I know that graduation is just around the corner and some of you will be planning to shower me with celebratory gifts (and if you’re not you should be), but please, whatever happens: don’t buy me a $195 Gucci iPod case. Don’t even buy me the inevitable $8 Gucci iPod case knockoff that will hit Chinatown soon enough. It would make me sad.
I hadn’t been planning to strike with the UAW on Wednesday, but yet another email from NYU - sent this time to TAs, graders, tutors, and the like - rubs me the wrong way:
The United Auto Workers - which represent certain part-time, or adjunct,
faculty at NYU - have publicly set Wednesday, April 21, as a strike deadline.
This action is both regrettable and unnecessary, particularly in light of the
fact that with the assistance of a mediator, the University and the United Auto
Workers have been making progress at the bargaining table. Despite the United
Auto Workers’ public statements, the University remains committed to good faith
bargaining to reach an agreement that reflects the valuable contribution that
our part-time faculty members make to NYU community.
Should a job action occur, we all may have to experience picket lines. As
graders and tutors, you have a professional responsibility to the University
and to the academic progress of our students. Accordingly, all graders and
tutors are required to report to work as usual.
The University takes seriously our obligation to our students that classes and
other activities be maintained; classes and other activities are expected to go
forward as scheduled.
The University has established a web site with information about the
negotiations with the United Auto Workers; you can find it at http://www.nyu.edu/adjunct.issues
And here’s the one everyone at NYU received the other day, in which they stress things like the fact that the University is paying for the mediator. It’s the one referred to by this WSN editorial.
We are writing to you because the United Auto Workers (UAW), who represent
certain of our part-time faculty, have declared their members’ intention to
strike on April 21, 2004. We want to take this opportunity to advise you
about the negotiations between the University and the UAW to date, our
efforts to avoid this disruptive situation, and the key issues that
continue to separate us.
Should a strike occur, our emphasis will be on maintaining the academic
progress of our students. The United Auto Workers have been talking about
a job action for some time; in response, the University has been working
with the schools to develop various mechanisms to minimize disruption and
to handle classes with part-time faculty instructors who choose to strike.
Appropriate information will be forthcoming from your school or department
in the next few days, should that be necessary.
One of the advantages of being a university in the world’s capital is the
opportunity to recruit to our classrooms exceptionally talented individuals
who are at the top of their professions - be it business, the arts, or
government, to name just a few - as part-time, or adjunct, faculty. These
professionals are able to impart to our students a degree of expertise that
would be nearly impossible to match anywhere else. Our goal is to continue
to attract and retain the most talented part-time faculty in the area.
A guiding principle for the University in these negotiations is ensuring
our ability, through our full-time faculty, to guide the academic direction
of our schools, departments and programs - in particular, to decide who is
taught, what is taught, and how it is taught. We also want to ensure that
we continue to have the highest quality part-time faculty teaching our
students to enrich their academic experience. These are obligations of the
University through its full-time faculty that are fundamental to our
academic mission.
*Background on the Negotiations*
In July 2002, our part-time faculty chose to organize as a bargaining unit
affiliated with the United Auto Workers; the University did not oppose this
effort. Since September 2002, we have been negotiating with the union; we
have had more than 30 formal and informal bargaining sessions.
In an October 17, 2003 meeting with the UAW, the University proposed that
we engage the assistance of a mediator to attempt to find common ground
between the parties’ positions. The UAW reluctantly agreed to mediation,
and in the months after that meeting, they took considerable time to agree
to a specific mediator and to accept a date offered by the mediator for
mediation. To ensure that the UAW would participate in this opportunity to
reach an agreement, the University is paying 100% of the cost (contrary to
the prevailing practice of both parties sharing the cost of mediation).
The UAW agreed to a first mediation session on February 6, 2004. Since
that February session, we have been meeting together with the mediator, who
has had a positive impact. Through these sessions, we have, in our
opinion, jointly made progress. There are mediation sessions scheduled for
Friday, April 16, and Saturday, April 17.
