I am a teacher at Ithaca College, not a dockworker.

01/29/17

Contributed by Kurt Lichtmann

My priority as instructor is serving my students.

Unlike the factory or the corporation where you unwittingly serve invisible shareholders, I consciously and lovingly serve my very visible students. Hence, the idea of an adjunct teachers' strike at I.C. is abhorrent to me. No matter what our concerns as part-time instructors, I will not deprive my students of any of the education that they expect, and that they and their parents paid for. I am not so absorbed in my own self-importance that I will place it before the trust of my students.

Are old union hardball tactics for the dock, the factory, and the coal mine appropriate for bargaining at a non-profit private professional college, in this case, my beloved Alma Mater, Ithaca College? Are we creative and intelligent enough to find ways to influence bargaining that do not steal from our students?

kurt lichtmann
I.C. M.M.Ed. '82
HSHP PALS Part Time Lecturer

 

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https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20170129215326370