Union Group Sends Bogus Invitation to Meet with Provost

Deceptive email disrupts planned event for new and returning part-time faculty

January 13, 2015
50
Twitter Facebook
Provost Jean Morrison says the University is considering filing an unfair labor practices charge against the union. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

A group that supports the efforts of part-time faculty to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) sent a bogus invitation “on behalf of the Provost” to a reception that the provost had planned to hold with those faculty members Wednesday evening. The fake invitation was sent to members of the BU community, including department chairs and administrative leadership, last Friday afternoon by John Griese (ENG’15). Griese signed his note “on behalf of A Better BU,” an organization that shares a street address—100 Talcott Ave., Watertown, Mass.—with SEIU Local 509. Griese’s invitation, which urged “alumni, students, staff, and full-time faculty” to gather at the reception, included such sarcastic statements as “Refreshments will be served to the BU part-time faculty in lieu of pay raises, health benefits, and job security,” and “This may be the first and last time the Provost holds a reception with part-time faculty.”

University Provost Jean Morrison says she had planned a Wednesday evening reception with part-time faculty, but hadn’t sent invitations, indicating that Griese had received inside information about the event. She says her office decided not to follow through with the reception in the wake of confusion generated by the fraudulent invitation sent by A Better BU .

The reception was scheduled to coincide with the January 13 mailing by the National Labor Relations Board of ballots for eligible part-time faculty to vote on representation by the union. The outcome of the mail-in vote will be determined by a simple majority of those part-time faculty who return their ballots.

“We have approached this election with the respect and seriousness of purpose that we believe our part-time faculty deserve and that the issues warrant,” says Morrison. “We are deeply disappointed that the union has chosen to engage in this kind of unprofessional and fundamentally dishonest activity.”

Morrison says the University is considering filing an unfair labor practices charge against the union.

Griese, reached by telephone, said he didn’t have time to talk about the invitation. Asked if it had been authorized by the union, he hung up.

Representatives from SEIU Local 509 did not return phone calls.

  • Share this story
  • 50 Comments Add

Share

Union Group Sends Bogus Invitation to Meet with Provost

Share

  • Art Jahnke

    Senior Contributing Editor

    Art Janke

    Art Jahnke began his career at the Real Paper, a Boston area alternative weekly. He has worked as a writer and editor at Boston Magazine, web editorial director at CXO Media, and executive editor in Marketing & Communications at Boston University, where his work was honored with many awards. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 50 comments on Union Group Sends Bogus Invitation to Meet with Provost

  3. If I had a dollar for every biased, one-sided article published by BU Today, the official mouthpiece of the anti-union BU administration, I would be as well-paid as President Brown! I still wouldn’t have his free swanky digs.

    Reply
    Link

  4. Why would that be described it as “bogus” and not as “satirical”? It’s the provost’s job, I suppose, to misdescribe what sounds like an obviously satirical letter as “fundamentally dishonest.” Is that also this reporter’s job?

    Reply
    Link

  6. Resending the BUToday email, the news-arm of the administration, with this article might be their way to communicate their form of intimidation and anger.

    Reply
    Link

  7. Deceptive email? It’s very clear satire and signed by its author. I’d say this article was deceptive if it weren’t so ham-fisted in its attempts to produce a narrative of the nefarious union.

    Reply
    Link

  9. I am thoroughly disappointed in both the BU Today and the BU administration’s response to this well-intentioned satirical invitation. Where is the journalistic integrity? This student has legitimate concerns about the unfair labor practices that BU employs regarding its adjunct faculty. It is deplorable to try to publicly shame him for speaking out on an issue that he, and many other BU students, deeply care about. As a BU community, we all have a stake in ensuring that the quality of our adjunct faculty is uncompromised. And if that means allowing them to unionize in order to ensure that the BU administration is compensating them fairly, then they should be permitted and even encouraged to do so.

    While I agree that there may have been better ways for John to make his point, I applaud him for speaking out and standing up for what he believes is right. Isn’t that a quality that BU claims to promote? After all, BU loves to brag about having Martin Luther King, Jr. as an alumnus. But apparently speaking out against perceived injustice was only okay when MLK did it, not when John Griese does it.

    I encourage the BU Today to retract this malicious article and for the administration to actually listen to the concerns of students and faculty. Maybe it’ll finally learn that the quality of the University is determined by the strength of its community, not by billion-dollar fundraising campaigns.

    Reply
    Link

  10. It seems that BU Today and the Administration have the same understanding of satire and humor as the extremists who attacked Charlie Hebdo in Paris. While BU should be proud to produce a student with obvious wit and creativity at BU, it decided to lash out in yet another effort to paint unions as evil.

