Strike Authorization Procedure at Wright State

The Wright State University AAUP chapter, the faculty union representing full-time faculty at WSU, has adopted an amendment to its chapter constitution and bylaws creating a procedure for authorizing and calling a strike. Chapter president Martin Kich said that the move was necessary to protect the core missions of teaching and research at the university.

“We never had a procedure for calling a strike because in the past we always had a cordial relationship with the administration,” he says in a statement. "It is well known that an incompetent administration paired with a negligent Board of Trustees permitted flagrant misspending for several consecutive years that resulted in fiscal crisis at WSU. But even though most misspending occurred in areas irrelevant to the University’s academic core missions – teaching students and undertaking research–the administration’s budget cuts have actually targeted the academic core! In fact, Wright State students have already lost seventy-one faculty members due to the administration’s budget cuts. That means students have fewer course offerings, higher student-to-faculty ratios, and other significant diminutions of the conditions under which they learn and complete degrees. Indeed, any erosion of faculty working conditions is an erosion of student learning conditions!”

See the chapter's complete statement.