1. Our faculty are pretty apathetic, although they are concerned about the financial problems. How can we get them more engaged?
Faculty apathy is often a consequence of a belief that nothing can be done or that the administration and board of governors are doing all they can. However, there is always more the faculty, administration, and board can do, not necessarily to eliminate or reverse financial problems, but at least to minimize their short- and long-term consequences. A first step is to communicate to the faculty—through broadcast e-mails, newsletters, weekly updates, and town hall forums—what the real facts are, especially since the faculty may not be getting these from administration or media accounts.
It is essential, if your chapter has the capacity, to convene public events at which faculty members can observe the upset that their colleagues feel (often, faculty apathy is a consequence of individuals thinking their colleagues do not share their own high level of concern). Do whatever you can to host and co-sponsor events--with your academic senate, administration, and other campus organizations--at which there will be sharing of accurate information, anecdotes, and data about reductions in faculty (especially terminations and non-retentions that may violate due process and collective bargaining articles), course cancellations, increased workload, and increased class sizes. The more the chapter communicates with faculty, the more the chapter will hear about inappropriate administrative practices, which can then become grievances and opportunities for publicizing and organizing faculty.
Many faculty members wish to do something but don’t know what will be most effective. A key to engaging them is to give them tasks that will involve limited and known time commitments. This can mean asking them to spend fifteen minutes encouraging department colleagues to attend a meeting about the financial crisis, or to spend five minutes forwarding the chapter newsletter to colleagues, or to spend ten minutes placing flyers in department mail boxes, or to spend an hour gathering department information about the effects of budget cuts and forwarding it to union or senate leaders.
It is also a good idea to ask faculty to engage in efforts that tap into their own interests and abilities—e.g., accounting, math, statistics, and business professors analyzing data; arts faculty creating visuals for flyers and posters; communications professors devising plans for contacting and speaking with the media; and political science professors contacting legislators and advising the chapter on political/legislative tactics. For faculty who lack job security, identify low-visibility activities they can do without risk, such as honing the chapter message, making safe phone calls, photocopying materials, and discretely providing information to chapter leaders.
The key point is to give everyone activities that are time-specific, that are not too time-consuming, that correspond to their particular interests and abilities, that they are likely to do, and for which they can be held accountable. Their own small involvement makes greater involvement more likely later on.
2. Most of our faculty members believe the administration’s unsupported claims that the general economic crisis has created a crisis at our institution. How can we better educate our colleagues on this issue?
Accomplishing this task is a matter of providing them with the facts clearly, simply, and repeatedly. We are finding that many administrators make unsupported claims that can be fairly easily challenged by asking for supporting documentation. Constantly remind your colleagues that the burden is on the administration to demonstrate that financial problems are as dire as administrative officers claim. The entire faculty is more likely to be well informed if the chapter delivers the information in different forms: through broadcast e-mails, newsletters, department representatives, and in public forums. All colleges, departments, and governance bodies will be dealing with budget cutbacks, so try to get on the agendas for their meetings.
Be prepared to respond as quickly as possible to questionable or inaccurate claims. Accounting, math, statistics, and business professors have particularly high credibility on financial issues; therefore, it is beneficial to identify and prepare individuals from these departments to be spokespersons in challenging the claims of the administration.