Bargaining 2024: Open Letter from WAU to the Wayne State University Community
We, the faculty and academic staff of Wayne State University, and members of Wayne Academic Union, stand in solidarity to address the crucial issues that shape the working conditions and educational environment at our institution.
As we begin negotiations on March 5, we present the core concerns that lie at the heart of our commitment to a just and equitable workplace that fosters a thriving academic community.
Compensation
First and foremost, we advocate for a fair and just compensation structure that reflects the rising cost of living. Over the last three years, faculty and academic staff have received only 4.25% in salary increases, a shared sacrifice during years marred by Covid that helped the University overcome its challenges. It is now time for our members to share in a salary structure that not only recognizes our contributions but also ensures a strong standard of living. Salary demands are not just about recognizing our hard work but also about acknowledging the integral role we play in the success of Wayne State University.
Cost of Living Adjustment
We also recognize that no matter what raises we receive, if the rate of inflation outpaces our gains, then we effectively fall further behind. In times of high inflation, as in recent years when the cost of essentials and utilities shot up by 12%, our members have struggled to maintain fast eroding household budgets. In order to ease the financial pain of uncertain economic times, it is essential that we introduce a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) in our contract. It is the only way to protect our members and ensure a sustainable standard of living.
Flexible Work Policy
Equally important is the need for a comprehensive flexible work policy embedded in our contract. The past few years have underscored the importance of flexibility in our work arrangements. Such a policy will not only enhance our productivity, but also contribute to stronger recruiting, better retention, higher morale, and a healthier work-life balance. As we navigate the evolving landscape of education, we must embrace the possibilities that remote work offers without compromising the quality of our instruction and research.
Bargaining for the Common Good:
Emergency Housing Program
Finally, we recognize our common responsibility to the community in which we live and work, and propose in this contract the establishment of an emergency housing program to address housing insecurity among our students. No student should face the daunting challenge of pursuing their education while grappling with housing instability. A program that provides support during times of crisis is a reflection of our commitment to the holistic development and well-being of our students.
