Why academic professionals need a union

By Jenny Barrett

This article is based on a talk given by AAP Chair Jenny Barrett on March 30 at the University YMCA, as part of the "Know Your University" series.

As academic professionals, we play a vital role in the threefold mission of the University of Illinois: teaching, research, and service to the community. We perform important and varied functions at the university. Most academic professionals have advanced degrees and specialized skills and expertise. We play a primary role in the operation of the University of Illinois, and this was acknowledged in a 1995 report to then-provost Larry Faulkner entitled "The Academic Professional Personnel System for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign" (or simply the "Gomes Report"). However, despite our contributions and dedication to the university, as a group we have no representation in the governance of the university, very little say in our work situation, and no input regarding our benefits package.

Professionalism without exploitation

As professionals, we take pride in our work. Our duties and responsibilities are varied and demanding. Ideally, we work in an intellectually challenging environment where we solve problems in a creative way. Being a professional also means that if there is an urgent task, we put in more hours in order to complete it. Certain duties require working outside the 9-5 workday. The Gomes report states that this "means that with the permission of their supervisors, academic professionals may work on weekends and evenings, and may be required to travel and expected to attend professional meetings at hours and on days not considered to be within the standard 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday work week. Of course, this also means that they may not always be at their workplace during the usual operating hours and on the usual work days during the week."

We accept the demands of longer work weeks because we expect flexibility in our work schedule. We expect that after our project is complete and our deadline is met, there is enough give in our work schedule that we can take off a couple of days to spend time with our families or do household chores. Many of us have reasonable supervisors who permit some flexibility in our work schedule. But what happens if our current supervisor leaves and is replaced by someone not so understanding? At present we have no protection from unfair treatment. The work situation that we enjoy could change overnight if our supervisor is replaced by someone not so reasonable. The situation could also change if the campus were reorganized according to a corporate model.

We are seeing a national trend in higher education as universities attempt to become more like corporations and look to cut costs. We hear that people who have left are not being replaced, so that their workload must be picked up by the employees who remain. Again, since academic professionals have no set hours, we could be required to work longer hours to get the job done.

Working unreasonably long hours and handling an abnormally heavy work load affect the quality of our work and undermine our professionalism. A goal of the Association of Academic Professionals is to ensure that working conditions for academic professionals are such that they would allow us to perform our work in a professional manner.

Professional development and advancement

As professionals, we expect to work in positions that are intellectually challenging. We expect to continually develop our skills in order to carry out our responsibilities. We expect to advance in our careers. But we academic professionals have no career path like the faculty and civil service employees, who may get promoted if their job evaluations indicate that they have done a good job. In the past many academic professionals were not even evaluated (some still are not), and those who were evaluated often found that a good evaluation did not lead to a better than average raise or a promotion. Recently, the administration has proposed that all academic professionals be evaluated annually, but no one is sure how this will be enforced or how the evaluations will be used.

Many academic professionals feel like they are in dead-end jobs with no opportunity to advance as other professionals expect to do. In many academic professional positions, the one path for advancement is to look for another job. While this can be disruptive to an individual's life, it is also costly for the unit and the university as a whole in terms of time and money spent to hire and train new people.

A goal of AAP is to work for career paths for academic professionals and a relationship between job evaluations and raises. We are not advocating a rigid system like civil service, but right now we are at the other extreme with no system at all. We need to move toward a middle ground; we need some system for career development. We need to have salary increases reflect good job evaluations.

Job security

We need protection not only against unreasonable termination, but also against unreasonable treatment. Academic professionals are employed "at will," that is, our job description can be changed overnight and we can be fired for no reason at all. Academic professionals have come to AAP with the complaint that their supervisors require them to perform duties that they weren't hired to do, such as taking dictation, typing e-mail, and retrieving files. The Academic Human Resources office says that nothing can be done about this.

Faculty and civil service employees have job security, but academic professionals are employed from year to year and can be given a one-year terminal contract at any time, for any reason. We think academic professionals deserve more, at the very least a clear and fair procedure for terminating an academic professional contract.

Many of us are happy with our working conditions, but are concerned that there is no guarantee that we will have the same conditions next year. There is no guarantee that five years down the road we won't be replaced by someone younger and cheaper.

A union would provide due process as a protection against unfair termination.

A new kind of union

Our goal is a new kind of union-a democratic union for professionals. Included among our ranks are academic advisors, career and personnel counselors, cooperative extension specialists, editors, program coordinators, physicians and pharmacists, research engineers, research scientists, and research programmers, to name a few categories. As a professional union we have different goals than the traditional blue-collar unions. We want to preserve flexibility in our jobs, gain some control over our daily work situation, and have a voice in the workings of the university.

We have an educated, professional group, so we can expect active participation from our members. We want to involve as many academic professionals as possible so that we can work for issues that our members think are important.

What do we expect from unionization? Participating in decisions that affect our jobs raises morale and creates a happier workforce that will benefit the university in the long run. It is worthwhile to invest in a dedicated, skilled workforce. I personally know a lot of talented academic professionals who have left the university because of low pay or lack of opportunity for advancement. This is costly for the university both in terms of lost talent and the money and time required to do searches and train people. Less turnover results in savings.

Our goal is to make the University of Illinois a more democratic place and, therefore, a better place to work and to learn.