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Response to President Jacobs' Letter of December 3, 2010
by Donald K. Wedding
 President Jacobs' letter asks who is going to make decisions at The University of Toledo. His characterization of the issue is misleading because the UT-AAUP
has not contested the right of the Board of Trustees (BOT) to make decisions. The issue is whether the Administration will effectively consult with the Faculty Senate as set forth in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and the Faculty Senate Constitution, both agreed to by the BOT.
During last Thursday's hearing of over 9 hours, President Jacobs' testimony
expressed distress about having to be in court, and said that he would gladly fix any "agrievement" he caused. In truth, the UT-AAUP offered him that
opportunity prior to filing this action. Harvey Wolff asked for a stay of
progress in the Reorganization Plan on October 19, 2010, pending the outcome of the grievance process. President Jacobs refused. And his refusal was echoed at the hearing when he followed his expression of distress with a sigh and the word BUT. As he then said, this is about how decisions are going to be made at the University and how things move forward. This case, he said, is important because of that. And we agree. How will academic decisions be made - with adherence to Article 7 of the CBA and the Senate Constitution that the BOT signed, or with disregard of these documents and disregard of the Faculty Senate?
This litigation and other litigation that may follow are about the academic
integrity of this institution, whether the faculty is going to be involved in
academic decisions or whether the Jacobs Administration will go it alone.
Already the Administration is planning to unilaterally cut programs and
departments without the meaningful input of the faculty. All of this will be
resisted by the AAUP. At the heart of this dispute is the academic integrity of The University of Toledo.
A decision by Judge Gary Cook is expected within the next few days. We do not know whether Judge Cook will grant the injunction or not. In any case, the UT-AAUP will continue with the arbitration. In addition we will be filing more grievances, arbitrations, and pursuing further litigation as needed.
A link is provided below to an article appearing on page 3, Section B of the
December 4, 2010 edition of the Toledo Blade. The article mistakenly refers to faculty leaders instead of the Faculty Senate.
Blade Article
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