Hear the Students! We Rally With UAKU!

Unionization is the natural conclusion when an administration igrnores Shared Governance. A university that doesn’t respect its workers cannot respect its students. A university that doesn’t invest in sustainability cannot claim to care about our future.

Students, Faculty, and Academic Staff rally to demand a contract. Photo Credit: Sasha

SASHA

I am an undergraduate student at KU. I also work on Shared Governance in the Student and University Senates, which represent the voice of the student body.

Unionization is not a choice faculty made lightly, it is a choice faculty were forced to make after decades of institutional neglect. No where is this institutional neglect more apparent than in shared governance. Despite having one of the most powerful Student Senates in the country, there is still one major limitation: Everything we do is at the advice and consent of the chancellor.

This is not real power – and the university knows it. Students, faculty, and staff voluntarily serve on these bodies out of a passion for improving the university. Most of this time is not paid, we do it because we care. What does the Chancellor do with our input? Nothing!

• Initiatives we propose languish for months while we wait for a response from the Chancellor.
• Items we control get overruled without notice.
• Last year we came back from summer to find the student fee, the 24 million dollars Senate Controls, was changed without any consultation.
• The Emily Taylor Center, Multicultural Center, and Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity were closed without notice.
• The Edwards campus fee was raised, despite only receiving half the services of the Lawrence campus.

Again and again, the pattern is clear - Senate asks to have input on housing policies, and we get ignored. We ask for input on hiring policies, and we get ignored. We ask KU to recognize the genocide in Palestine, and we get ignored, we ask for input on environmental policies, and… say it with me now… we get ignored.

The Student Senate represents a plurality of voices from across the university, so it is rare for us to reach a unanimous consensus. But last year, as part of the Green New Deal for KU, the voice of the Student Body unanimously expressed their solidarity with UAKU and the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition. The Student Body recognizes that Faculty, Staff, and Students have no real power unless we take the power. Just like the university has ignored governance, they have tried to ignore the Union, but the Union is different. It does not operate at the Advice and Consent of the Chancellor. It operates at the Advice and Consent of US!

UAKU fights for the same student issues we have fought for in governance - accessible classrooms free from roaches, high quality instructors, sabbaticals to support curriculum development, and a university that values, not shuns, its diversity.

KU is not unique in waging this fight. Unionization efforts at other universities teach us the importance of solidarity, a campus divided begs, a campus united bargains. At Rutgers, The strongest group of university unions in the country has a wall that makes collective demands and wins. The fight does not end with the Faculty and Academic Staff. After UAKU wins their contract, contract negotiations begin for the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition. Other universities teach us that we do not have to stop there. Across the entire University of California system, Undergraduate Student Workers also have union representation. There is no reason the same thing can’t happen in Kansas.

Real power is possible. It is time we stop pleading with the Chancellor and claim it!

SARAH
I am a student here and the President of Sunrise KU.

I am standing here today in solidarity with the staff and faculty who are the backbone of this university

Because let’s be clear - without you, there is no KU.
You teach us.
You advise us.
You’re shaping the leaders of tomorrow.

So why is KU treating you like you don’t matter today?

And as a student, I'm disappointed

KU’s word for word mission is “To educate leaders, build healthy communities, and make discoveries that change the world."

But how can that be true when this university refuses to support the people who make that mission possible?

How can you say you build healthy communities when there is mold is multiple buildings on campus?

How can KU claim to prepare us for the future while turning its back on the people who build that future every single day?

Today - and until things change - I hope Chancellor Girod hears us.

Hears us loud and clear as he sits on a salary that we, the students, help pay.

When he says this is “the strongest the university has ever been.”

We see the truth:

• Millions in deferred maintenance. [THAT AINT RIGHT]
• Refusing to sign a fair contract with UAKU. [THAT AINT RIGHT]
• Hiring freezes and rising tuition. [THAT AINT RIGHT]
• No sustainability plan. [THAT AINT RIGHT]
• No carbon neutrality goal.

AND THAT AINT RIGHT!

As a student, I want to learn from professors who are respected , supported, and given the financial security they deserve.

I want to graduate from a university that invests in its community.

Because when KU neglects its staff and faculty, students pay the price.

When KU cuts corners, students feel it in our classrooms, our labs, and our futures.

This fight is about all of us.

Our struggles and our battles are connected.

A university that doesn’t respect its workers cannot respect its students.

A university that doesn’t invest in sustainability cannot claim to care about our future.