During the 2021 Leadership Summit of the National Education Association last March, a prominent civil rights leader quoted the scholarship of 965 Vice President Mike Pierce.

The concluding keynote address of the NEA conference was delivered by the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. His speech, perhaps because he delivered it on a Sunday morning, moved in moments to a magnificent sermon on the importance and interconnectedness of education, organized labor and race.

Rev. Barber starts at 14:55, and the video link above should start at that point. He starts the topic that references Mike around 31:55 and name-drops our vice president about 32:30.* The address as well as the conference programs overall were conducted online on Zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic.

More recently, Mike, an associate professor of history with a Ph.D. from Ohio State University, saw his Nelson Hackett Project accepted into the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program of the National Parks Service, detailed in an article from the campus’s University Relations:

“In 1841, Hackett escaped enslavement in the frontier town of Fayetteville and fled to Canada, where he thought his freedom was secure. Despite opposition, he was extradited from Canada, becoming the first and only freedom seeker that Canada returned to bondage in the United States.”

Mike’s academic research considers aspects of the intersection of race and labor.

*While we’ve set the video to start with the Rev. Barber’s address, the tape begins with a prerecorded NEA statement then remarks from Takeru Nagayoshi, 2020 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, followed by comments by the national union’s secretary-treasurer, Noel Candelaria, who introduces Barber. Following the minister, NEA Vice President Princess R. Moss and President Becky Pringle close the conference. All have value.

Statement of the board of UA-Fayetteville Education Association, Local 965, April 30, 2021

We the Workers of Local 965 support Gillian Gullett, Sophie Hill and all their compatriots in calling for meaningful structural changes at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in the Title IX offices and in the campus at large, in order to better cultivate a culture of zero tolerance of sexual violence and harassment, of education in the ethics and responsibility of consent and bodily autonomy, and of restorative justice for survivors of sexual assault.

We applaud their achievement in getting the Chancellor to agree to the five demands put forward in the petition brought by Gullett and other signees. We also recognize that there is much more work to be done, that the ills of sexual harassment and assault are deeply imbricated with systems, attitudes, and procedures that cultivate toxic cultures where sexual assault and harassment are trivialized, informed consent is misunderstood or not understood at all, and where survivors of assault are less likely to be believed. These problems are bigger than the University of Arkansas, but that does not excuse University administrators, faculty, staff, and students from taking responsibility to bring about the cultural seachanges so desperately needed for the liberation of human beings from the evil of sexual violence.

Therefore, recognizing that the culture of violence and injustice at UA Fayetteville is not unique to our Northwest Arkansas campus, we hereby call on University of Arkansas System President Don Bobbit, the Board of Trustees and all UA System chancellors to implement changes in a similar vein at every institution through the UA System. We furthermore call on them to conduct critical evaluations of how to best fit these solutions for their given situation, and to produce roadmaps to implement actionable, concrete solutions. We ask that these evaluations, their results, and implementation plans be conducted, completed, reviewed and published by the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester.

We furthermore ask that the University Administration commit itself to the principles of restorative justice in crafting and carrying out its processes for investigating, issuing, and appealing charges of sexual violence, such that they are structured so as to be resistant to bad-faith litigation on the part of the guilty party, and that survivors of sexual violence are preferentially consulted at all parts of the development of such an appeals process to ensure that the new procedures are not only legal, but are effective aspects of the process of individual and community healing. (This article from the Canadian Department of Justice includes a summary exposition from the authors of the original article on how these principles may look in practice.)

We ask the Chancellor and the incoming Title IX Coordinator to coordinate a review of all previous assault proceedings in which the respondent was found guilty of the charges and allowed to remain enrolled, employed or otherwise affiliated with the University. If the statute of limitations for the committed offense has not expired, and the guilty party is still affiliated with the University, we ask that the guilty party be placed on probation pending termination.

We furthermore commend the organizers of the Noon- 3 p.m. Friday, April 30, 2021, demonstration in front of Old Main, which individual members of Local 965 plan to attend.

News Articles

Will Honor Demands to Aid Assault Survivors, UA Says — Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 29, 2021 (possible subscription paywall)

UA Graduate and Sexual Assault Survivor Calls for Campus Change With Petition —Arkansas Traveler, April 28, 2021

Petition Demands UA Changes to Aid Assault Survivors — Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 27, 2021 (possible subscription paywall)

Sexual Assault Survivor Speaks Out about Outrage to $20,000 Settlement between UA, Former Student — KHBS-TV/KHOG-TV, April 27, 2021

University of Arkansas Pays $20,000 Settlement to Former Student Accused of Sexual Assault — KNWA-TV/KFTA-TV, April 22, 2021

Updates: Tuesday and Wednesday, March 9-10, 2021

A new bill in the Arkansas Legislature threatens to choke public employee unions. We must rally by calling representatives to oppose it.

Senate Bill 341 of 2021 (PDF of draft) allows the termination of any state employee who engages in any labor activity while making collective bargaining illegal for those employees in Arkansas. That would include University of Arkansas faculty and staff.

