The following press release was sent to the Bloomingtonian early Monday:
“American Association of University Professors—Indiana University Bloomington Chapter
Contact: Benjamin Robinson, AAUP-IUB, President
Cell Phone: 812-360-1506
May 9, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Bloomington faculty of Indiana University Bloomington is convening for an extraordinary faculty meeting on Monday, May 9, from 3:30-6pm, in the IU Auditorium, to discuss the labor dispute between striking graduate student employees and the IU administration. Faculty members unhappy with senior IU administrations refusal to negotiate with student workers petitioned the Executive Committee of the Bloomington Faculty Council to convene the full Bloomington faculty for the first time since November 2005. Four resolutions will be discussed: the first reasserts faculty authority and due process over the Vice Provost’s withholding of reappointments for student academic appointees; the second calls for cost of living review of graduate stipends; the third calls on the Board of Trustees, President Pamela Whitten, and Provost Rahul Shrivastav, to recognize the graduate employee union; the fourth—opposed by the faculty who petitioned for the meeting—solicits cooperation with the administration. The meeting takes place as the graduate student strike approaches the deadline for the submission of final grades on May 10th.
The question of public employee unionization in south central Indiana has major national significance for a new generation of labor organizing and graduate student efforts at IU have occasioned unprecedented levels of faculty engagement.
The AAUP is also sponsoring a pre-meeting for all IU Bloomington faculty at the Fine Arts Building auditorium at 1:30pm.”