*Summary of Areas of Difference*
The process of mediation is, by its rules, confidential; therefore, the
parties are not permitted to discuss what occurs during these sessions.
Accordingly, what follows below are the current public positions of the UAW
and NYU on key proposals. In addition, the University has set up a web-
site - http://www.nyu.edu/adjunct.issues/ - where there is a detailed side-
by-side comparison of our respective public positions, including links to
the actual language of the proposals.
In summary, the UAW’s economic proposal:
- seeks a pay rate almost four times the prevailing rate in our region and
full health benefits for those who teach only one course; fully
implemented, these and other economic proposals would cost the University
in excess of $200 million, and necessitate at a minimum a 27% increase in
tuition.
The UAW’s non-economic package proposes:
- eliminating the provision in the management and academic rights clause that
provides “decisions regarding who is taught, what is taught, how it is
taught, and who does the teaching shall be made by the University;”
- creating a seniority and job security point system that would oblige
schools and departments to re-appoint a part-time faculty member to teach
the same course he or she has taught previously, each time it is offered,
ahead of full-time or tenured faculty, unless they establish through a
“just cause” administrative hearing that the part-time faculty member is
incompetent or engaged in misconduct;
- access to equipped office space for every part-time faculty member;
- University space for 5 exclusive part-time faculty lounges, as well as a
union office paid for by University funds in the Washington Square area.
In summary, the University’s economic counter-proposal provides:
- the highest minimum salaries for unionized part-time faculty in the New
York city area (some 36% above the prevailing rate), 2% pay increases for
part-time faculty already earning in excess of the minimum (ensuring that
every part-time faculty member receives a salary increase), and subsidized
health insurance for those who regularly teach at the University.
NYU’s non-economic counter-proposal would:
- maintain the original management and academic rights clause, which is part
of the current Graduate Assistants agreement with the United Auto Workers;
- ensure good faith consideration for a part-time faculty member to be
reappointed to teach a course he or she has taught;
- provide access to equipped office space for part-time faculty members in
degree programs to meet with their students.
*Review of Specific UAW and University Proposals*
Below is a comprehensive outline of the critical areas of difference
between the UAW and the University. As noted above, for more information,
or to review to review the actual proposals of the parties, please go to: http://www.nyu.edu/adjunct.issues
UAW and NYU Non-Economic Proposals
Our key areas of difference remain: management rights, job security and
seniority, presumptive reappointment, discipline or discharge, and space.
Management Rights
This clause of the agreement provides for the University’s right to
establish, direct, plan and control its missions, programs, objectives,
resources, priorities. This clause originated from an agreement at the
University of California with the UAW and was incorporated in the Graduate
Assistants contract at NYU.
- The UAW has proposed an amended version of this clause, seeking to remove
the following language: “decisions regarding who is taught, what is taught,
how it is taught, and who does the teaching shall be made by the
University.”
- NYU has proposed maintaining the original language, previously agreed to by
the UAW.
Job Security/Seniority
This clause relates to the appointment and reappointment of part-time
faculty to teach courses.
- The UAW proposed a point system for part-time faculty members’ service,
based upon length of service and courses taught. The system provides that
after 2 probationary semesters, a part-time faculty member is guaranteed
the right to teach the same course the next time it is offered, over all
others, including full-time, tenured and new part-time faculty.
- For part-time faculty members who develop a course offered by NYU, there is
no proposed probationary period - a part-time faculty member would have the
right to teach it exclusively.
- With respect to new or “open” courses or sections, the UAW has proposed
that part-time faculty, on the basis of seniority, fill such openings. The
UAW’s proposal defines open courses as ones in which: a former part-time
faculty member declines to teach a course; a new course or section is
offered (unless the course is designed by a full-time faculty member); a
full-time faculty member declines to teach his/her course or goes on
sabbatical, or a section that has been added to an existing course. The
right to teach such open courses as presented by the UAW would be on a
priority basis before considering all other faculty.
- NYU has proposed that part-time faculty who are no longer on probation
receive good faith consideration for reappointment for courses they have
previously taught. Good faith consideration would require schools and
departments to have an academic or curricular reason for deciding not to
reappoint a part-time faculty member to teach a course they have taught
before.
