DePaulia
The
Volume #100 | Issue #19 | April 4, 2016 | depauliaonline.com
MEGAN DEPPEN | THE DEPAULIA
Adjunct professor Ilan Geva goes through the syllabus of his marketing class. Geva has been at DePaul for 10 years and is one of 1,800 adjunct faculty that teach per year, on average.
UPPING THE ANTE DePaul, unions clash over recent efforts to win adjunct loyalty
STORY BY MEGAN DEPPEN & BRENDEN MOORE Print Managing Editor and News Editor
The university announced enhanced benefits and support for adjuncts a few weeks ago, just months after union organizers were found on campus with support for adjunct unionization growing. And in a separate but related twist, university administrators alerted faculty and staff last week of “unwelcomed union contact with faculty.” On March 31, an email from administration alerted faculty and staff that reports of union organizers visiting adjunct faculty members both outside of the classrooms and at home “in ways that have made them uncomfortable.” “Faculty members have also expressed concerns about their privacy, safety, and security,” the email read. “Please know that DePaul did not provide union organizers with any faculty member’s home address, class schedule or any other contact information. We do not know how union organizers acquired this information; only the union can answer that question.” Union members from the Service Employees Intenrational Union (SEIU) did not return requests for comment. Provost Marten denBoer
said that DePaul’s open campus allows for union solicitation to take place and several faculty members have been approached by union workers. He emphasized the right for faculty to decline any solicitation. This adds to the ongoing drama surrounding threats of union solicitation at DePaul and other universities across the country. A memo from denBoer to faculty, dated March 7, announced improvements to the adjunct experience at DePaul, which include an update to the course cancellation policy as well as the creation of a task force to measure ways to improve adjunct involvement on campus. Geography adjunct professor Heather Smith has been teaching at DePaul since 2007, and though she has never been approached by union organizers, she only recently noticed these increased efforts by the university to improve resources for adjuncts. “I did find it interesting that many of these changes have been put into place since the union started coming around,” Smith said. “I’ve been watching and intrigued by this and the discourse around it. “Clearly there’s a lot of
free speech and freedom to join a union,” Smith added. “At the same time, I sense the administration is leading up to this because they have a lot of adjuncts and there’s a lot at stake with adjuncts joining. I think as commentary, the improvements from administration didn’t start coming until the SEIU started recruiting adjuncts. I don’t necessarily think they’re good. I think the administration has had the right responses. I just think that there’s adequate pressure to help support adjuncts. It’s nothing the administration was doing negatively, but there just wasn’t anything they were doing before union recruiting came about.” According to the announcement from den Boer, as of July 1, 2016 professors will receive 25 percent of their agreed-upon salary should their course be cancelled at least one month prior to the start date. Currently, adjuncts receive 10 percent if the course is cancelled between a month and a week to the start date and 20 percent if it is within a week. According to their union
See ADJUNCTS, page 6
University reacts to printed anti-Semitic flyers By Jessica Villagomez News Editor
Photo courtesy of DEPAUL (JAMIE MONCRIEF)
Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich praised DePaul’s swift response to anti-Semitic flyers being printed on campus. Cupich visited DePaul Tuesday.
DePaul’s Vincentian mission assures hateful rhetoric has no place on its campuses. With organizations, offices and groups like the Jewish Life Center, students have a place to feel supported and included on campus. But last Thursday a threat was posed to that vision. In an email sent to faculty and staff by DePaul President Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., Holtschneider condemned anti-Semitic and white supremacist flyers that appeared in output trays throughout DePaul’s campus last week. “We are currently investigating the
breach as well as the source and origin of this despicable act, which certainly is not reflective of DePaul’s values nor of our campus culture where ALL are welcome,” Holtschneider said in the email to faculty and staff. Now, the university is left scrambling to find a solution that ensures this won’t happen again. “After reporting of the incident, we were able to note all affected printers and begin remediation from steps to harden them from future abuse,” DePaul Director of Information Security Arlene Yetnikoff said. “While we would rather have prevented this incident completely, our incident response processes have stood us in good stead for analysis of this incident as soon as it was reported to us.
“We will continue to investigate the best way of implementing this control, while striving not to impact legitimate uses of our printers.” To aid in the investigation, the university’s remote printing feature will be turned off temporarily, but will not impact on-campus printing. Yetnikoff said Information Security (IS) received initial notification of activity from a DePaul employee using one of the affected printers. The University responded immediately, she said. “After reporting of the incident, we were able to note all affected printers and begin remediation steps to harden them from future abuse,” Yetnikoff said.“While
See ANTI-SEMITIC, page 5