Thank you,
Roy Weatherford
Roy Weatherford was chapter president for six years of
perfect storm. The chapter emerged from
the storm in better condition than when it entered, in no small part to Roy’s leadership.
Roy
was born in Arkansas
hill country, in a log cabin with no running water. “Poor land, poor people,” and his father was
a seventh grade dropout who returned to college when he became a Methodist
preacher. His mother also returned to
school, and as Roy,
his siblings, and his parents studied together, they experienced the rise out
of poverty that education provides.
Roy followed his father and brother to
Arkansas Tech, and after two years in the military (where he made captain), he
went to Harvard. He had moved from
mathematics and physics to philosophy, and started with the philosophy of probability. Arriving at USF in 1972, he soon began “to
write the book I could not find,” his survey of the philosophical foundations
of the subject. At Arkansas Tech, three
professors had been fired for supporting the
civil rights campaign, and two more quit in protest. When some students, including Roy, protested, the
president threatened to expel them; nothing daunted, they continued a campaign
that led to Arkansas Tech being censured by the AAUP. At USF, Roy
joined the union on his first day here, and was the chapter’s political liaison
and later, when UFF was certified in 1976, he became UFF’s
first lobbyist. Then in 1983, he was
elected state president of UFF, and served for four years.
When Roy went to Harvard, his wife Doris
went to Brandeis. She developed a
passion for the history of American women, and has published 11 books. “It has been enormously important to me, as
it has been enormously important to her, to have a supporting spouse.”
While working on
the philosophy of pragmatism, Roy remained politically active. So when Governor Bush and the legislature
abolished the Board of Regents, and UFF faced fighting for its survival – and
for new contracts – at each university, senior unionists asked Roy to run for USF/ UFF chapter
president. Although chapter presi-dent is “the worst job in the union,” he ran and won. It was worse than anyone anticipated.
The Al-Arian
affair was “the most difficult academic freedom case in the nation. I think it showed the worst aspects of having
amateur boards in control.” Had the
Board prevailed, it “would have been a terrible precedent for our
university.” And the Administration
refused to honor course releases assigned by the union, increasing the burden.
In the end, UFF
prevailed. Roy is proud of getting the first USF/UFF
contract, saying, “Bob Welker deserves the lion’s share of the credit, but his
success was made possible by the general strength of the chapter.”
Roy is still active at the local, state, and
nation-al levels. His greatest
accomplishment as a union-ist, he says, was to get
the National Education Association on record in favor of free public higher
education. And “I have been very happy
at USF, and never looked for a job anywhere else.”
He is a pragmatist
– pun intended. Arkansas hill country has changed, “largely
due to television,” he says. “Intellectuals
worry about television leveling people down,” but in this case, television
“leveled people up.” This is someone who
knows, for if Roy
has led a lucky life, he has not led a sheltered one.
Our New Chapter President Sherman Dorn
on Academic values,
decency, and opportunity
Faculty unions in the U.S. are different from other
unions. Whether the union represents faculty at the University of Cincinnati,
SUNY Buffalo, or USF, we all lay claim to some core academic principles about
the freedom to inquire and write, the integrity of our work, and the
opportunities we provide students. The job of a faculty union involves both “bread
and butter” issues and also issues unique to higher education.
Academic values.
We’re in this job to teach and explore, and while the threats to academic
freedom are not as serious as in some decades in the last century, they pop up
all too frequently for my comfort. A faculty union protects academic freedom
and other core values, or it loses its soul.
Decency. Faculty
do not work comfortably at an institution that treats people in a
callous way. Faculty
who are married or single argue for domestic-partner do. If you don’t believe
treating people decently matters to a university, try to recruit someone by
telling them that the pay is great but morale is sinking through the floor. All
things being equal, we’d like to be at a place we’re proud of. A faculty union
fights for decency, or it loses its heart.
Opportunity. Faculty want to know that there
are reasonable and fair opportunities for advancement and recognition. One
guarantee of opportunity is in non-discrimination policies and contract
language. We want to know that our race, sex, age, sexual orientation,
political affiliation, etc., will not affect our career. The exact form of opportunity is probably the
most contentious issue at a place with ambitious faculty and institutional
officers. But I don’t think the principle is in doubt; faculty and professional
employees need growth opportunities, for themselves and for USF. A faculty
union advances opportunity, or it loses its brain.
Of the five
places where I have studied or worked, USF has the most ambitious institutional
goals. The job of the USF faculty chapter of the United Faculty of Florida is
to keep the institutional ambitions of USF grounded in the academic values,
decency, and opportunity that all faculty unions defend.
– Sherman Dorn