Michigan
MSU tenured faculty expected to receive union recognition ⋆ Michigan Advance
A tenured faculty union at Michigan State University appears to be on the cusp of recognition without the need for a formal election.
On Dec. 22, the Michigan Education Association (MEA) filed a petition with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) on behalf of the Union of Tenure Stream Faculty (UTSF), which seeks to represent more than 1,700 tenure system faculty and librarians at MSU. The union also asked MSU for voluntary recognition under terms of a 2021 collective bargaining policy which says the university “will accept the bargaining unit proposed by the union as long as the proposed unit is reasonable.”
That “reasonable” threshold appeared to have been met by last Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting when Trustee Brianna Scott indicated they planned to voluntarily recognize the union, after organizers said 54% of faculty members had expressed support.
“I think most of us up here, and I’m looking at you Trustee Kelly, most of us up here are pro-union, I would say,” Scott said, referencing Trustee Dan Kelly, the board’s lone Republican.
The remark drew laughter from the audience, as well as a smile from Kelly.
“I just want to make sure that people feel that they’re heard in this process,” Scott continued. “That’s all we asked for, I think as a board, is that this process is a fair process and everyone understands it. So we will support you all. I don’t think you’re going to get any pushback, at least from seven of us.”
Afterward, board Chair Rema Vassar told reporters she didn’t believe even Kelly would oppose recognizing the union, which she said should come sometime in the next four to six weeks.
“I think that we’ve been briefed over and over, and updated on how things are developing, but I think you heard the faculty say that they would like that before the next meeting we have in April. I think we’re on the clock,” said Vassar.
The board’s next meeting is April 12 and if the UTSF is granted recognition before then, it will avoid the more formal MERC process, according to MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant.
“For the MERC election process, the union must demonstrate more than 30% support of the bargaining unit, the verification is conducted by MERC and MERC then administers a confidential ballot election,” she told the Michigan Advance. “If the union obtains more than 50% of the votes in the election, MERC certifies the union as the representative of the bargaining unit.”
Among the union organizers is Professor NiCole Buchanan from MSU’s Department of Psychology.
“I have personally talked with hundreds of faculty about our union,” she said. “They have been impressed with our forward-thinking Board, proactively agreeing that if a majority of the faculty support a union, the board would voluntarily recognize us.”
While employee unions are a fact of life for any major public university, as demonstrated in last year’s strike by undergraduate employees at the University of Michigan, organizing by tenured track faculty is less common.
According to statistics from the Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education at Hunter College in New York City, over the past 50 years, less than a third of the 480 higher education collective bargaining units have represented tenure-track faculty.
However, William Herbert, the center’s executive director, tells the Advance that doesn’t necessarily mean there is less urgency by that group for collective bargaining rights.
“Over the past half-century there has been a major restructuring in faculty positions, with tenure track positions now constituting less than a third of all faculty,” said Herbert, who noted that unionization among tenure track faculty slowed considerably following the Supreme Court’s 1980 decision in NLRB vs. Yeshiva University, which found that faculty at private institutions were managerial employees and thus ineligible to unionize.
With that said, Herbert said the overwhelming majority of those who teach in higher education today do so on a contingent basis and are appointed per course, per semester, or per academic year.
“For the tenured and tenure track faculty, the more they are marginalized in decision making, the more likely they will support unionization,” he said. “Keep in mind that it is common for those in the public sector to have some form of job security based on statute or regulation. History has shown that the mere existence of that type of job security rights has not deterred those working in public sector occupations to unionize.”
That is borne out in a 2020 Gallup poll which found that just 20% of tenured faculty members strongly agree that their employer “would do what is right” if they raised a concern about ethics and integrity. Those issues have a definite resonance at MSU in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal and continued controversy over Title IX investigations
In addition, a 2021 survey by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) found that faculty participation in presidential searches had declined, from 94% to 88% since 2001. MSU recently appointed University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz as its new president, effective March 4. Guskiewicz is the university’s sixth president in the last six years.
Meanwhile, at the University of Michigan-Flint, approximately 16 organizers are seeking to form a union among the 164 tenured faculty through an affiliation between the AAUP and the American Federation of Teachers.
Efforts to obtain comment from either the AAUP or AFT were unsuccessful. However, an article in the April 2023 edition of the Flint-based East Village Magazine quoted organizers as saying they were “propelled by concerns about work load, campus climate, pay equity and alleged administration attempts to quash dissent.”
UM-Flint, which has struggled with declining enrollment, is currently searching for a new permanent chancellor following the departure of Debasish Dutta, who left in September for a position at the University of Illinois. Donna Fry, current dean of the College of Health Sciences, was appointed as interim chancellor of the Flint campus.
If tenured faculty at both MSU and UM-Flint are successful in unionizing, they would join tenured faculty at 10 other Michigan public universities, including Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Wayne State and Western Michigan universities, that have formed a union.
