Faculty union to benefit professors, the University
As an LSU Faculty Senator, I was pleased to learn that the Louisiana Association of Educators, an affiliate of the National Education Association, will work with the University faculty to create a union at LSU. I call it a “union” because in my opinion there is no other word for such a collective bargaining unit.  
The LSU faculty is composed of scholars who earned their degrees at some of the best universities in the country and the world. At the minimum, our job consists of course preparation and teaching, research and publication, advising students and directing undergraduate and graduate theses and dissertations, service on University and department committees, supporting community and educational projects on and off the campus, and participation in shared governance, mostly in an advisory capacity. We came here to deliver a first-class education to the citizens of Louisiana, an education that could compete effectively with the best institutions in the world. Our research informs our teaching and has enabled us to make strides in achieving that goal, particularly in the first eight years of the new millennium.   
Though LSU is the state’s flagship educational institution, it has not always been supported consistently. In the ‘90s, during good economic times, the faculty went five years without across-the-board raises, and now, in bad economic times, we are in the same situation for the third year in a row. This causes us to lose good faculty to better-paying or more consistently funded universities. The library, the most critical tool of any research university, has suffered from underfunding, in good times and bad, for two decades, which has made it more difficult to do research at LSU. The constant threat of debilitating budget cuts from the state government undermines the morale of the institution and again causes good faculty to leave.  
I can only speak for myself, but the LSU faculty needs to organize so they can speak in a unified voice to the state government and to the people of Louisiana. A strong university results in a productive workforce, a robust economy, a better-informed electorate and a community that offers desirable opportunities to new generations so that they want to remain in the state. It also attracts new talent to the state. An empowered and organized faculty can make LSU a strong university.
Patrick McGee
McElveen professor of English
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