Panel: Limiting Use of Student Evaluations in Contracts: Challenges in Vision and Enforcement
Panel Description
This panel will focus on how higher education Student Feedback Forms (SFFs) should not be used as the sole and primary criterion for evaluating faculty for hiring, re-appointment, termination or any other personnel decision. The panel will highlight four institutional experiences with the usage of SFFs: Temple University which has created language for a proposed article (Article 11) in their CBA about prohibiting SFFs and making evaluations of contingent faculty more substantive, Ryerson University where an arbitration proceeding led to new language on their Faculty Course Surveys, SUNY Dutchess Community College where there has been labor-management collaboration on the development of the SFF, and at the University of Michigan where the collective bargaining agreement has helped guide the process of the SFF. This panel will also include a discussion of racial and gender bias associated with student evaluations generally and the use or non-use of student evaluations during the pandemic. The panel seeks to establish how student evaluation provisions can be used in a valuable way to benefit institutions of higher education.
Panelists Bios
Steve Newman served as the Vice President (2013-17) and President (2017-21) of the Temple Association of University Professionals (AFT 4531, AFL-CIO), a bargaining unit representing 2600 full-time and part-time faculty, librarians, and academic professionals. He has also served as Grievance Chair and was co-lead on three negotiating teams, including TAUP’s first adjunct contract, as well as a member of the Executive Committee. He was the Vice President for Higher Education for AFT-Pennsylvania and was a member of AFT’s Program and Policy Committee from 2017-21. He is an associate professor in the English Department at Temple University, specializing in English and Scottish literature during what scholars now refer to as the Long Eighteenth Century (c.1660-1832). Many of his scholarly interests coalesced in Ballad Collection, Lyric, and the Canon: The Call of the Popular from The Restoration to the New Criticism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). He is the co-editor of The Gentle Shepherd (Edinburgh University Press, 2022) and is currently working on a digital edition of The Beggar’s Opera and a monograph on competing ideas of value from Adam Smith to Walter Scott as a prologue to current debates over the value of the humanities.
Ian Sakinofsky is Professor in the Department of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour in the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson *(X) University, Toronto, Canada, with teaching and research interests in the field of Industrial Relations. For the past 27 years he has been a member of the Negotiating Committee of the Ryerson Faculty Association (XFA), and Chair of that Committee for negotiating rounds. He served as Chair of the Ontario Confederation of Faculty Associations (OCUFA Collective Bargaining Committee from 2007-2010). He is currently the President of the XFA.
*The X anticipates the impending name change following the grassroots campaign culminating in the University’s acceptance of the recommendation by the Standing Strong Task Force that Ryerson University change its name.
Laura Murphy is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History, Government, & Economics at Dutchess Community College (SUNY) in Poughkeepsie, New York. She is currently chair of the bargaining team for Dutchess United Educators (DUE), the union representing full and part-time/adjunct faculty and most academic professionals at DCC, and has served on bargaining teams for four DUE contracts. Dr. Murphy has previously served as DUE Vice President for Faculty and Secretary. She is also the President of the Dutchess-AAUP Advocacy Chapter and serves as the DCC alternate delegate to the SUNY Faculty Council of Community Colleges (FCCC). She earned her degrees at The University of Memphis (B.A, History) and the State University of New York at Binghamton (M.A. and Ph.D., U.S. History). Her focus in teaching and research is labor history.
Alexandra (Sascha) Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Senior Director,
Academic Human Resources, University of Michigan. Sascha was appointed Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Senior Director of Academic Human Resources at the University of Michigan in June 2019, after serving as interim director since October 2018. Sascha joined Academic Human Resources in June of 2008, serving as senior academic labor relations representative, associate director and most recently interim senior director. Prior to coming to University of Michigan, Sascha worked as an assistant general counsel at Wayne State University, where she focused on labor and employment law and collective bargaining issues. Sascha also worked as a union-side attorney in a law firm specializing in public sector labor law in educational settings. Sascha has a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Russian Language from James Madison College at Michigan State University and a Juris Doctor from University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Timothy S. Taylor, Esq., is a full-time arbitrator and mediator. He is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s Labor and Employment Panels, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Panel. Additionally, he currently serves on the following panels: NYC Office of Collective Bargaining; NYS/PBA New York Panel for the Agency Police Services Unit; NYS/New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association Arbitration Panel; New York State PERB Arbitration, Mediation, Interest Arbitration & Fact-finding Panel; Albany Citizen’s Police Review Board Mediation Panel; Rochester City School District/ Rochester Teachers Association Contract Arbitrator; New York State Education Department disciplinary roster. Before becoming a full-time arbitrator, Mr. Taylor worked in the private sector. He was an associate with the law firm of Rowley, Forrest, O’Donnell, and Hite from 1987-1989. After that, he joined the counsel’s office at New York State United Teachers, where he served as senior counsel until 2011. In 2010, he studied at the Center for Healing and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa, and The University of South Africa in Pretoria. In 2011, he was selected by AAA as a Higginbotham Fellow. From 2009 until 2016, Mr. Taylor was an Assistant Professor of Law at the Sage Colleges and was named faculty member of the year for 2012-2013. Since 2008, he has taught a variety of courses at the State University of New York at Albany. Currently, he teaches in the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy. He frequently lectures and advises in the areas of employment discrimination, civil rights, diversity, and inclusion. Mr. Taylor is admitted to practice in New York, Federal District Courts, and before the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a member of the Albany County Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association, Labor and Employment section where he serves as co-chair of the Arbitration committee. Mr. Taylor is also a member of the Albany Law School, Government Law Center’s Advisory Board and the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s Center for Law & Policy Solutions. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell University Law School. Mr. Taylor received his undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina, cum laude.