We call upon all members of our academic community to stand in solidarity with us. Your support is crucial in ensuring that our collective voice resonates strongly with the Board of Governors and with administration. Together, we can shape the future of Wayne State University to reflect our shared values of excellence, equity, and inclusivity.
In unity, on behalf of Wayne Academic Union:
Blair Baker
Carretta Cooke
Tiffani Dunbar
Awanda Jeffries
Cynthia Merritt
Keanu Respess
Tuoanyene Sims
Kimberly Swisher
Yan Chen
Deborah Gibson
KaRie Jorah
Jeff Lisiecki
Kurt Troutman
Mary Waker
Tony Billings
Boysie Billings
Deb Habel
Santanu Mitra
Kevin Carroll
Erica Edwards
Linda Jimenez
Sarah Lenhoff
Meina Zhu
Nick Doyle
Diamond Haynes
Adanna Smith
Sylvia Stancil
Elizabeth Wawro
Lisa Alexander
Melba Boyd
Kefentse Chike
Navid Farnia
David Goldberg
Valerie Prince
Rhonda Williams
Robyn Spencer-Antoine
Tammy Bray
Stephen Chrisomalis
Yuson Jung
Jaymelee Kim
Barry Lyons
Andrew Maske
Andy Newman
Patrick Owuor
Jonathan Stillo
Jess Robbins-Panko
Danielle Aubert
Allana Clarke
Jessika Edgar
Adrian Hatfield
Avanti Herczeg
Margaret Hull
Terry Kerby
Brian Kritzman
Claas Kuhnen
Heather Macali
Katie MacDonald
Heather Mawson
Saima Mohammad
Samantha Noel
Jennifer Olmsted
Tom Pyrzewski
Juan Carlos Rodriguez Rivera
Monika Sinclair
Wesley Taylor
Millee Tibbs
Eric Troffkin
Taylor Cutajar
Xiying Guan
Ronnie Alvarez
Monique Green Jones
Eric Kessell
Margaret MacKeverican
Lauren Orr
Brian Edwards
JianJun Wang
Jeff Withey
Nora Alhussainy
Karen Beningo
Antoinette Cunningham
P I Higgs
Glen Hood
Karen Myhr
Krystyn Purvis
Maggie Tucker
Nataliya Turchyn
Harini Sundararaghavan
Zhifeng Kou
Liying Zhang
Jitao Zhang
Sara Berisha
ShaCha Geronimo
Heather Laskos
Kate MacCourtney
Patricia Michno
Mary Wesolek
Elisevich Elisevich
Reyna Esquivel-King
Maik Huettemann
Roger Pique-Regi
Angela Trepanier
Da Deng
Yinlun Huang
Erin Bachert
Ashok Bhagwat
Sean Hickey
Wen Li
Zhenfei Liu
Long Luo
Melissa Rochon
Mary Rodgers
Aaron Rury
Dajena Tomco
Alice Walker
Steven Lavrenz
Eugenia Casielles
Alina Cherry
Chris Clark
Edith Covensky
Raffaele De Benedictis
Anne Duggan
Victor Figueroa
Hernan Garcia
Silvia Giorgini-Althoen
Saeed Khan
Christine Knapp
Thomas Kohn
Haiyong Liu
Cori Peet
Terrie Pickering
Luisa Quintero
Marilynn Rashid
Anne Rothe
Maha Saker
Jenni Sheridan Moss
Dolly Tittle
Yunshuang Zhang
Ronette Chojnacki
Michael Bradford
Minhao Jiang
Joshua Neds-Fox
Shannon Cassilo
Stine Eckert
Perry Farrell
Jane Fitzgibbon-Dermidoff
Darryl Frazier
Michael Fuhlhage
Jessica Greenwald
Rosie Jahng
Anna Lindner
Patricia McCormick
Karen McDevitt
Rahul Mitra
Anita Mixon
Cleo Moody
Shelly Najor
Hayg Oshagan
Carrol Reaser-Parris
Elizabeth Stoycheff
Fred Vultee
Julia Yezbick
Tony Cacace
Faith Doyle
Maryellen Liening
Tausha Moore
Kimberly Stewart
Amiangshu Bosu
Alberto Castro Hernandez
Ming Dong
Daniel Grosu
Zhizhong Zhong
Dongxiao Zhu
Jennifer Bohanon
Jessica Chester
Anne Di Iorio-Fitzpatrick
Angela Fedewa
Mara Furlich
Stef Kastely
