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The adjunct faculty at Saint Louis University has moved one step closer to unionization. According to Hillary Birdsong, an adjunct instructor and one of the lead organizers of the movement, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has backed the adjuncts. The SEIU have campaigned for other adjunct groups at universities across the country. The group was essential in the unionization of the adjuncts at Washington University in January 2015. “Unionizing would give us a say in matters concerning our contracts and compensation,” Birdsong said in an email to adjunct supporters. The adjuncts have worked steadily over the past year to receive better wages and benefits. Adjuncts at SLU now start out making $3,000 per course, and those who have been working with the university for at least three consecutive years receive a bump in compensation—the amount of which increases with the amount of time an adjunct has spent working at the university. However, the moves the administration has made while trying to meet the adjuncts’ needs have not been
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quite enough, according to Birdsong. “Many of us have to work at multiple jobs to make ends meet. Some of us live paycheck to paycheck and worry about how to pay rent or utility bills. We have no way of knowing if we will even be teaching next semester,” Birdsong said. Birdsong has often stated that since her job at SLU is never certain, it does not allow her to focus completely on her students. “We teach the same classes that tenured professors teach, we counsel students about personal issues during our office hours, and we write letters of recommendation for them as they make their way into the world. Without us, the student experience would not be as rich as it is, and yet the wages we receive for our labor are not enough to live on,” Birdsong said. As previously reported in The University News, the adjuncts expect that they should be able to form a union by the end of the spring semester. Michael Lewis, the Associate Vice President for Faculty Development, commented in a previous interview that the university has not yet taken a stance on the adjunct’s plans to form a union.
Known today for the wineries and the vestiges of their pronounced German heritage, Hermann and other towns along the Missouri River Valley have been revealed, in an exhibition curated by German professor Sydney Norton, for the crucial role they played in the Civil War-era fight for the abolition of slavery. “Missouri has all these beautiful towns that are originally German, and often people don’t mention what their history is,” said Norton. “They say, Oh, you’ve got to go Hermann, the wineries are great, there’s Oktoberfest, they have a lot of German stuff.” A panel of text in the exhibit summarizes this overlooked facet of Missouri history: “Several politically active immigrants who arrived in Missouri during the
1830s—Friedrich Münch, Eduard Muehl, Carl Strehly, and Arnold Krekel—followed by a younger generation of exiles from the failed 1848 rebellions in Europe —Friedrich Hecker, Heinrich (Henry) Boernstein, Franz Sigel, and Carl Schurz—became editors of or contributors to notable German-language newspapers in Missouri. Their articles and commentaries against slavery and in support of the newly formed Republican Party were crucial for Abraham Lincoln’s election as president and in mobilizing German immigrants into Union volunteer units at the outbreak of the Civil War.” The “German Immigrant Abolitionists: Fighting for a Free Missouri” exhibit opened last Friday, Feb. 12 (coincidentally, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday) to an audience of approximately 75 students and visitors. The exhibit, which occupies two
Thursday, February 18, 2016
SGA update: Bryant opines on term President focuses on transportation, engagement By EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM Associate News Editor
In February 2015, SGA President Jay Bryant, along with his ticket Engage, ran on a platform of transparency and strong communication between the Student Government Association, the university and the student body. His biggest priority was to ensure student engagement on campus, as well as in the city and the neighborhoods surrounding SLU. Now, six months after taking office as SGA president, Bryant reflects on what he’s accomplished so far and what his focus will be on in the months before his term ends and he says goodbye to SGA and to SLU. During the election, transportation was a key point for the Engage ticket. Bryant proposed Upasses for the Metro and offering ways for students to get to places they want to go. “When we were campaigning, one thing that we heard was, ‘Well, we would love to explore the city, and the Lou, but we need transportation. We need access.’ So we tried to create that right off the bat,” Bryant said. For the most part, Bryant has delivered on those initia-
Ryan Quinn / The University News
SGA: Jay Bryant addresses the SGA senators at the weekly meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 17. Bryant ran on the Engage ticket during the 2015 election.