Presumptive Reappointment and Discipline or Discharge
This clause relates to those instances in which a part-time faculty member
may be disciplined or discharged.
- The UAW has proposed that a part-time faculty member be discharged or
disciplined only for “just cause”. The UAW defines discipline or discharge
as not reappointing a part-time faculty member to teach a course they have
previously taught. A part-time faculty member therefore would be
presumptively reappointed unless the school or department proves that he or
she is unqualified through a just cause hearing process in front of a third-
party decision-maker, similar to the process for unionized employees (such
as, office clerical and technical employees, and service employees).
- NYU has also proposed that part-time faculty only be disciplined or
discharged for just cause. However, we define discipline or discharge as
termination of an on-going appointment or suspension from an on-going
appointment without compensation. Thus, a school or departmental decision
not to reappoint a part-time faculty member to teach a course in a
subsequent semester would not constitute discipline or discharge requiring
a just cause hearing.
Space
This clause relates to space for part-time faculty members to meet with
students, each other, union officials.
- The UAW has modified its original request, to seek access for every part-
time faculty member to a desk, file space, computer, voicemail, email; 5
exclusive part-time faculty lounges, in addition to all other spaces
presently designated for part-time faculty; a fully equipped office for the
UAW for union business in NYU space in the Washington Square campus area;
NYU hosting service for a UAW website; and access to NYU discounts for UAW
purchases.
- The University has proposed access to equipped office space, email and
voicemail for all part-time faculty teaching credit courses in degree
programs as well as a creating a standing committee to address specific
space and facility needs as they arise in any given year.
UAW and NYU Economic Proposals
Our key areas of difference in the economic areas remain: wages, health
care, pension.
Wages
This clause relates to the pay proposed by each of the parties for teaching
and related duties performed by the part-time faculty.
The UAW proposed the following wages:
- Classroom Instruction: A minimum salary of $150 per classroom instruction
hour, with an additional hour of compensation for preparation for every
three classroom hours taught, for an effective classroom instruction rate
of $200 per classroom hour (i.e., starting part-time faculty members would
receive a minimum of $8,400 for teaching a three-hour lecture course; the
prevailing New York City region minimum unionized three-hour classroom
instruction rate is approximately $2,100);
- Individualized Instruction: A minimum salary of $100 per hour for
individualized instruction (e.g., music lesson, voice lesson), with an
additional hour of compensation for every five hours of instruction, for an
effective rate of $120 per hour of instruction (i.e., starting part-time
faculty members would receive a minimum of $1,680 for a one-hour lesson per
week for the semester);
- Annual Increases: An annual salary increase for all part-time faculty,
applied to the new minimum salary or current salary for those whose
salaries exceed the minimum, of 3.5% in 2003 and 4% in 2004;
- Longevity Salary Bonus: A longevity pay increase of 10% - applied after
annual increases - for every five years of service that a part-time faculty
member has taught at the university since their first date of employment
(teaching one course in any prior semester in any given year counts as a
year of service);
o The minimum three-hour classroom instruction rate for part-time faculty
members who have taught at least one course in any prior five or ten years
since their first date of employment:
Five year minimum course rate: $ 9,240 (10% increase);
Ten year minimum course rate: $10,164 (20% increase).
- Over-Enrollment Pay: An increase of 15% of the total course cost for every
student enrolled over a negotiated course maximum - for every seven
students over a negotiated maximum, the course compensation paid to the
part-time faculty member would double.
- Sick Leave Pay: Accrual of sick leave at a rate that permits a part-time
faculty member to miss one of every five classes with pay, with the
University obliged to pay for a substitute instructor for those classes
missed by the part-time faculty member.
- Substitute Pay: Payment, at the hourly rate paid to the instructor of
record, to part-time faculty members who teach as a substitute in another
course in the university.
- Course Development Pay: Payment of $2,500 for any classroom course
developed by a part-time faculty member to which he or she retains the
right to teach that course each time it is offered; $5,000 for any
classroom course developed by the part-time faculty member to which he or
she waives the right to teach that course.