Sheila Lewis
Janel Lynn
Theresa Perlman
Alex Stoklosa
Nicole Saez
Kaleigh Webber
Harold Geistman
Siying Guo
Marianka Holloway
Shanhe Jiang
Laura Starzynski
Bonnie Wu
Michael Greenlee
Cathy Wolford
Hannah Andersen
Biba Bell
RAS Mikey Courtney
Karen Prall
Doug Risner
Deirdre Corbett-Turner
Hope Lang
Catherine Latham
Tracy Castle
Elizabeth Hill
Ashley Hodge
Namrata Murthy
Casey Rue
Dean Michel
Lisa Blair
Angela Bowman
Erik Carter
Celine Shamoun
Ricardo Villarosa
Cheryl Somers
Kalyn Griffin
Randy Jenkins
Indea May
Lydia McBurrows
Tierra Merriwether
Navdeep Singh
Marvin Solberg
Umeika Stephens
Elisa Torres
Sally Villasenor
Rick Zimmerman
Jessica Cheriez
Moira Fracassa
Jozy Hayek
Jessica Pfeiffer
Shauna Reevers
Tom Romito
Geof Potts
Monika Saladiak
Eve Crandall
Feng Lin
Harpreet Singh
Andy McKinney
Natalie Bakopoulos
Ruth Boeder
Anglesia Brown
Sarika Chandra
Todd Duncan
Kathy Elrick
Jonathan Flatley
Hilary Fox
Donovan Hohn
renée hoogland
Amy Latawiec
M.L. Liebler
Ljiljana Progovac
Michael Schmidt
Steven Shaviro
Royanne Smith
Chris Susak
Jule Thomas
Thomas Trimble
Chris Tysh
Nicole Varty
Michael Klüg
Sean Foe
Juliann Binienda
April Carcone
Rhonda Dailey
Deborah Ellis
Julie Gleason-Comstock
Aisha Langford
Youcheng Liu
Erin Madden
Angie Tiura
Elizabeth Towner
Dennis Tsilimingras
Mbodja Mougoué
Scott Burdick
Zhijiang Lu
John Niedermiller
Heather Sandlin
Liette Gidlow
Hans Hummer
Elizabeth Lublin
Karen Marrero
Mia Michael
Jeremy Milloy
Sean O'Brien
Aaron Retish
Sylvia Taschka
Kidada Williams
James Buccellato
Bryan Ellis
Beth Fowler
Aundra Freeman
Aaron Martin
Brittany Miller
Tim Moran
Angel Niederkohr
Kevin Rashid
Ali Salamey
Meagan Slappey
Heather Abraham
Ahmid Al-Shawk
Shira Heisler
Nashat Imran
Dana Kabbani
Asim Kagzi
Dragana Komnenov
Li Li
Lea Monday
Milton Mutchnick
Avnish Sandhu
Wael Taha
Lauren Touleyrou
Sofia Malynowskyj
Sophia Schwind
Michelle Gardner
Jessica Martinez
Mariane Fahlman
Tamara Hew-Butler
Kristen Kaszeta
Noel Kulik
Peter Roberts
Bo Shen
Mario Vassallo
Molly Banes
Stefanie Caloia
Kristen Chinery
Elizabeth Clemens
Troy Eller English
Dan Golodner
Louis Jones
Sarah Lebovitz
Ellen LeClere
Leah Minadeo
Paul Neirink
Shae Rafferty
Gavin Strassel
Mary Wallace
Sabrina Balgamwalla
Tony Dillof
Daniel Ellman
Lynn Sholander
K P
Frank Goeddeke
John Heinrichs
Jaegul Lee
Xing Liu
Elizabeth McQuillen
Matt Piszczek
Ajay Ponnapalli
Tamme Quinn-Grzebyk
Amanuel Tekleab
Cassandra Davis
Sujay Dutta
Andrea Tangari
Fatih Celiker
Dan Isaksen
John Klein
Rohini Kumar
Chris Nazelli
Richard Pineau
Peiyong Wang
Yan Wang
Zhimin Zhang
Omid Samimi-Abianeh
Simone Brennan
Deborah Holland
Joe Weertz
Jennifer Crystal
Mike Webber
Olivenne Skinner
Robert Hellar
Jack Blaszkiewicz
Frances Brockington
Mickayla Chapman
Joshua Duchan
James Fusik
Shannan Hibbard
Kypros Markou
Eileen McGonigal
Mike Shellabarger
Brandon Waddles
Jan Bissett
Yongsheng Chen
Ramtilak Gattu
Nikenge Fowler
Georgia Young
