Dear President Zimmer, Provost Diermeier, and Dean Rasmussen,
For years the University of Chicago administration has been waging a campaign against graduate student worker unionization involving informational meetings with groups of graduate students, web page postings and emails from the central administration, and deans expressing opposition.
Despite this lengthy and intense campaign, in spring quarter, Graduate Students United (GSU) managed to garner sufficient cards to proceed with a vote on unionization. The University administration took the case to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claiming that graduate students are not employees. The NLRB rejected this claim and allowed GSU to proceed with the vote. In his email from August 11 the provost informed the University community that the administration will appeal the NLRB decision.
The attempts of the administration to prevent these elections using legal proceedings are causing serious harm to the University of Chicago and to the atmosphere of free academic inquiry and debate essential to the functioning of a university. First, the arguments presented by the University lawyers at the hearings allowed administrators to present distorted descriptions of the role of graduate students in the University, causing severe damage to the relationship between the University and its graduate students as well as presenting an unappealing image of how education is managed in the university to the outside world.
More importantly, the attempt to resolve this issue using legal means has undermined the very idea of open debate in the University. It negates the idea that we trust the community as a whole—students, faculty and administrators—to openly discuss an issue and resolve it internally through democratic procedures. The administration's control of the instruments of communication hardly squares with its commitment to freedom of expression—as freedom depends on equal access.
Whether one is for or against graduate student worker unionization, this matter should be resolved through a robust campus-wide debate allowing all sides to express their opinions, followed by a vote by the graduate students.
Therefore, we the undersigned tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty members at the University of Chicago request the University administration refrain from contesting the latest NLRB decision from August 8 ordering a graduate student employee vote on October 18 2017.
Denis Hirschfeldt, Professor, Department of Mathematics
Robert L. Kendrick, Professor, Department of Music
Gary Herrigel, Paul Klapper Professor in the College and Social Sciences Division, Department of Political Science
Travis A. Jackson, Associate Professor, Department of Music
William Mazzarella, Department Chair and Neukom Family Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology
James Wilson, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
Matthew Briones, Associate Professor, Department of History
Zach Samalin, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature
Choudhri Naim, Professor Emeritus, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Elizabeth Helsinger, John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, Department of English Language and Literature and Department of Art History
Mark Miller, Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature
Miguel Martínez, Assistant Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Michael Dawson, John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science
Alireza Doostdar, Assistant Professor, Divinity School
Sonali Thakkar, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature
Linda Zerilli, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Political Science
Daniel Morgan, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies
Elaine Hadley, Professor, Department of English Language and Literature
François Richard, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Cornell Fleischer, Kanuni Suleyman Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Department of History
William Sites, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration
Loren Kruger, Professor, Department of Comparative Literature and Department of English Language and Literature
John McCormick, Professor, Department of Political Science
William J. T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor, Department of English Language and Literature
Anton Ford, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
Norma Field, Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Bruce Lincoln, Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, History of Religions, Divinity School
Willemien Otten, Professor, Theology and History of Christianity, Divinity School
Alida Bouris, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration
Jonathan Hall, Phyllis F. Horton Distinguished Service Professor, Department of History and Department of Classics
Leora Auslander, Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor, Department of History
Amy Dru Stanley, Associate Professor, Department of History
Mark Bradley, Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service Professor, Department of History
Elizabeth Asmis, Professor, Department of Classics
Adom Getachew, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
Christian Wedemeyer, Associate Professor, History of Religions, Divinity School
Julie Orlemanski, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature
Janet Johnson, Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor, Oriental Institute, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Mel Rothenberg, Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics
Susan Gal, Mae & Sidney G. Metzl Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Anthropology and Department of Linguistics
William Sewell, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science and Department of History
Katherine Taylor, Associate Professor, Department of Art History
Joel Snyder, Professor, Department of Art History
Howard Stein, Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy
Mario Santana, Associate Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Judith Farquhar, Max Palevsky Professor of Anthropology Emerita, Department of Anthropology
James Hevia, Professor, Department of History
Whitney Cox, Associate Professor, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Kristen Schilt, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Jonathan Levy, Professor, Department of History
Faith Hillis, Associate Professor, Department of History
Patrick Jagoda, Associate Professor, Department of English and Department of Cinema and Media Studies
Ghenwa Hayek, Assistant Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Darryl Li, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Colleen Grogan, Professor, School of Social Service Administration
Eric Santner, Philip and Ida Romberg Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Germanic Studies
Richard Neer, William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Art History and Department of Cinema and Media Studies
Christopher Kennedy, William H. Colvin Professor, Department of Linguistics
Janel Mueller, William Rainey Harper Distinguished Professor Emerita, Division of the Humanities and Department of English
Marshall Sahlins, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology
Alison James, Associate Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Linda Collins, Senior Lecturer, Department of Statistics
Ada Holly Shissler, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Kendra Burbank, Lecturer, Department of Statistics
Matam Murthy, Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics
Tyler Williams, Assistant Professor, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
Matthew Boyle, Professor, Department of Philosophy
Dan Arnold, Associate Professor, Divinity School
Yali Amit, Professor, Department of Statistics
Loretta Au, William H. Kruskal Instructor, Department of Statistics
Clifford Ando, David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor, Department of Classics and Department of History
Nancy Munn, Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology
Daisy Delogu, Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Kenneth Warren, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor, Department of English
Peter McCullagh, John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Statistics
Jonathan Weare, Associate Professor, Department of Statistics
Kay Heikkinen, Ibn Rushd Lecturer of Arabic, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Susan Lambert, Associate Professor, School of Social Service Administration
Christopher Taylor, Assistant Professor, Department of English
James Lastra, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies and Department of English
Jennifer Cole, Professor, Department of Comparative Human Development
Demetra Kasimis, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
Michael Dietler, Professor, Department of Anthropology
Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Associate Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky, Assistant Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies
Edgar Garcia, Neubauer Family Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature
Andreas Glaeser, Professor, Department of Sociology
Adrian Johns, Allan Grant Maclear Professor, Department of History
Paola Iovene, Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Shannon Dawdy, Professor, Department of Anthropology
Emily Lynn Osborn, Associate Professor, Department of History
Allyson Nadia Field, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies
Eugene Raikhel, Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Human Development
Laura Weinrib, Professor, Law School
Edwin Kite, Assistant Professor, Department of Geophysical Sciences
William Schweiker, Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics, Divinity School
