Bargaining Survey Report: Inclusive LEO

Thank you to everyone who filled out the first-of-its-kind Inclusive LEO Survey! We had planned to share the results in May but were unable to stay on schedule after Covid shut down the campus. At any rate, here is our report at long last!

Given the sensitive information you were willing to share with us, we want to reiterate that, as all LEO surveys, this survey is anonymous (unless you chose to disclose your full name). However, we use only aggregated data to surface trends of interpersonal slights and structural inequities, which we will ask the administration to correct in order to have a more equitable workplace for all of us.

The winner of the $50 Kroger gift card is Steven Toth from Flint Department of Chemistry/Biochemistry!

We hope that reading this report will motivate you to join us in the Inclusive LEO committee and subcommittees (caucuses) to promote these issues and to influence the next bargaining platform over DEI issues, for the benefit of all of us.  If you are interested please e-mail us. 

Who was interested and participated?

• 127 Lecturers from all 3 campuses (87 Ann Arbor, 20 Dearborn, and 18 Flint) responded from 61 different departments. 

• 61% of respondents identified themselves as women and 34%  as men. 

This number is close to the share of women and men in LEO membership and reflects about equal levels of interest from the two groups.

• The average age of the respondents is 47.43 years. (Range 27-77)

Who is LEO?

• An interesting result is that 54% of the respondents are First generation in academia. Only 29% are second generation and 16% are third generation. We wonder what the corresponding figures for tenured and tenure-track  faculty would be. 

• The vast majority of the respondents are born in America, but  24.6% of our survey came from 11 other countries.

• 84% of the respondents don’t have any disability, but of those who do, only 40% requested for accommodation. 

Is U-M a positive non discriminating workplace for lecturers?

• Across different traits describing UM as a workplace, on average 62% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that U-M is a positive, non-discriminating workplace.  See Figure 1 for the breakdown on specific issues.

• However, an average of 16% disagree or strongly disagree about U-M as a positive, non-discriminating workplace and see U-M in a more critical light, especially if it has to do with elitism (51%).

• This kind of criticism is even stronger when it comes to people’s own experience. 

• 27% don’t agree that they have opportunities at U-M for professional success that are similar to those of their colleagues. And even a bigger portion (34%) don’t agree that “The unit(s) where they teach are as committed to their career as they are committed to their own unit’s success”. 

Thoughts about leaving

• Over the past 12 months 26% considered leaving U-M because they felt isolated or unwelcomed and 36% considered leaving U-M because they felt unappreciated.

Discriminatory events & a physical safety issues

• Over the past 12 months, 34% experienced discriminatory events at U-M because of: ability or disability status; racial or ethnic identity; sex; sexual orientation; gender identity or gender expression; veteran status; marital status; age; religion; height or weight; political orientation; social class. 

• 7% experienced a physical safety issue.

Strong support for LEO negotiating on DEI issues

• Given the experiences summarized above, it is not surprising that we find very strong support for LEO to negotiate DEI-related protections and changes in our next round of bargaining.

  • Around 73% support LEO fighting to expand DEI programming for faculty and 83% support improving the job circumstances of marginalized lecturers at U-M. 

Issues that were raised:

•  A main issue is the underrepresented international minorities to be recognized as peers and equals by all by honoring and appreciating their qualifications earned in a different country, improving specific communications and hiring issues for new internationals, more intentional hiring of lecturers that reflect DEI and making Language Lecturers part of mainstream.

•  More recognition of LEO contributions in the departments by merit based salary increase, moving lecturers into tenure track or research track faculty and allowing more voting and governance rights for full time LEOs.

• Promoting explicit university policies about accommodating faculty and staff religious practices, child support, and rural or social class issues.

• DEI needs to be extended fully to Flint and Dearborn campuses and pushed between the three campuses in allocation of funding.

We hope you will join us in the Inclusive LEO committee to promote these issues for the benefit of all of us. We’d love to see and hear you in one of our task forces / caucuses  (Anti-Racism Caucus, Caregivers’ Caucus, LGBTQ+ Caucus, Feminist Caucus, International Caucus or any other causes you’d like to propose).