Advance reporter Anna Liz Nichols contributed to this story.
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A fan-favorite Spartan is coming back as an assistant coach.Max Bullough, a former MSU linebacker who has spent the past two seasons coaching linebackers at Notre Dame, is coming back to East Lansing to be a co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Bullough confirmed in a biography change on X (formerly Twitter).
The move is a promotion for Bullough, who was a linebackers coach at Notre Dame the past two seasons. Bullough will serve alongside incumbent MSU defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, who The Detroit News confirmed last week is staying on Pat Fitzgerald’s first staff in East Lansing. Fitzgerald replaced Jonathan Smith, who went 5-19, 4-14 Big Ten in two seasons.Bullough, 33, played for Michigan State from 2010 to 2013, under head coach Mark Dantonio and defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi. He played immediately as a freshman and appeared in 53 college games, logging 284 tackles, eight sacks and three interceptions.
He missed his final game — the 100th Rose Bowl against Stanford in 2013 — because of an unspecified violation of team rules. He never spoke publicly on the issue, though he was asked at the NFL Combine.Michigan State went 42-12 in Bullough’s four seasons with the Spartans, and 25-7 in Big Ten play, including the conference title in 2010 and 2013.After a brief NFL career with the Houston Texans and, in 2018, a stint on the Cleveland Browns’ practice squad, Bullough got into coaching. He served as grad assistant for Cincinnati in 2019 under Luke Fickell, Alabama from 2020 to 2022 under Nick Saban (winning the College Football Playoff in his first year) and Notre Dame under Marcus Freeman in 2023. Freeman kept Bullough on as his linebackers coach last year, a season in which the Irish made it to the national championship game before losing to Ohio State.
Earlier this season, Bullough went viral in August for a video of him describing his detail-oriented approach during fall camp, citing knee bend and square tackling “when the s—‘s hard.”
Notre Dame finished the season 10-2, on a 10-game win streak, when it was left just outside the College Football Playoff bracket. Freeman and his team opted out of a bowl game, after terse words on the snub from AD Pete Bevacqua.Bullough coached a number of NFL draft picks in his career, including Dallas Turner (Minnesota Vikings), Christian Harris (Houston Texans), Henry To’oTo’o (Houston), Drew Sanders (Denver Broncos) and Jack Kiser (Jacksonville Jaguars).
Bullough won’t be the first in his family to coach at Michigan State. His grandfather, Hank, was an MSU guard and linebacker who won a national championship in 1952. Hank was also a well-regarded assistant coach on Duffy Daugherty’s staff from 1959 to 1969, including the national title teams in 1965 and 1966. He then went onto a pro coaching career that included stops with seven teams, including a head coaching tenure with the Buffalo Bills from 1985 to 1986.
After a year as the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator in 1993, he finished his coaching career with a homecoming to Michigan State, where he was an assistant on George Perles’ final team. He died in 2019.
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
With what transpired yesterday regarding Sherrone Moore, the latest opening on the coaching carousel now belongs to Michigan. Now, several names once thought to no longer be candidates elsewhere could be again with this availability as of yesterday in Ann Arbor.
Greg McElroy also discussed possible names who could be hires for the Wolverines in appearing on ‘SportsCenter’ on Thursday morning. That began with him addressing the candidacy of Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, whose name has reportedly come up to an extent this cycle, but certainly so after yesterday in this search specifically, depending on how he may feel about his future with the Crimson Tide.
“I’d start with Kalen DeBoer,” McElroy said. “You gotta wonder, though, is Kalen DeBoer really interested, and what do the optics look like? Kalen DeBoer is the ultimate competitor. Would he leave Alabama? It would look like he was running? I don’t know if he’s truly going to consider it, but it is Michigan. It’s a great job, and you have to listen to what they’re proposing.”
Through two seasons in Tuscaloosa, DeBoer is 19-7 (.731), including being 10-3 this season in making the SEC Championship and returning the Crimson Tide to the College Football Playoff. That’s not to mention all the successes he has had elsewhere coaching in college, namely as a head coach at Sioux Falls, Fresno State, and Washington, in which he led the Huskies all the way to an appearance in the national title game against, ironically, Michigan. However, despite some of his successes at ‘Bama, DeBoer did have his name come up to some point in rumors during the search at Penn State, and is seeing it come up even further now in this new one at Michigan.
From there, McElroy named three other possible candidates for the maize & blue. He first said two other college options in Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, who’s 27-12 (.692) the past three seasons with the Cardinals, and Washington’s Jedd Fisch, who’s 14-11 (.560) the past two seasons with the Huskies while also having ties to the program having spent two years on the offensive staff for the Wolverines. He then also named another option with connections to the program in Jesse Minter, who was their defensive coordinator for two seasons under Jim Harbaugh and is still with him now with the Los Angeles Chargers, but with McElroy noting that it may be time for Michigan to move on from those involved in or connected to their past two tenures.