Deanna Cavanaugh
Pramod Khosla
Sue Xu
Yifan Zhang
Kequan Zhou
Chris Kivlen
Anthony Gaynier
Cathryn Bock
Wei Chen
HyeonJoo Cheon
Gregory Dyson
Susan Eggly
Yubin Ge
Lauren Hamel
Theresa Hastert
Zhanjun Hou
Hugo Jimenez
Ikuko Kato
Hasan Korkaya
Jing Li
Lisa Polin
Malathy Shekhar
J.J. Wallbillich
Gen Wu
Youming Xie
Zeng-Quan Yang
Beth Berger
Tomomi Ichinose
Kwaku Nantwi
Lalit Pukhrambam
Nikhlesh Singh
Michael Carron
Zhengqing Hu
Rachael Hone
Sunil Jaiman
Alan Dombkowski
Eric McGrath
Jill Meade
Dena Nazer
Liz Secord
Sid Tan
Randall Commissaris
Guangde Jiang
Wanqing Liu
Jiemei Wang
Zhengping Yi
Cristina Artalejo
Ellen Tisdale
Brian Barnes
Linda Jaber
Paul Kilgore
Melissa Lipari
Vicky Tutag Lehr
Ryan Fanselow
Eric Hiddleston
Eun-Jung Kim
Mark Satta
Susan Vineberg
Jennifer Dickson
Andrew Moul
Tonima Ananna
Zhi-Feng Huang
Ashis Mukhopadhyay
Dawn Niedermiller
Claude Pruneau
Zhixian Zhou
Xuequn Chen
Chris Cupps
Donal O'Leary
Jeff Ram
RJ Wessells
Zhibing Zhang
Susan Crowley
Rachel Dupree
James Hearn
Maureen Johnson
Arlinda Pringle
Detonya Clark
Ewa Golebiowska
Jeff Grynaviski
Kyu-Nahm Jun
Byung Min
Fred Pearson
Emily Reetz
Kristin Taylor
Cindi Arfken
Hilary Marusak
Shibany Taormina
Eric Woodcock
Alia Allen
Doug Barnett
Stephanie Chastain
Christina Costa
Sean Novak
Cort Rudolph
Shelly Seguin
John Woodard
Veronica Bielat
Rachael Clark
Damecia Donahue
Karen Liston
Ida Martinez
Rhonda Mcginnis
Meghan McGowan
Monique Oldfield
Katrina Rouan
Norman Cheng
David McGrann
Joan Beaudoin
Mike Dutkewych
Matt Fredericks
Amber Harrison
Bin Li
Kim Schroeder
Sherman Zhang
Ella Hu
Naelah Burks
Andre Iadipaolo
Geoffrey Jones
Lawrence Robinson
Lloyd Allen
Matthew Bakko
Kess Ballentine
Jason Carbone
Erin Comartin
Carolyn Dayton
Joy Ernst
Megan Hicks
Jun Sung Hong
Faith Hopp
Shantalea Johns
Luisa Kcomt
Athena Kheibari
Matt Larson
Lisa O'Donnell
Tam Perry
Bryan Victor
Karen Weiner
Bridget Weller
Zachary Brewster
Khari Brown
Krista Brumley
Lauren Duquette-Rury
David Fasenfest
Heidi Gottfried
Michelle Jacobs
Jeff Kentor
Shirin Montazer
Stacie Moser
Sarah Swider
Nicole Trujillo-Pagan
Cheng Wang
Bibi Ahmed
Sharif AliDinar
Daisy Cordero
Michelle Hooks
Teryn King
Shaine Mathieu
Ashton Niedzwiecki
Adam Zangerle
Courtney Mansor
Lillian Shine
Katie Whalen
Ryan Wiseman
Andrew Isaacson
Elsie Babcock
Katie Crawford-McKinney
Gina DeBlase
Christina DeNicolo
Susan Gabel
Sandra Gonzales
Christine Hancock
Jonelle Lopez
Mary Neville
S. Asli Ozgun-Koca
Thomas Pedroni
Theo Ressa
Aja Reynolds
Stella Seilo
Viveka Vaughn
Min Yu
Marc Arthur
Dana Gamarra
Foster Johns
Sarah Pearline
Erika Robinson
Elizabeth Barton
Krista Clancy
Holly Feen-Calligan
Julie Moreno
Monte Piliawsky
Zsa-Zsa Booker
Tyrone Austin
Pynthia Caffee
Arnelle Douglas
Laura Hetzler
Amanda Horwitz
Denise Thomas
Helen Wilson
Cooper Cooper-McCann
Adam Hollier
Jeff Horner
Kami Pothukuchi
Stephanie Hall
Jessica Back
Jamie McQuaid
Arun Sherma
Yuxin Zhang
Yang Zhao