It passed in a Senate floor vote Tuesday afternoon 24-6 (with 3 not voting, 1 voting present and 1 excused). It cleared committee with a unanimous vote Monday. 

The debate is detailed at the Wednesday article “Senate OKs Union Restriction – Public-Employee Collective Bargaining Ban Goes to House” in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (possible subscription firewall). (Monitor progress of bill.)

Later Tuesday, the state House sent the bill to its Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor for deliberation.

Our lobbyists in Little Rock are fighting this, but we need you to contact legislators to oppose Sen. Bob Ballinger’s bill. It is sponsored in the House by Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville.

From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s reportage Tuesday (subject to subscription firewall, alternate edition): 

“They can have a union. They have their association, but as far as collective bargaining, we are prohibiting it from a policy standpoint as a state.”

Sen. Bob Ballinger, R-Ozark

We advise calling or emailing your own district representative immediately. Find your rep’s name and district by entering your home’s street address. This will provide you contact information.

(For future reference, ID your state senator and Senate district number with your address at Senator Search.)

Update March 23, 2021 — The Arkansas House passed SB 341 on March 22, 62-22. “Gov. Asa Hutchinson said through a spokeswoman Monday that he would sign the bill in its current form if it reaches his desk,” the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in “House OKs Bill to Bar Collective Bargaining.” Only one House member spoke against the bill on the floor.

UA-Fayetteville Education Association/Local 965 enjoys clear and cordial relations with the university’s administration as well as with the overall U of A System. Arkansas already has sufficient if not stringent laws governing organized labor. The potential and the implications of this unneeded proposed legislation, however, are enormous for public employees and the students and citizens whom they serve.

“Educators should be respected, not attacked.”

Tracey-Ann Nelson, executive director of the Arkansas Education Association, quoted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

According to the newspaper, Nelson told the Senate committee Monday that SB 341 “directly targets our educators who have shown up every single day at schools and in every way possible teaching students, transporting them and serving them meals since the beginning of the pandemic, knowing they are putting themselves and their families at risk.”

A News Release

The union for employees of the University of Arkansas has endorsed the graduate-assistant fight for a living wage of $20,000 per year.

“Our graduate students simply cannot afford to work for the wages the university is paying,” said Local 965 President Bret Schulte. “Many were working second jobs and relying on food pantries before the pandemic hit. Now, their second jobs are gone. The situation is desperate. Our grad students teach thousands of students each semester; they should be paid what they are worth to the university.

“The grad assistant current minimum wage at the Fayetteville campus is $12,500 per nine-month contract and $15,000 per 12-month contract.” Schulte is an associate professor of journalism.

Meeting online Jan. 21, the UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965 unanimously approved the resolution, to be presented to the UA Faculty Senate for its consideration.

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Update Wednesday, March 10, 2021 — The Faculty Senate approved the Graduate Student Stipend Resolution, as revised (PDF), at its regular meeting today.

Update Thursday, March 11, 2021 — The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on the meeting at “Faculty Group Backs Pay Bump for Grad Students — But Vote Sets No Action at UA” with an alternate link that might avoid the subscription paywall.

Update Tuesday, May 4, 2021 — The U of A news services reports “University to Increase Graduate Assistant Minimum Stipends.”
About which Schulte wrote on Facebook: “After the UA agreed to a Living Wage for all employees, the Local 965 turned its attention toward fair pay for our graduate students, who are eating from food banks and suffering from the stress of living in poverty while they study and work. The pandemic made everything worse by shutting down many of their second jobs. We worked with grad students to lobby and protest for higher stipends. We wrote a resolution calling for $20K per year for all grad students campus wide that we shepherded through the UA Faculty Senate by a wide margin. Today, we can say we’re pleased that the U of A is raising stipends for our all teaching and research assistants. It’s not enough, but it’s a start. We’ll keep fighting. Many thanks to all the graduate students who worked for this, and thanks to Local 965 Vice-President Mike Pierce for his hard work writing the resolution we passed and presented to the Provost.”
And Pierce wrote on Facebook: “Really happy to see progress on Graduate Student stipends here at the University of Arkansas. The University is moving in the right direction, but more work needs to be done. $1,500 a month is not enough when the Graduate School’s own data shows that it costs at least $2,100 a month for a single person to live in Fayetteville.”

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The document was drafted by 965 Vice President Mike Pierce, an associate professor of history.

Pierce’s resolution notes that the UA’s own graduate school estimates the cost of living in Fayetteville as far above the stipend level. According to the UA, the typical graduate student has monthly expenses of $1,895. The current monthly minimum pay calculates out to $1,250 for a 12-month contract and $1,389 for a nine-month contract.

“Even by the university’s own standards, our graduate students are not making enough money to live in Fayetteville,” Pierce said. 

According to research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, meanwhile, a single person working in Washington County needs $22,339.20 a year to live independently, that is without food assistance or other government programs. 

Pierce noted that a higher minimum wage also will attract higher quality graduate students, who in turn teach a number of undergraduate classes or assist in vital research.

Grad assistantships are defined as a half-time job of about 20 hours a week, of teaching or research, while the students are completing their degrees.