“Ultimately, I think this will come down to either Jeff Brohm at Louisville or Jedd Fisch at Washington. I think those are probably the two best candidates,” said McElroy. “They have an elite quarterback in Bryce Underwood. They want someone that has a history of developing that position. Both Jedd Fisch and, if you look at what Jeff Brohm’s done in (his) career? They’ve done a great job.”
“And Jesse Minter is the other name to keep an eye on, the defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers,” McElroy added. “But, like what Paul (Finebaum) just said, I think distancing themselves from the Harbaugh era? That’s what many Michigan people want at this point, given some of the hurdles that they’ve had the last two years in the court of public opinion.”
We’re less than day since this job even came open, although, based on the details, it may have been trending this way for some time, at Michigan. That leaves a lot to still unfold, including more major names like some of these ones, who could become targets in the coming time for the Wolverines.
Lansing — The Michigan Senate voted unanimously this week in favor of a bill that would prevent the state’s Unemployment Insurance Agency from continuing to try to recoup jobless aid overpayments that were made during the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting as many as 350,000 people.
Many lawmakers have reported receiving a deluge of calls from constituents, in recent weeks, after the agency began sending out letters, wanting money back from people whom state officials believe received more assistance than they should have during the pandemic. The messages came after the settlement of a three-year court battle over the repayment effort, which allowed the agency to resume collections.
Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, contended that the Unemployment Insurance Agency was demanding money back from low-income and gig workers who were simply trying to access a financial support system that was available to them in 2020.
“Somewhere along the line, in the maze of boxes that they have to check every week to stay compliant, there was one box that was unchecked,” Irwin said. “And now, the UIA comes after them alleging fraud, turning their life upside down, sending them threatening letters.”
The Senate bill, which passed Tuesday in a vote of 35-0, would require the agency to waive the recovery of improperly paid benefits if they were distributed more than three years ago. The first cases of COVID-19 in Michigan were identified in March 2020, five years ago. The pandemic and government efforts to combat the spread of the virus spurred a rush of unemployment claims and a wave of fraud.
The bill still allows the state to seek repayments that were “the result of the claimant’s fraud.”
Both Democratic and Republican senators — Democrats have a majority in the Senate — voted for the measure Tuesday. However, it will have to be approved by the GOP-controlled House and signed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to become law.
Jason Palmer, the Unemployment Insurance Agency’s director, said in a statement on Sept. 8 that his staff was “legally obligated” to seek the repayments from the pandemic if they were improper. Roughly 350,000 workers with claims in collections dating back to March 2020 would be required to return the unemployment benefits they received, the agency has said.
The value of the overpayments, many of which lawmakers believe were made or sought by accident, has been estimated at $2.7 billion. The Unemployment Insurance Agency faced a tidal wave of claims and fraudulent activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the state’s jobless rate reached as high as 22.7% in April 2020.
Palmer has said the overpayments primarily resulted from claimants not providing the requested or required proof of employment or income, starting a job but continuing to certify for benefits as if they were unemployed and not satisfying the required work search activities.
“In these situations, we have a legal and fiduciary duty to recover the funds,” Palmer previously said. “The unemployment trust fund is taxpayer money, and we must be responsible stewards of it.”
Much of the unemployment money in question flowed through the federal government. Many business groups, like the National Federation of Independent Business, have voiced concerns that the U.S. Department of Labor might try to force the state to reimburse the federal government for the overpayments if they’re specifically forgiven by the Legislature.
“We would still like to see a waiver or waiver language because we don’t want to see the state end up with a budget crisis,” said Amanda Fisher, Michigan state director for the National Federation of Independent Business.
Lawmakers attempted to address that concern in the bill by adding a provision that says the new policy doesn’t obligate the Unemployment Trust Fund for any amount of money.
Brian Calley, president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan, called the new language an improvement. But Calley said he wants to see a specific statement in the bill that makes it clear that employers will not be assessed any additional liability because of the policy.
Forgiving the overpayments isn’t the problem, Calley said. It’s the potential liability to the small businesses that fund the Unemployment Trust Fund, he said.
“You could inadvertently create a massive obligation for small businesses,” said Calley, a former lieutenant governor.
Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, who’s running for governor, was among 16 Republicans who voted for the bill Tuesday. He said it was a shame that lawmakers were still dealing with the “ineptitude” of Whitmer’s administration.
From the other side of the aisle, Irwin said the Unemployment Insurance Agency was acting “irresponsibly” in seeking the repayments from the pandemic.
“They bully our residents,” Irwin said. “I’ve had residents … who have paid UIA back money, not because they owed, but because they’re scared. They’re bullied. And they’re harassed by the agency.”
Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, the proposal’s sponsor, called on the House to pass it next week before the holidays.
“They should do the right thing,” Camilleri said Wednesday in an interview.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
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