    Frankly, I’m appalled that BU is so opposed to giving it’s adjunct faculty, the ones who do all the work for less pay, no benefits and no job security, the right to collectively bargain. I wonder which side their most cherished alumnus, Martin Luther King Jr. would be on.

    Je suis John Griese!

    Reply
    Link

  11. If the provost is that easily flummoxed by clear satire than BU is indeed in trouble. This alleged problem is a simple distraction from the real issues. The fact is that adjuncts are a critical part of the university and that they deserve real living wages, benefits and the right to collectively bargain.

    Reply
    Link

  12. Aside from this immediate issue about the “fake invitation,” I take this opportunity again to support the adjunct faculty in their effort to unionize. Don McLean, DGE ’65; CLA (“CAS”) ’67 & a stint at GRS.

    Reply
    Link

  13. I guess the Provost’s office doesn’t know much about what their departments are up to.
    The reception was announced by the MET College Arts and Administration program last week — it wasn’t “inside info” according to my friends who got that invite.
    And, if there was going to be an event for part-time faculty to be held TOMORROW, why hadn’t the “official” invite been sent out, anyway?

    Reply
    Link

  16. As a part-time faculty member, I see this bogus and disruptive invitation as a clear indicator that the SEIU has no intention of responding to any of my needs, interests, or opinions. This sort of stunt — with an SEIU address moreover! — simply shows that they want to open a power struggle between themselves and the administration, and as they have done in numerous other cases, used the workers as a captive income source and as pawns for photo ops.

    If some union wants to come in and represent me to the Administration, they’d better show they care about students, about education, and the importance of collaboration among all parts of the community.

    I’m not here to whitewash the Administration but I will not tolerate SEIU’s infantile provocations and I see it as hostile, not “satire,” and not “well-intentioned.” It looks like the ‘light-hearted’ beginning of standard union bullying.

    – Andrew Wolfe
    Metropolity

    Reply
    Link

    1. Agreed, I was in 100% support of the union until I saw this, now I have some doubts about it. Yes it is satire and yes BU is using it as propaganda in a somewhat disingenuous manner, but being sent from the union headquarters by way of a student is a turn off. BU admin needs to deal with some issues regarding the contingent faculty, whether they are adjuncts or full timers, but I am not about this union’s value and motives other than their own profits.

      Reply
      Link

    2. Well said, Andrew. I have been hearing about this union’s relentless coercive pursuits of potential voters. I, too, think that this is not satire, which is defined as, “the use of humor or ridicule to expose people’s stupidity or vices.” John Griese was instead clearly working for the union to sneeringly disrupt what should be a serious decision making process by part-time faculty. SEIU clearly doesn’t want the no-union side of the equation to be vetted. That is indeed serious, and seriously anti-democratic, business.

      Reply
      Link

      1. I agree – I supported the union, but now I’m not sure – how unprofessional! Why would faculty want to be represented by someone as childish and sarcastic as this?

        Reply
        Link

        1. Laura, it’s a satire by a student support of the adjunct campaign, not something sent by the union. You are free once again to support the organizing drive. Please vote Yes, if you’re eligible.

          Reply
          Link

      2. The large majority of BU adjuncts want a fair vote on whether to affiliate with SEIU’s Adjunct Action campaign. the BU administration wants anything but a fair vote, because they know that adjuncts will overwhelmingly vote to unionize.

        Provost Morrison is beyond disingenuous when she says “We have approached this election with the respect and seriousness of purpose that we believe our part-time faculty deserve and that the issues warrant.” Apparently distortion, stonewalling, intimidation & outright lies constitute BU’s definition of respect & seriousness of purpose.

        I wonder if she will be allowed to keep her job after the adjuncts vote to unionize.

        Reply
        Link

      3. “John Griese was instead clearly working for the union …”

        With respect, Patty, you cannot possibly know what Mr. Griese has in mind. Everyone else can recognize satire when they see it. But given your opening statement, it looks like you deliberately choose to interpret his actions in the worst possible light.

        Anyone familiar with SEIU, like me, knows there is no “relentlessly coercive” pursuit of votes. If you value a serious decision-making process, please try again to contribute. Scare tactics do not qualify.

        Reply
        Link

  17. “University Provost Jean Morrison says she had planned a Wednesday evening reception with part-time faculty, but hadn’t sent invitations”

    There had been no invitation for a Jan 14 event by Jan 9? Now on Jan 13 they decided to cancel it? Great move. Provost probably had planned to send out invitations on Jan 14 so none of the invited would make it.

