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We've received an urgent request from David Brodsky for action to save the Institute for Labor Studies at UMKC. Brodsky's letter is printed below, with a background letter and petition text below the fold. Please consider taking a few moments to act tonight or tomorrow (Tuesday, June 19) so that the petition can be delivered on Wednesday, June20.
The Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) and the position of its director, Judy Ancel (an AAUP member) , has been terminated. After a meeting with Chancellor Guy Bailey, Ancel was told that she would hear about a final decision by Wednesday June 20.
Please sign Ancel's petition to Chancellor Bailey TODAY (see below) so that she can deliver it before Wednesday. To sign, please directly e-mail ancelj@umkc.edu to add your name and title to the petition.
Besides signing Ancel's petition, please write a short personal note
directly to Bailey asking him to reinstate ILS and Ancel's position. GUY H. BAILEY, CHANCELLOR UMKC; e-mail: chancellor@umkc.edu
ILS serves not only UMKC and the Kansas City community but two other UM system campuses and communities in Columbia and St. Louis.
While the reason given for termination (ex post facto) was budgetary, the decision to terminate is purely ideological. The UMKC fiscal contribution to ILS is miniscule, most funding comes from organized labor.
The decision to terminate is also an ideological attack on the UMKC Department of Economics, which houses ILS and specializes in heterodox (non-neo-liberal) economics. It also damages relations between UMKC and the broader labor community, which funds and is served by ILS and its many programs.
Ancel is an invaluable resource in terms of her knowledge of labor relations, labor history, and grievance procedures. Firing her and ending her program comes just at the time when the Missouri Supreme Court has reenabled collective bargaining by public employees. Now that collective bargaining for public employees is back on the table, Ancel's expertise is needed more than ever, above all for UMKC faculty and staff.
For more background on the petition, see Ancel's introductory statement below.
Apologies for the very short notice, we just received the petition.
Thanks very much for your activism. Please distribute to all your networks with an URGENT message.
Sincerely,
David Brodsky
BACKGROUND: SAVE THE INSTITUTE FOR LABOR STUDIES
Dear Colleague:
We are writing you to ask you to sign the attached petition to save The
Institute for Labor Studies (ILS). ILS is the only labor education program in Western Missouri. It is a partnership between UMKC and Longview Community College. It has one full-time staff member who administers the program which includes the state-wide Certificate in Labor Studies, other credit classes, non-credit custom training for unions, conferences, ILS's radio show The Heartland Labor Forum and an active relationship with schools and a number of community organizations.
On May 30th UMKC Provost Bruce Bubacz sent a letter to Longview Community College stating that UMKC was ending its partnership with Longview to sponsor The Institute for Labor Studies and that it was closing ILS as of June 30th. No reason was given.
ILS Director Judy Ancel and Economics Department Chair Jim Sturgeon were copied on the letter. That's how they were notified that Ancel, after over 18 years of service to UMKC, would be laid off, and the Institute, which is 22 years old, would be closed. There were no discussions beforehand with us about the contributions of ILS to the university and the community or the impact of this decision, and there was no opportunity given the Economics Department to defend the program. We were later told that this decision was part of the 1% cuts mandated by the Curators.
On June 13th Ancel met with Chancellor Guy Bailey and outlined the following reasons why he should reverse the decision to close ILS.
o Faculty Governance: The decision to close ILS was done with no
consultation and undermines our strong tradition of faculty governance over issues of curriculum.
o No money will be saved: The university will save no money by closing ILS. Most of the budget comes from University Extension and is earmarked money for a state-wide cooperative Certificate in Labor Studies program at UMKC, UMC, and UMSL. To pull UMKC out of this program will destroy it, and the earmarked funds will no longer be allocated to UMKC. The money UMKC will lose by closing ILS is almost twice as much as what it spends.
o ILS effectively fulfills UMKC's mission: ILS creates partnerships with the Kansas City community and helps professionalize labor relations on the union side. ILS brings UMKC to the public through education in high schools, other colleges, with civic organizations, in the immigrant community and in the media.
o It's a question of balance: While the university amply serves the business community, the closure of ILS will leave no academic program which focuses on the workplace. ILS enjoys very substantial support in the labor community. The members of the ILS Labor Advisory Board are extremely concerned about the possible closure of the program. This is a constituency which is very politically active and has been a strong supporter of higher education.
Chancellor Bailey told Ancel that he was very sorry for the manner in which the decision was communicated to her but that he has to show a 1% cut in his costs irrespective of the net effect. He promised to look into the matter and to give her a decision by Wednesday of next week.
We must therefore appeal to you as well as to the community partners of ILS to defend the program. Please email Judy Ancel at ancelj@umkc.edu to add your name to the attached petition. We think you will agree that ILS is worth saving and that we all have an interest in questioning the manner in which this decision was made.
Please respond by June 19. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Peter Eaton
Interim Chair
Department of Economics
Judy Ancel
ILS Director
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Petition language
The Institute for Labor Studies is an effective program in fulfilling UMKC's mission as an urban and land-grant institution to be a 'strong partner with the Kansas City community.' to 'develop a professional workforce through collaboration in urban issues and education,' to provide 'life-long learning,' 'interdisciplinary cooperation,' to 'nurture positive, visionary, empowering environments,' and to 'collaborate, partner and interact,' and is a model of urban education and community outreach,
The decision by the administration to close the Institute for Labor Studies and end the statewide Certificate in Labor Studies program bypasses the essential educational role of faculty governance in making decisions about curriculum,
The Institute for Labor Studies serves working people whose organizations are an important constituency for support of higher education, who strongly support the program and who are very concerned about the elimination of the only worker and workplace centered program that the university offers,
The closure of ILS will create a net loss in revenue to the university because most of its budget is earmarked for a state-wide Certificate in Labor Studies program,
Therefore, we the undersigned faculty and staff of UMKC urge the Chancellor to reverse the decision to close The Institute for Labor Studies and restore its budget.
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