- Course Cancellation Pay: Payment of a cancellation fee of 25% of the
cost of the course for any course cancelled without notice 60 days prior to
the first day and a prohibition on canceling classes that exceed negotiated
departmental minimum class enrollments.
NYU proposed the following wages:
- Traditional Lecture Instruction: A minimum hourly rate for traditional
lecture classes of $68 per contact hour (i.e., 36% more than prevailing
area unionized minimum rates of approximately $50 per contact hour
translates to $2,856 for a three-hour lecture class offered for credit (as
opposed to prevailing area unionized rates of $2,100)).
o Any part-time faculty member earning less would be raised to this rate;
this is principally relevant to the School of Social Work and the
Steinhardt School of Education, where typical pay rates currently mirror
minimum unionized rates paid by other New York City area universities.
o For all other part-time faculty members earning more than the
minimum rate - the average compensation at NYU is $3,700 for traditional 3-
hour lecture courses - we proposed guaranteed annual pay increases of 2%
from their current compensation.
- Individual, group/ensemble music or voice lessons and performing/studio
arts: A minimum hourly pay rate of $50 per contact hour (which is
comparable or better than other union and non-union rates in the New York
City area);
- Independent study supervision: A minimum rate of $100 per credit hour for
each student supervised;
- Individual student advisement, fieldwork, and internship supervision: A
minimum rate of $100 for each student per semester;
- Non-credit courses: A minimum hourly pay rate of $40 per contact hour (54%
higher than union rates in the New York City area);
- All of these wage provisions would be for the first year of an agreement
and would increase in each successive year.
Health Care
This clause relates to health benefits for qualified part-time faculty.
The UAW proposed:
- Payment by NYU of the costs for health and dental care coverage for all
part-time faculty teaching one course per year, with 50% payment by NYU of
their dependant health care costs;
- Payment by NYU of the costs for health care coverage for all part-time
faculty teaching two courses per year, with 100% payment by NYU of their
dependant health care costs;
- Payment of $50 per month to part-time faculty members who provide proof
of health insurance under another policy during semesters in which they are
teaching.
NYU proposed:
- Payment by NYU of 66% of the costs for individual health care benefits
coverage through any of the HMOs available to University employees for part-
time faculty who teach regularly at our University - i.e., those members
who teach the equivalent of two traditional lecture courses each Fall and
Spring semester for three or more consecutive semesters.
- NYU would continue to make available to part-time faculty who teach six
credits during the academic year (September 1 - August 31) the opportunity
to purchase low cost health care coverage through the HIP Health Plan, one
of the HMOs available to University employees.
Pension
This clause relates to tax-deferred savings and contributions for
retirement funds.
- The UAW proposed participation in a prescribed defined benefit pension
plan, fully funded by NYU, with vesting based upon teaching one course in
an academic year for five years (which need not be continuous years of
service);
- The University proposed obligating itself, through the union agreement,
to provide for part-time faculty to be eligible to participate in the NYU
Supplemental Tax Deferred Annuity Plan.
*Conclusion*
We have sought to provide compensation and quality benefits that encourage
and support a relationship in which teaching excellence and compensation
are partners in creating the educational experiences that our students and
faculty not only want, but expect at NYU. And, we have proposed the
highest minimum salaries paid in the New York City region to unionized part-
time faculty and health care for those who regularly teach at our
University.
We are doing everything possible to avoid a strike, as we are mindful of
the possible disruption that it would cause to our students’ education.
Not only would a strike be a regrettable course of action for the UAW to
follow, it is an entirely unnecessary one. We remain committed to
achieving a fair contract that recognizes the valuable contributions of our
part-time faculty, and we remain hopeful that we will achieve a mutually
beneficial contract for our part-time faculty.
We will continue to provide periodic updates as negotiations (and
mediation) proceed at: http://www.nyu.edu/adjunct.issues
While I have several posts half-written and waiting to be finished, I’m too dazed from working with SOAP and XML all day to do anything other than mention that my thesis got approved. Which is pretty cool, I think.
