“A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.”
- Josef Goebbels
In March 2005, an email went out to the faculty. It asked the reader to provide their opinions of several statements, including the three below:
9. Some type of legal work action (e.g., “work-to-rule”) should be used to illustrate the current state-of-mind of many faculty on this campus that governance is failing.
10. If attempts to repair the current situation fail, I would support brining in an outside mediator (e.g., the Committee on Governance of the American Association of University Professors).
11 . If all attempts to repair a worsening situation fail, I would support organizing the RPI faculty.
Within days of the distribution of the survey, an edict came down from then-Provost Bud Peterson denouncing the survey and declaring that the action of simply typing the above sentences was illegal. In the interest of rectifying this miscarriage of justice (and ending the misconception that the action of making such statements warrants reprimand), let us explore these radical ideas from the safety our homes.
Some type of legal work action (e.g., “work-to-rule”) should be used to illustrate the current state-of-mind of many faculty on this campus that governance is failing.
This could mean anything from wearing a certain color clothing to putting pieces of yarn around office doorknobs. To say that such expression is somehow prohibited by the law or Institute policy is insane. We’re allowed to wear purple wristbands to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer. We’re allowed to wear pink ribbons to raise awareness for breast cancer. Why shouldn’t we be allowed to wear red armbands to raise awareness for the cancer in the Troy Building?
If attempts to repair the current situation fail, I would support bringing in an outside mediator (e.g., the Committee on Governance of the American Association of University Professors).
Before considering the concept of outside mediation, perhaps it’s prudent that the most volatile part of that statement (the mention of the AAUP) be examined.
Through assistance and advice to individual faculty members and administrators, state and federal lobbying, amicus briefs before the courts, support for collective bargaining, and other means, the AAUP helps shape American higher education and ensure higher education’s contribution to the common good.
While the AAUP is engaged in the formation of unions, statement 9 was referring to one of the many other services by the organization. Had mediation by another organization been suggested, it’s unlikely that the Provost would have been able to make a case against it.
If all attempts to repair a worsening situation fail, I would support organizing the RPI faculty.
There’s consistently one answer to this: Yeshiva. A 5-4 Supreme Court ruling more than 20 years ago said that faculty members were considered by the law to be members of management, thereby prohibiting them from unionizing under federal law. The administration would have us believe that Supreme Court rulings are written in granite, and in the case of those affecting college campuses, empower the President and the Provost to tar and feather those who would violate them. This is not the case. In its two centuries in existence, the Supreme Court has reversed plenty of past decisions, and there’s no reason to believe that Yeshiva can’t be one of them. The administration might still try to make the argument that the survey was soliciting support for a cause, something which is forbidden by the Human Resource Policy Guidelines; however, in defining those causes which are and are not acceptable (professional societies instead of political parties) I suspect we’ll find that the chief requirement be that the cause be one which seeks to advance RPI, and that, my friends, is what this is all about. So what can we take away from these three statements and the reaction they caused?
- Silence is consent. We need to do something to show that we’re united and upset without compromising the educational process.
- Outsiders should be encouraged to come to campus and assess the situation, whether they’re from other schools, the press or professional societies. The more sunlight we bring the better. The recent report in the Chronicle of Higher Education was a good start, but we have to go further.
- Finally, keep everything on the table. Organizing must be a last resort but still an option. Our unwillingness to go as far as necessary in righting these wrongs has been our undoing, and we can’t make that mistake again.
