Our Vision for a Dynamic Partnership
Learning is meaningful in its own right, a shared endeavor that sparks the fire of imagination and fuels the spirit of discovery. But it is more than that. Educators play a vital role in transforming institutions, strengthening community, and forging collective history. These are the aspirations of the modern comprehensive university.
We, the members and supporters of UWGB-United, faculty and staff of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, affirm our commitment to the purpose and goals of the comprehensive university and dedicate our energies to strengthening the role of faculty in the life of our institution and advancing UW-Green Bay’s dynamic reputation.
Among the goals to which we subscribe: engaging with intellectual and community life through teaching, research, and service; devising and implementing workforce development strategies that combine rigorous academics with practical experiences in the community and beyond; cultivating in ourselves and our fellow citizens the intellectual abilities necessary for life-long learning; promoting the ideals and practices of liberty, justice, and social responsibility; enhancing regional and national affinity with UW-Green Bay; advancing our institution’s commitment to a diverse, inclusive, responsive, and supportive campus climate, one open to all stakeholders.
UWGB-United has pledged to work with academic and community leaders to promote the commonwealth values of public education, of civic virtue, duty, and obligation. With this document, we offer the campus and larger community a forward-looking vision that embraces the call to invent the future.
The challenges in higher education are great, but so is the opportunity for UWGB to transform itself in response. UWGB-United is an integral part of motivating faculty and staff to support and sustain this transformation. There is no other organization with the ability to bring faculty together in one voice, and no other as wholly committed to improving UWGB as a place to work and learn.
As a strong educational experience for students is incumbent upon our ability to hire, retain, and promote outstanding faculty, we are asking for a more collaborative working relationship with the UW-Green Bay leadership team. Faculty and staff with a positive view of and participation in the decision-making process are significantly more likely to express a strong desire to stay at UWGB than are faculty and staff with a less positive view. We ask for better working conditions because our working conditions are student learning conditions. We ask for more support for student research because we know how intellectually curious and creative our students can be. We ask for better pay and benefits because we cannot lead northeast Wisconsin, much less the state, the region or the country, without retaining and celebrating great scholars, teachers and support staff. We ask for a democratic voice because we can use that voice to improve the way governance and learning happen here on campus. We know that meaningful innovation can only occur through meaningful collaboration between faculty, staff, and administration and we ask for this because we know it enables us to offer the best educational value to students.
In May 2011, UW–Green Bay faculty voted by a 98% margin to form a union. Overwhelming support for the union was a clear statement that faculty believe in a collective voice on campus for those central to the educational enterprise. As demonstrated in our recent petition drive in which over two thirds of faculty affirmed its desire for the union to represent its voice, UWGB-United continues to enjoy broad support among the faculty. Through our AFT-Wisconsin chapter, UW-Green Bay faculty and academic staff are committed to engaging with the university administration in a common effort to improve working conditions and enhance the quality of education at our institution and civic lives of our students.
The immediate objective for UWGB-United is to establish regular and ongoing meet-and-confer sessions where UWGB-United and Chancellor Miller discuss our shared vision of UW-Green Bay’s future. The long-term objective is to use this process to forge a meaningful and lasting collaboration.
As part of this effort, we pledge:
- To put ourselves at the forefront of twenty-first century student learning, by ensuring that our students have the ability to think critically and systematically in a problem-focused world.
- To develop faculty research, as often as possible in collaboration with students, that maintains and deepens our reputation as world-class scholars.
- To showcase our value to Green Bay and Northeast Wisconsin by deepening our commitment to the university and community through service.
To be able to be a vital part of inventing a new future at UWGB, we also ask the Chancellor to commit to good faith efforts to do the following:
- Foster a culture of transparency in planning and budget process that includes faculty and academic staff representatives fully in planning and budget process.
- Establish fair compensation on par with peer institutions, with regular cost-of-living increases and a plan to address salary compression.
- Couple administrative salary increases with faculty and staff salary increases.
- Reevaluate workload expectations, including independent studies, internships, and additional student research opportunities.
- Increase professional development opportunities and funding.
- Improve research support through enhanced administrative support for grant-writing and increased funding opportunities.
- Augment supplies and expenses budgets to cover professional costs often absorbed by faculty and staff, including professional dues, instructional materials, travel, and professional development and training.
Approved at UWGB-United Member Meeting, 13 October 2014
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