Here are some notes on a couple of the technical books sent my way over the past six months or so, which I’ve read but haven’t written full-length reviews of. And don’t worry, there’s more to come.
The Mac OS X Conversion Kit: 9 to 10 Side by Side: This is a great book, though I suspect its target audience must be dwindling as OS X ages. The only people who would be interested in it are those who are just now switching from OS 9 to OS X, but while those people are becoming fewer in number, this remains a good way to ease the initial confusion of switching. Its major selling point is the abundance of full-color screenshots on each page - the left from OS 9, the right from OS X. It’s a great idea. The format isn’t suited to long-winded discussion or anything to do with the command line (you won’t even find Terminal listed in the index), but you can think of it as a beefed-up version of the Quick Start guides that Apple now favors over manuals. It’s a good way to get up and running with OS X, but if you want to really delve into the operating system, you’ll want something else to go along with it.
Mac OS 9: The Missing Manual: Speaking of diminishing audiences - for most people the best advice would probably be to upgrade your OS rather than invest in an OS 9 book. But some of us still have older Macs that won’t run OS X (like my aging first-generation iMac), and some of us still have the need to run Classic. Whatever your reason for still needing to use 9, this book is pretty much all you’ll need. Although it was one of the first (if not the first) in the Missing Manuals series, it’s every bit as good as its successors. Amazon’s got it for fourteen bucks, so you really can’t go wrong.
AppleScript in a Nutshell: While I’m sure it was great when it first came out, this edition is getting a little old and crusty. The latest edition dates from 2001, and it deals mainly with OS 9. Pick up AppleScript: The Definitive Guide instead (it just came out in November), or wait until a new edition of the Nutshell.
On Tuesday, the union for adjunct faculty at NYU voted to strike beginning on 21 April. While I don’t have any classes taught by adjuncts this semester, that’s probably the first time this has happened - probably something like half the classes I’ve taken at NYU have been with adjuncts, including a significant number of the philosophy courses I listed the other day. Although I don’t think anyone is looking forward to a possible strike, I do support the adjuncts’ efforts to get better contracts. I don’t think NYU treats them very well, and the tone of the latest all-University email doesn’t suggest that anything’s changed in the past week.
The union site is one place to read up on more of the background involved, and the NYU Adjunct Fan Club site is another (if you don’t mind goofy pink and purple graphics). The fan club site also includes a statistics page, with tidbits like “Did you know that while the average undergrad tuition collected for the College of Arts and Sciences is $76,874 per class, the adjunct teaching that class only gets paid $5,400?” I’m always skeptical of statistics when used in contexts like these, but it’s something to read, anyway.
New York University - College of Arts & Science
Analysis of Academic Progress
Successful completion of all work currently in progress will meet all academic
requirements for this program.
V83.0005 ETHICS AND SOCIETY
V83.0010 CENTRAL PROBLEMS IN PHILOSOPHY
Transfrd PHIL from HARVARD-RADCLIFFE
V83.0020 HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
V83.0021 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY
V83.0036 EXISTENTIALISM & PHENOMENOLOGY (Registered)
V83.0040 ETHICS
V83.0060 AESTHETICS
V83.0070 LOGIC
V83.0076 BELIEF TRUTH & KNOWLEDGE
V83.0080 PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
V83.0102 TOPICS IN ETHICS & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (Registered)
V83.0103 TOPICS IN METAPHYSICS & EPISTEMOLOGY
V83.0201 HONORS SEMINAR
V83.0202 HONORS SEMINAR (Registered)
The dangerous thing about having turned in my thesis a month before the semester ends is that I now have a tendency to think of the semester as essentially over. Those other two papers I still have to write and four finals I have to take don’t actually count, because obviously nothing that happens after the thesis is due can actually count. I’m sure the faculty will understand this, of course.
