After a 59-1 no confidence vote against Emerson College President Jacqueline Liebergott, members of the school’s administration and faculty union say they plan to continue negotiations today over a new contract set to take effect in July.
The vote was mainly in response to Liebergott’s December letter to the faculty in which she said she wanted to disband the Emerson chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the union representing full-time faculty members, according to chapter president Eiki Satake.
“We have a mission to provide the highest quality education to our students, but we are being treated more like factory workers,” Satake said. “They are hiding behind the bush by appointing a group of attorneys to negotiate.”
Satake said the administration wants to take away the teachers’ “academic freedom and dismiss the faculty’s voice” by keeping faculty from participating in decisions about course scheduling, curriculum planning, tenure and hiring.
He said he is afraid that if the union disbands, teachers might lose “freedom of speech in the classroom,” the ability to choose textbooks and hands-on learning experiences, such as field trips. He also said the faculty would have “no grievance rights” if they accepted the offer.
But an administration official said the union is using the vote as a tool in upcoming negotiations.
“The vote was a calculated tactic to win support from trustees, students and others,” said David Rosen, Emerson’s associate vice president of public affairs, in a statement. He added that the negotiations have become “heated and personal at a very early stage.”
Rosen said in an email Thursday that it is “emphatically” not true that the administration wants to prevent faculty participation in administrative matters, commonly referred to as “faculty governance.”
“In fact, the administration wants to strengthen the faculty’s role in governance, but outside the constraints and politics of a union contract,” Rosen said in the email. “The administration wants to remove the union from the process, not the faculty. We have told them, but they apparently chose not to believe us.”
Rosen said faculty unions are rare at private colleges and universities, and one of the reasons public universities often have unions is to strengthen their power to lobby for pay raises in legislatures.
In her Dec. 12 letter, Liebergott told the faculty that none of Emerson’s major competitors, including Boston University, Ithaca College and Syracuse University, have faculty unions. The letter also said the union is no longer necessary because it was formed in 1975, when Emerson was a less competitive institution, to address salary and benefit problems that no longer exist, according to Liebergott. She also wrote that “as the focus of the union contract has shifted from economic issues to other matters, the relationship between the union and the administration has become increasingly politicized and confrontational.”
Satake said conflicts that had occurred between the faculty and administration after President emeritus John Silber disbanded BU’s faculty union in the 80s had some bearing on their decision. He said a BU faculty member, whose name he could not disclose, spoke at a recent meeting about how the absence of a union weakened the faculty’s voice at BU.
“His remarks helped us unite and confirmed how important it is to maintain a union on campus,” Satake said. “Everybody loved him.”
Several Emerson students said the negotiations have not become a huge issue on campus and that none of their teachers have brought the subject up in class.
But several said they were frustrated with aspects of Liebergott’s governance, including a lack of classroom space even though the school sold buildings last spring and the removal of a pre-school theater major.
Emerson sophomore Scott Barboza said that although he appreciated improvements Liebergott has brought to Emerson, “it’s not about arts anymore, it’s just a business.”