By Arishita Gupta, Jackson Farrell, Surabhi Ashok
On Thursday, the Rutgers Board of Governors met at Winants Hall on the College Avenue campus.
The meeting commenced with a closed session. Outside, unionized faculty from the Rutgers—Adjunct Faculty Union(PTLFC-AFT), American Association of University Professors—American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) and Union of Rutgers Administrators (URA-AFT), as well as student protestors, gathered to demand that the board members defend the University against federal incursions into education.
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The DailyTargum also spoke with Christine O’Connell, president of the URA-AFT, about the unique experiences of its more than 2,500 members spanning all of New Jersey’s counties and the support they require from the administration and the University community.
O’Connell explained the various roles URA-AFT members play in the University’s operations, from facilitating the admissions and class registration processes, to implementing grants, to managing Rutgers facilities, grounds and dining.
Despite how ingrained they are in the University community, she explained that URA-AFT members lack the same freedoms and protections that students and other faculty members do — a characteristic that leaves them more vulnerable to uncertainty.
“The University administration commits to protecting certain folks, certain constituents,” O’Connell said. “It’s important to expand that ‘everyone’ towards your entire ‘Beloved Community’ … The loss of our employees, the loss of staff across the state — it has not only reputational loss but also impacts local economies in those areas, whether they be well-resourced or marginalized, lower-income communities.”
She added that progress often stalls because people argue that the state lacks the financial resources needed, but that the state would see more financial losses from not supporting the URA-AFT, given the University’s position as the state’s second-largest employer.
O’Connell asked students to be more cognizant of the work the URA-AFT’s members do, as their work affects the quality of their campus experience.
“I’m very concerned about the misalignment of goals espoused publicly of excellence and degrading those who provide excellence,” she said. “I would love if more students would recognize that without us, (you) wouldn’t have been admitted. Without us, (you) wouldn’t have classes or housing. There’s just a myriad of things that we take for granted, and the difficulty is, how do we make that more visible?”
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“I have spent the first 10 years of my life under dictatorship. I was personally affected by state violence in the country I was born in,” said Maria Dorigo, a community navigator for the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research. “The curtailment of freedom of speech and academic freedom is chilling … Academic institutions must function as defenders of free speech and spaces that protect critical thinking.”
Full article: U. unions, students hold protests during Board of Governors meeting