The Nutshell series includes some of the most well-worn and useful technical books I own, and Cocoa in a Nutshell is one of the newer Mac-related additions to the collection. If you’re familiar with the format of the series, probably the biggest question you’ll have is whether or not this book is as good as the other Nutshell handbooks - the short answer is yes, it’s just as good as it’s predecessors.
Cocoa is a great thing to learn, and if you’ve got some relevant experience with other languages, this book is a great way to learn it.
It’s one of the Apple Developer Connection recommended O’Reilly titles, and comprises a complete and thorough reference to the language that most Cocoa developers will appreciate.
I say most Cocoa developers rather than all of them because this is of course a Nutshell handbook - it’s not intended to serve as a step-by-step tutorial for those without any prior Cocoa or object-oriented programming experience (for that, there’s Learning Cocoa with Objective-C). Readers completely unfamiliar with the language may find the book a little bewildering, it’s true. However, that’s not to say you need to have already mastered the language before picking up the Nutshell book - the first part contains quite a decent introduction, and if you’re already familiar with something like Java, this will probably be all you need. I have a couple of years of experience with C and Java myself, and although this was my first Cocoa book, I didn’t feel lost when reading the book’s first half.
Coauthor Michael Beam notes that “The ‘In a Nutshell’ format had always been a very efficient means of communicating information, particularly for more experienced developers. Cocoa is a very verbose and wordy API; that is, the method names are long and can have many arguments. It is often the case that a developer can be moving along in his code, and he knows what method to use, but can’t remember the precise syntax. This book seeks to provide a quick way to look up that syntax.” I think that’s a goal it achieves admirably, and as long as readers are aware they’re buying a reference and not a gentle introduction to programming, they won’t be disappointed.
It’s primarily the second half of the book that serves as a complement to Apple’s documentation for the Foundation and AppKit classes. Apple’s Cocoa site is better than it used to be, and it does include a basic API Reference along the line’s of Sun’s site for the Java API - you can use it for the kind of syntax-checking Beam is talking about, and many developers do just that. If you’re already in the habit of looking things up on the Apple site, the API documentation in this book won’t change your life. I prefer it to the web version, partially because there’s slightly more explanation of the various classes, but not everyone will feel the same way.
So, who should buy this book? The intended audience is pretty much the same as that of the other programming-related Nutshell books. If you’re completely new to programming, don’t bother. You’ll be much better off starting with something that assumes no knowledge of programming concepts and skills. On the other hand, if you’re an experienced Cocoa developer who’d rather use Apple’s Cocoa site than shell out for a book, there’s really no reason to do so. But plenty of people don’t fall into either of these categories. If you’ve got some OOP experience, and especially if you’ve already fumbled your way through a little bit of Cocoa but would like to learn more, you’ll find the overview section very useful and the reference section convenient. (It’s probably also worth noting that, at least at the moment, Amazon is offering Cocoa in a Nutshell for $15.98, down from $39.95. Even if you’re not totally convinced it’s worth forty bucks, it’s definitely worth sixteen.)
Because I’m not actually capable of answering email anymore, I thought I’d respond to one of the questions I’m getting a lot lately, which concerns whether or not I’ll post my thesis. I don’t see why not, although of course it’s terribly dry stuff. I’m so tired of writing it that I can’t actually imagine anyone else wanting to read it just for fun, but apparently some people do. While I’ve already turned in what I hope is the final draft, I’ve still got a week for typo correction and whatnot so I’ll wait until then before putting it up.
We considered doing eggs again this year, but apathy set in and we contented ourselves with devouring the contents of our Easter baskets instead. I also did a whirlwhind cleaning of my quasi-office and finally have no more mysterious boxes in closets waiting to be unpacked. (The boxes waiting in my closets now know perfectly well they’re never going to be unpacked.)
While I wait for the rest of the yarn I ordered to show up so that I can finish my current knitting project, I’ve actually been sewing a little. I need things like a needle holder and a tote for projects and these are things that you can’t knit, for obvious reasons. So I dug out my drugstore sewing supplies and have been patchworking like there’s no tomorrow, which I think makes it official that I’m no longer cool. But who needs cool when you have Girl Scout sewing skills?