School districts have two general courses of action to maintain fiscal solvency and raise student achievement in the face of drastic funding cuts. They can reduce spending on teachers, a strategy opposed by many teachers' unions because it threatens teacher job security. They can also cut expenditures in other areas such as instructional…

Two apparently widely held beliefs among college administrators may be harmful to higher education. The first is that faculty collective bargaining is somehow unprofessional and automatically harmful to educational purposes. The second is that bargaining erodes the authority of administrators and trustees, thereby preventing them from…

Presents an impasse resolution model for resolving teacher union negotiation impasses. It motivates citizens to participate in the bargaining process and provides an incentive to unions and administrators that makes the risks of failing to reach an agreement too substantial to disregard. (MD)

The need for a new professional role for teachers that requires the participation of teachers and their unions in the center of school governance is discussed. The concepts of "shared authority" and " collegiality" are measures of professionalism that teachers want to assimilate into their school operations. (MLW)

A study of a small employee-owned furniture company indicated that the three occupational groups agreed that management should have more influence in decisions affecting the future of the organization. On the other hand, issues which would directly affect employee welfare are seen as areas where control should be fairly evenly divided, with…

Sheds light on a growing conflict that has surfaced between urban communities and teachers' unions: the conflict over the sharing of power in school decision making. Discusses the actions of the Philadelphia Parents Union. (Author/IRT)

An examination of the structure of academic governance at six unionized four-year institutions--two public universities, two state colleges, and two private liberal arts colleges--shows that faculty unionization is one contextual factor, of many such factors, that affects change in the formal and informal decision-making structure. (Author/JMD)

This paper explores the implications for democratic policy making and school governance of collective bargaining with teachers. Based on a case study of the 1992 Teachers Strike in Detroit, Michigan, the research examines the relationships among actors involved in the strike and in its settlement. Findings of this research suggest that the strike…

The Yeshiva University court decision is examined, in which the faculty was included with administrators as managers of the university, negating any right of the faculty to unionize. The decision is discussed in light of research on the decision-making process at colleges and universities and the roles of professionals in these institutions. The…

Systemwide bargaining in higher education in four states (Florida, Minnesota, New York, Illinois) was studied to determine whether institutions were affected in the manner predicted by previous literature, whether the amounts of influence, or power, of various institutional decision-makers were affected, and whether the viewpoints of respondents…

The controversy surrounding the meaning of professionalism on American campuses is approached by examining the subject from an historical and trade union perspective. It is contended that faculty unions are compatible with professional needs and desires of faculty. The roots of the American college and university system are examined in conjunction…

Excerpts from magazine and newspaper interviews with the president of the American Federation of Teachers concerning unions and collective bargaining at colleges and universities are presented. Topics concern: professionalism and economic self-interest, unions and freedom of inquiry, merit pay, academic elitism, the political influence of college…

Questions about the appropriateness and goals of academic collective bargaining and its historical foundations are discussed. It is contended that collective bargaining insures that the principles of academic governance are practiced democratically. European universities had been nurtured for centuries on the medieval tradition of faculty…

Measures taken to cut costs at the expense of the faculty and the loss in academic quality are shown to be part of a well-organized plan being adopted throughout higher education. Problems have arisen from the activities of the private or semi-private corporate consulting organization in higher education. Taken as a whole, the uncritical use of…