Nadine Kaslow and Gray Crouse reported on the work of the Class and Labor II committee. They presented some of the data they had collected regarding faculty class and labor issues, including gender equity in salary and tenure-track positions, though noted that their findings are preliminary at this point. The next step for the committee is to analyze the qualitative data gathered from focus groups in more detail, and finish gathering and analyzing the quantitative data related to their faculty survey. The committee will return to the Faculty Council in the fall when all the data have been analyzed and interpreted, and a final report will be available in November with comprehensive findings and recommendations.
Category: Class & Labor
Class and Labor Committee Phase II Begins
In the March meeting, Provost Claire Sterk spoke to the Faculty Council about Phase II of the work of the Committee on Class and Labor. Last month the council heard a report on the concluded first phase of the committee’s work, which focused on staff. Phase II will focus on the ways in which class and its related distinctions of power and status affect the life and work of faculty members. The charge for Phase II includes an examination of the role of class in faculty work relationships; Emory’s role as an employer in the academic labor market; recruitment, promotion, advancement, and professional development for faculty; and the role of non-tenure-track faculty.
“The focus will be on faculty and their working relationships,” Sterk said, “in other words, the complexities related to distinctions of power and status.”
Committee on Class and Labor reports
In the February meeting, psychiatry professor Nadine Kaslow spoke on the report concluding the first phase of work by the Committee on Class and Labor—Staff Focus, formed in spring 2010. Kaslow, who co-chaired the committee with Gary Hauk, vice president and deputy to the president, noted from the findings that “class issues are alive and well at Emory as they are in our community more broadly,” but also that while people are generally satisfied with their work and benefits, there were “mixed feelings about compensation.” She also observed, “there are tremendous opportunites in terms of educational growth,” but that the environment does not consistently support professional development and advancement. Kaslow added that factors related to co-employment law hindered the committee’s efforts to gather data on contract workers on campus.
An advisory committee that will be part of the University Senate will oversee the implementation of recommendations concerning infrastructure, community and culture, communication on campus, profesesional development, and several other areas. To read the full report, click here.
Focus on Class and Labor
At its November 15 meeting, the Faculty Council heard a report from the ongoing Com- mittee on Class and Labor. Committee chair Nadine Kaslow (psychiatry) offered an overview of the group’s work. “There are going to be multiple versions of this commit- tee,” Kaslow explained, referring to this first of a three- or four-phase conversation, later phases of which will examine academic labor. She then outlined the five main points of the committee’s charge in this phase: 1) examine whether class and the status it affords is a significant factor that influences relationships at Emory; 2) knowing the basic contours of the non-academic labor force and the attendant labor market; 3) gather data on promo- tion, advancement, and self-improvement within the non-academic labor force; 4) factually identify structural impediments to employment and career advancement; and 5) under- stand the role of contracting on campus. The Council then divided into smaller groups for a “focus group” discussion with committee members as part of their data gathering work.
Committee to Examine Class and Labor Issues
At the Council’s February meeting, Provost Earl Lewis announced that on February 3, 2011, he and Vice President for Finance and Administration Mike Mandl charged a new committee to examine issues of class and labor on the Emory campus. Composed of faculty, students, and staff and chaired by Professor of Psychology Nadine Kaslow and co-chaired by Vice President and Deputy to the President Gary Hauk, the committee will begin by focusing on Emory’s non-academic labor force, including questions of compensation and benefits, advancement, retention and turnover, and supervisory skill levels across the university.
“We see this as the first of a three or four phase conversation” to take place over twelve to eighteen months, Lewis said. “The first phase would deal with non-academic labor, the second with academic labor, and the third with relationships between members of the academic and non-academic labor forces. A fourth phase would involve our students and their relationship to both academic and non-academic labor.”