Lecturers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor figured people receiving honorary degrees at the instition’s graduation ceremony this Saturday should know a little something about working conditions there. So the Lecturers’ Employee Organization, a union affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, wrote letters to each honoree — including President Obama, who will deliver the commencement address. The letter to Mr. Obama provides details on lecturers’ salaries and lack of job security, and requests that the president, in his speech, ask students to thank everyone at the university who has “helped bring them to their day of graduation, especially the faculty and the many lecturers.”
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5 Responses to Dear President Obama: Ask Students to Thank Us, Too
tridaddy - April 30, 2010 at 9:31 am
The thanks is all fine and good, but having to ask someone to thank you means, at least to me, that the words may not truly be meant and may only be lipservice.
sheryled - April 30, 2010 at 9:48 am
Maybe it is lipservice that is wanted. A shout out from the President of the United States during contract negotiations is not a bad thing ….
davi2665 - April 30, 2010 at 3:45 pm
How about a thank you to the taxpayers (both state and federal) who are paying a significant component of their income to support the universities, their research, and some of the federally subsidized loans.
swick - April 30, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Oh, I can’t stand this anymore! Look, nobody owes us any thanks or gratitude. We get paid more money than most of us deserve, and too many have quite cushy benefits packages. In any event, how much value do we really add to students’ education? Don’t answer – ask the majority of students. How are college graduates from the last ten years faring, in light of the huge tuition increases (see earlier statement on salaries and benefits) and student loans? Setting aside, of course, the faulty stats put out to justify those tuition increases, which are in the process of being completely discredited. In any event, our reckoning is coming, so I will let it go. For now.
jffoster - May 2, 2010 at 12:46 pm
While not joining in whole with Swick (4)’s appraisal, I do agree that they are paid for their services. And asking someone to thank you is like putting yourself in for a Navy Cross. One doesn’t.