this nonsense strait-away, and the state mediator is going to give it another try Thursday:

Date: December 3, 2014 at 6:31:03 PM PST
From: “President’s Office” <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: Mediation resumes tomorrow

Students and colleagues,

As we mark the second day of striking by the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, I am pleased to report the discourse has continued to be respectful. We are optimistic that this trend will continue tomorrow across campus, and at the bargaining table. We are also confident that we will continue to meet the needs of our students during this difficult time.

Contract negotiations can be emotionally charged events, and ours is no exception. One thing that has been demonstrated is the passion that we all share for education of our students. I want to thank all who have worked to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our students.

Dozens of UO employees have volunteered as course monitors to each GTF-led class, to ensure all students are given an explanation of the situation, should the GTF instructor not be present. Over the past two days, course monitors have reported that only 22 percent of scheduled courses resulted in students arriving to find no instructor. On Thursday and Friday, we are fully prepared with volunteers to carry out this critical duty.

Picketing GTFs are passionately conveying their message and we appreciate the continued respectful discourse that has been witnessed throughout campus today. The university is committed to ensuring that picketing does not disrupt our campus environments.

Tomorrow morning negotiations will resume and the university remains hopeful that an agreement will be reached that meets the needs of all involved. Thank you for your commitment to our university.

Sincerely, Scott Coltrane, Interim President

– GTFF sets up a link to donate to their strike fund, here. “These funds will help offset costs associated with strike supplies, legal costs, or lost wages.”

– The Presidential Skybox at Autzen – mostly paid for with undergrad tuition money – costs more than twice as much as the GTFF sick leave plan:

– From an email the administration is sending to undergrads in classes cancelled because of striking GTFs:

“Until further notice, there will be no formal instruction in your class. The classroom will still be available at the usual time, and you are welcome to use it for study groups or work sessions. We encourage you to keep up with your syllabus to the best of your ability: read the book on your own, try the homework problems if there are any, and if not pick out some representative problems from the textbook.”

– InsideHigherEd has a long story on the strike, UO’s academic standards, and Coltrane’s research, from Kaitlin Mulhere, with many interesting quotes. The admin’s hired spin doctors aren’t getting much play, compared to the GTFF leaders and their faculty and undergrad allies. Read it all, here.

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12/1/2014 update: Our administrators are burning a lot of bridges on this strike. Why? At this point the admin team has agreed to everything almost everything the GTF wanted. All that’s left is for Coltrane and Bronet to put it in writing. They don’t want to. This is silly, of course it has to be in writing.

Having been slapped down by the Senate on their attempt to get the faculty to weaken academic standards to help the admins break a GTF strike, our administration is now working on turning the undergrads against the grad students. Destroy everything, just so Scott Coltrane doesn’t have to admit he should have given up on sick leave back in August?

From: “Interim Tykeson Dean W. Andrew Marcus”
Date: December 1, 2014 at 11:47 AM PST
Subject: Attending your classes and submitting assignments as planned
Reply-To: “Interim Tykeson Dean W. Andrew Marcus”

Dear Students,

You are receiving this note because you are a student in one of the 45 programs that make up the College of Arts & Sciences, or because you are undeclared and receive advising through the college. You may be wondering what to do if Graduate Teaching Fellows go on strike this Tuesday, December 2. I advise you to attend all your classes as scheduled, and to submit all course requirements as stipulated by your instructors.

We are working diligently to minimize the impact on students should there be a strike. But various disruptions, including an instructor not attending a class, may still occur.

If you experience a disruption in your classroom, lab, or other academic experience due to a work stoppage, you may let us know by emailing [email protected] or calling 541-346-3902 with the course number and name, meeting time, instructor’s name, and class location.

We in the College of Arts and Sciences are dedicated first and foremost to ensuring that you achieve your academic objectives for this term.

Thank you.

W. Andrew Marcus
Interim Tykeson Dean
College of Arts and Sciences

11/28/2014 update: Administration fails to poll faculty and GTF’s on strike plans

There’s no sign that the administration’s team of well-paid strategic communicators got their act together on today’s promised (threatened?) survey of the faculty and GTFs about their strike plans. So instead I’m posting this letter from Professor Matthew Dennis to his History 201 students, with permission. Full letter here:

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11/27/2014 update: Administration to poll faculty on how to maintain academic standards during strike

Just kidding, there’s no evidence that the Senate legislation or all that heartfelt debate has had the slightest impact on Coltrane’s plans to degrade academic standards to make it easier to break a GTFF strike. To the contrary, the administration has moved from what AVP Ken Doxsee called “suggestions” to requirements, as in the new instructions about not assigning X or I grades. Combined with the new diktat below, this leaves faculty with essentially only one choice: assign some sort of letter grade based on work completed so far, even if that work is a small fraction of what is laid out in their syllabus, or even if that work would normally lead to a grade of incomplete.

Apparently they *will* be polling us (and the GTFs?) on Friday to ask us how we intend to comply with the administration’s increasingly desperate and confused instructions. The results will be “confidential” of course, unless the administration decides they will make for good PR spin:

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11/28/2014 Editor’s note: As of Friday, this letter has been downloaded more times than anything I’ve ever posted, except a few documents from various athletics scandals. As one commenter notes, “When you’ve lost your composition instructors, you’ve lost the war.”

11/25/2014: My headline, not theirs, but I think it captures the gist. 46 signatures so far, mostly GTF’s. Given UO’s history of retaliation, and their lack of tenure protection, this one took some real guts to send. Con rispetto, full letter with signators here:

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