Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Thank you so much for your support of Alex Chen in her grievance case. You have signed petitions, talked to your colleagues, and showed up in full force to Alex’s Step 3 hearing this past Monday. I am writing to say thank you, provide an update from that meeting, and let you know about the next steps.
As one of our grievance co-chairs for this year, I was part of the team that sat down at the table with Alex, Sharon Haar (the Architecture Program Chair), and representatives from Academic Human Resources (HR).
Unfortunately, Professor Haar refused to meet in public, pulled the blinds the conference room windows, and even called the police on us (see photos to the left)! Despite her best efforts, your low roar from the hallway was palpable and clearly showed that you care about Alex’s personal circumstances, and the implications of her case.
To review the facts of the case, Alex applied for a GSI position in the Architecture Program on April 13th. On August 17th Alex received an employment offer from Professor Haar to GSI Arch 515, and she returned a signed copy of the offer on August 18th. On August 31st, Professor Haar met with Alex to inform her that the Program was withdrawing the position because Alex, as a dual-degree student in Architecture and Engineering was enrolled in Engineering courses and not Architecture credits. Up until this point, nothing was amiss; however, Professor Haar then refused to pay Alex or provide the benefits promised in her written job offer.
As Article 9, Section C(9) of our contract states, “the type of employment may be changed or no employment may be given, after written notification. In such a case the salary (or other payment in lieu of salary), tuition waiver, and benefits for the specified period shall not be less than that specified in the written job offer.” GEO walked away from the bargaining table in 2013 when HR tried to eliminate this clause from our contract.
In a September 21st grievance, Professor Haar stated that even though Alex was the Arch 515 faculty’s top choice for the GSI position, she was unqualified because she was “not really an Architecture student.” As such, Professor Haar further stated that she was not obligated to abide by Article IX, because, despite a signed offer of employment, in her view, Alex “had never really been hired.” This is all despite Alex having met all of the terms and conditions listed in the offer that Professor Haar prepared and both she and Alex signed. At no point did Alex sign anything stating that she would enroll in Architecture rather than Engineering courses.
This twisted logic continued on Monday when Professor Haar and Academic HR implied that Alex was “irresponsible” in applying to GSI in Architecture. To quote Professor Haar, “We expect applicants to do their due diligence and only apply if they are architecture students.” Ironically, when asked if she had reviewed Alex’s cover letter or resume — which stated repeatedly that she was a dual-degree student — Professor Haar replied, “No, I did not.” She also admitted that she did not check whether Alex was enrolled in Architecture courses before choosing to hire her. In other words, Professor Haar is trying to assert that Alex is responsible for a hiring decision that Professor Haar made, even though Professor Haar made a decision without doing her “due diligence” in reviewing any of the evidence she was given.
Academic HR now has until December 9th to make a decision of whether they will uphold the Architecture Program’s refusal to honor Article IX(C)9 of our contract. As of today, HR has communicated to us that they will be in contact sometime in the next week with their decision. In the meanwhile, GEO is taking Alex’s case to the Board of Regents because they are in charge of the whole University, including Academic Human Resources. We will ask them, as our employers, to do right by Alex and by our contract. We have requested to detail this case to the full board in their public meeting on November 19th in the Anderson Room of the Michigan Union. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 4pm, and comments will not begin until after the board concludes their regular business. If you would like to be kept up to date on the regents’ meeting plans or anything else regarding this grievance, please email Jessica and I at grrrchair@geo3550.org as well as following @geo3550 on Twitter and Facebook.
Again, thank you so much for standing with Alex in what has been a very difficult time. Your support means everything.
In Solidarity,
Nick Caverly
GEO Grievance Co-Chair
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