    Reply
    Link

  18. For the better part of a year I have been following the valiant attempts of the BU Adjunct Faculty to gain union representation only to watch it meet stonewalling by the BU Administration over and over again. At the penultimate moment, here is another attempt to derail the vote. Don’t be fooled. I support the Adjuncts desire for decent pay, health benefits and pensions. They are an invaluable part of the education at BU and they deserve to be represented by SEIU.

    Reply
    Link

  19. Andrew Wolfe:

    You are partially right, the union means to provoke, and initiate a power struggle. This is true. You implore the union to show they care about the community and collaboration. What has collaboration with BU gotten you and your part time faculty colleagues?

    -How long have you worked there? When is the last time you had a raise?
    -Do you have the stability of a contract that lasts longer than a semester contract?

    You say this is the beginning of infantile bullying by “the union”. Who is the bully? The student who wrote this, who is taking a stand to defend his faculty from harassment and union busting by the administration? Or the union who your colleagues have chosen to help them organize?

    You are right to be angry, but point it at the real bully. You are in fact doing the administrations work for them by painting the union as something other than dozens of your colleagues – who have worked tirelessly, for over a year, to get the respect, pay and treatment you deserve as a vital part of this community.

    Collaboration can come after the union (you and your co-workers!) have won your union.

    Ty

    Reply
    Link

    1. Good points, Ty. A union campaign involves a power struggle, no doubt about it. Too bad Andrew has no understanding that work always involves struggle, & that unions keep employers from having too much power over employees.

      Andrew, let’s struggle for power, by all means. But don’t pretend that it’s not happening already.

      Reply
      Link

  20. Remember when the administration freaked out that a student wrote a satirical piece mocking their union busting?

    Oh wait, they are just scared their employees will actually have a real say in their work lives

    Reply
    Link

  23. Tomorrow’s BU Today headline: “BU Provost to Lodge Formal Complaint with Federal Agency after Student Invites Top-Level University Administrators to Reception for Top-Level Administrators Planned by BU Provost”

    Also, I’ve never gotten a BU Today sent to me at anytime other than the hour between 5 and 6am. This doesn’t seem like sincere “reporting” at all. Seems like BU is strategizing and creating an adversarial environment.

    Reply
    Link

  24. As a former BA and MA student and current 10-year employee of BU, I’ve seen adjunct faculty in certain colleges (SED particularly) treated as the horror stories we all read about. However, in colleges like the College of Engineering adjuncts are treated quite differently. Perhaps adjunct faculty, who often have separate full-time jobs or write books (to make money) should dedicate themselves to Tenure-track positions, which benefit the University as well as themselves instead of focusing on work/life balance, their personal research and so forth. As a ten year employee, I’d be shocked to see more than a 1% annual raise despite my increased responsibilities…wish I could get a union to allow me to make more money for having less responsibilities.

    Reply
    Link

    1. This is part of me internal debate on being for or against this union. Adjunct positions are part time and held by some of the most educated people on the planet. If they were really unhappy they can quit. We are not talking about a downtrodden class of underprivileged people. IF you have a PhD you had the privilage of spending 5-7 years as a scholar by your own choice. Prof’s are the intellectual elites. On the other hand colleges and universities are clearly taking advantage of an over supply of PhDs in certain fields to reduce costs vs hiring tenure track folks. As you say this seems to be vary widely depending on the field. All the adjuncts I have interacted with are professionals who have other jobs and teach a class or two for fun and extra cash but it sounds like certain departments are meeting their teaching needs by patching together lots of adjuncts and that is not right.

      Reply
      Link

      1. “If they were really unhappy they can quit”?? I know many PhD holders who couldn’t find decent jobs after having failed to land on academic positions. A friend of mine even had to hide the fact s/he went to grad school in order to get a lowly clerk position. She is not alone. That is why gazillions of PhD holders cling to adjunct positions, especially in humanities.

        Reply
        Link

      2. It’s so tiresome to hear anti-union toadies parrot the line “If you don’t like it here, quit.” Well, there’s another alternative: if you don’t like it here, organize to improve things. That’s what BU’s adjuncts are doing. Then if you don’t like it, Tom, you can … feel welcome at BU anyway. Union supporters will not tell you to leave an institution if you’re committed to it. you should not say the same thing to pro-union adjuncts who are dedicated to their university & their students.

