Dr. Oscar Crisalle combines two very different roles in his professional life: he is a Professor in Engineering, at the University of Florida, and Vice President of the faculty union (United Faculty of Florida – UF chapter). From this dual perspective he spoke recently on The Mechanics of Higher Education Unionism — What a Union Can Offer Engineering Faculty, at Grainger Library.
Crisalle is a realist. For six years he tried to effect change through shared governance. He gradually understood that an advisory voice would not be enough for real change to occur, and for faculty to exercise real power in determining the direction of their campus. The faculty needed their union, backed by legally binding collective bargaining, to achieve such gains. Crisalle soon assumed a leadership role in the union, and now you will find him speaking one week before lawmakers in the Florida state capital and the next to faculty in Urbana-Champaign who wonder what a faculty union would mean for them.
If you missed his talk, then we recommend reading his overview of how a faculty union works (and why it matters to Engineers in particular), in the powerpoint slides here: Mechanics of Higher Ed Unionism.
Campus Faculty Association 