tives, moving toward a way to provide transportation for all students, through the shuttles and a pilot program with MetroLink. At the beginning of the Fall 2015 semester, the shuttles were rerouted and offered different stops for students, rather than solely Brentwood Plaza. “We rerouted the weekend shuttle to be more productive and used the students’ money better, because students pay for that ser-
Exhibit features early German abolitionists By TIM WILHELM News Editor
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Union backs adjuncts By EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM Associate News Editor
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glass cases in the lobby of the Center for Global Citizenship in addition to a similar wall-length case in a rear seminar room, displays photographs, letters, military uniforms, maps and other period artifacts. “It was very festive,” said Norton. “There are people out there who really want to see things like this.” The exhibit is the culmination of two and a half years of research, visits to cultural institutions, and excursions to Hermann and other towns accompanied by descendants of the German thinkers represented. While her research focuses on 20th- and 21st-century German art and literature, Dresden, choreography and German Expressionism in the 1920s, Norton plunged headlong into Missouri’s German abolitionist movement after one of several trips to Hermann. At a museum there, she picked up
a historical manual on Hermann’s role as a center for progressive thought in the 1830s. She said that although she “knew the basics of what happened” during the Civil War, her research “completely changed” her understanding of it. “I didn’t realize how divided Missouri was and St. Louis was back in the Civil War, like real antagonism between blacks and whites and this notion of allowing slavery and not.” She saw a “real hatred” in the antebellum years. “They were kind of an island among themselves,” she said of the German abolitionists. Considered the radical wing of the Republican Party, these immigrants’ harbored memories of failed revolutions, which spurred them to embrace abolition See “Exhibit” on Page 3
Javier Muro de Nadal / The University News
ABOLITION: German professor, Sydney Norton points out some of the artifacts included in the Center for Global Citizenship’s presentation on German abolitionists during the Civil War era. The exhibition concludes on May 15.
vice,” said Bryant. “Then out of that, we can provide event shuttles for the Hispanic festival in Soulard, the balloon glow, Soulard farmer’s market, things like that, trying to get students out into the city.” However, perhaps a more notable accomplishment came early in the spring semester. On Jan. 11, metro Upasses for the MetroLink and MetroBus were made available to the freshman class, an initiative that is
working as a pilot program—which is meant to someday be inclusive of all SLU students—costing approximately $35,000 out of the university’s budget. “The metro pilot program like we’ve talked about was an idea that stemmed from last year’s executive board to administration, and then ever since last April, we’ve been working on it and havSee “Bryant” on Page 3
$LU $eeks $upport versity and aligns with SLU’s strategic plan. The program will be funded through a $1 In a progressively escamillion gift given to the unilating financial situation, the versity, which has been alloSLU administration is lookcated to this project. ing outward. “What we’re looking for On Monday, Feb. 15, is something brief. It doesn’t President Pestello anhave to be fully thought nounced ‘GrowingSLU’—an through, but just ‘what’s the initiative that prompts memidea?’” said Hakanson. “It can bers of the SLU community be something related to stuto submit ideas that could dent services or something increase SLU’s revenue. related to academics, or any “Initiative Four of the part really of the university strategic plan is “Being an or any idea that we have that Innovaaligns tor and with the Entreuniverpreneur s i t y ’s in All core misThat We sion and Do.” To aligned achieve of course this obwith the jective, stratewe must gic plan. nurture Any idea, the entrewhether preneurial it be very spirit and l arge, innovaor very tive thinksmall, we ing of our -Fred Pestello, want to f a c u l t y, President hear.” staff and There students,” will be Pestello several said in his email to the SLU phases of GrowingSLU, but community. currently, those interested Newly appointed Chief may submit their ideas—on Innovation Officer David the program’s website or Hakanson, who has presided by using the GrowingSLU as Chief Information Officer hashtag on social media—to since 2013, came up with the the advisory committee unidea for the program and coltil March 4. Individual and laborated with other adminteam submissions are welistrators and staff members come. to make it into GrowingBy March 11, after reSLU. He will be heading up viewing the submissions, the initiative, along with the the committee will select seven-other representatives from those ideas and ask on the advisory committee. those individuals and teams Hakanson said they reto provide more developed searched other programs business plans, which the similar to GrowingSLU, but university will provide rehad not come across anysources to help review their thing like this: calling out concept. university-wide to submit any kind of idea that will produce revenue for the uniSee “Growing” on Page 3 By EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM Associate News Editor
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To achieve this objective, we must nurture the entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking of our faculty, staff and students.
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Vol. XCV No. 18
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