Oregon Tech faculty union votes to authorize strike mailtribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mailtribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Oregon Tech faculty union votes to authorize strike
April 5, 2021 GMT
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) The Oregon Institute of Technology’s faculty union voted this week to authorize a strike.
The vote last week comes more than 500 days after negotiations began between the union and school administration, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Oregon Tech’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors is seeking salary increases and more clearly defined workload limits, among other requests.
The union said as of Friday, 96% of faculty had cast their votes, and 92% of those votes were in favor of authorizing a strike.
ADVERTISEMENT
It is not guaranteed that the faculty will strike, but union leadership can now call for one if an agreement isn’t reached.
is a law professor at the University of San Diego. He lives in Rancho Peñasquitos.
The San Diego Union-Tribune’s readers must have been dismayed this month to learn that a faculty member at the University of San Diego School of Law had been called out by the school’s dean for “bias” and “disparaging language” in a blog post. Dismay is warranted but it should be directed at the university’s behavior in leveling this accusation.
As a faculty member, I received the email our dean distributed to the law school community in response to a student complaint about professor Thomas Smith’s blog post. The email both states that Smith used “offensive language in reference to people from China” and implies that he used language that “demeans a particular national group.” Even the staunchest defender of academic freedom makes exceptions for using racial epithets. But the most cursory examination of Smith’s post reveals that he did no such thing.
Targeted News Service targetednews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from targetednews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A system that has long been used in several universities across the country to evaluate teachersâ in-class performance has also continually caused doubts about its effectiveness and parity among OU faculty members.
OU professors and instructors said the class evaluation system employed at OU and other institutions can result in significant biases, and the numerical system used is not effective in telling them how to improve their teaching skills. Some professors have implemented their solutions, while another group at OU is preparing for larger institutional change.
Michael Givel, a political science professor and president of OU s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said he believes the current evaluation system is âmore of a customer surveyâ than an effective professional development tool.Â