        Reply
        Link

  25. I can’t find confirmation of A Better BU’s address, but 100 Talcott Avenue is a multi-office building address. With a quick google search I can also find that the same address is shared by a Scholastic company and real estate group (and former home to Communispace and StudentUniverse, it appears). Is BU going to suggest they’re in bed with the union next because they are a cover for the union too?

    Reply
    Link

  26. This clearly biased reporting – including the strategic resending of the BU Today e-mail in the afternoon – is so disappointing. Yet what is actually revealed here seems to be a failing of the provost’s office: a reception for part-time faculty on the 14th, with no official invitation actually ever sent to those for whom the event was intended, and then cancelled on the 13th (because of a sarcastic e-mail that wasn’t even sent to part-time faculty – only “chairs and leadership”)? I don’t think the inclusion of this information in the article quite made the case it intended: rather than vilifying Griese’s satire, it sheds light on yet another way adjunct faculty are too frequently treated dismissively by the universities for which they dedicate their work, passion, teaching, and careers. This is certainly not a commercial for what to expect after earning a PhD.

    Reply
    Link

  27. The BU Today article leaves me wondering:
    1. Does Provost Jean Morrison sincerely believe the recipients of John Griese’s “invitation” are unable to distinguish obvious satire from a “fraudulent invitation”?
    2. Why this sudden fear of satire? (These days, I am quite worried about people who cannot live with satire.)
    3. Was this first time part time faculty meet and greet really scheduled by accident to happen on the day the ballots are supposed to arrive??

    Reply
    Link

  28. I am on the BU part-time faculty union organizing committee, working alongside others from across the university to promote fair compensation and better working conditions for part-time faculty. I have been honored to work with these smart and dedicated faculty colleagues, advocating for changes that are not only fair to those of use who teach, but also essential to create the kind of learning conditions that will help our students.

    When I started this, I didn’t know much about unions or SEIU, but what I have found among the union staff is a group of people who are professional, committed, and extremely collaborative in supporting our efforts. From the beginning, they made it clear that this is OUR UNION, and have helped us to build a campaign that grew from our experiences and used our own voices.

    I don’t know John Griese and never heard of him until I saw this article in BU Today. But he is apparently among the many, many supporters of the union effort and I am grateful for that. You can find evidence of other support from faculty, alumni and students at buadjuncts.org.

    To my part-time faculty colleagues: this is our union, folks, and this our election. I for one am voting YES, and I hope that you will too.

    Reply
    Link

  29. I am so, so grateful to the many commenters for providing much needed context for this article. Thank you.

    As a former student and current employee myself, I hope that the article and comments all stay up, as a shining example of what not to do in journalism. As for the administration not understanding satire, and failing to send actual invitations to an important and emotionally charged event… the amount of bad will that this demonstrates is baffling. I’m disappointed that BU is no better than the worst of the higher ed in its treatment of part-time faculty at the highest levels (locally may be a different story). BU is leading in so many respects. Addressing part-time faculty needs in the midst of SO MUCH rhetoric about the essential nature of faculty seems like a no-brainer. Yet all I continue to see is hostility.

    Reply
    Link

      1. That address is a multi-office complex, which means MANY people share that same address, which BU Today would have known if they cared to actually fact check instead of just throwing around accusations.

        Reply
        Link

  31. This article represents the fear that the administration and its ideological wing, BU today (which gets thrust into my email EVERYDAY without me ever having asked for it), have about the union. “OMG, students are aligning with a UNION? We must stop them at all costs!” Why is it that BU is so scared of this when other universities like Tufts have heartily welcomed an adjunct union? What is it about the BU administration that is so politically backwards, sad and desperate? Makes me ashamed. Maybe BU students, along with adjunct faculty, should leave BU for more enlightened universities like Tufts, which are not only enlightened but evidently COMPETENT administratively to be able to have a financially viable institution and also treat adjunct workers decently. So I guess that’s it: BU ADMINISTRATORS AND OFFICIALS ARE INCOMPETENT. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/27/part-time-professors-tufts-get-better-pay-job-security-through-first-union-contract/DqDik8plj87bStvIaXk3eN/story.html

    Reply
    Link

    1. Dear BU Prof, I believe you can block receipt of BU Today, but only by blocking (all) other BU messages. It’s up up you to decide if it’s worth it. Personally I enjoy seeing the BU admin embarrass themselves, both in original articles & in the comments that call them out so effectively.

      Reply
      Link

  33. The tone and style of this story is off key and vaguely threatening. Strange, especially as a response to humor. The logic and timing about the invitation process is so muddled in this account that it suggests there is something amiss with it.

    Reply
    Link

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today