This is a post of my own thoughts and do not represent the views of the organizing committee, UTSF, MEA, or NEA.
I’ve been an organizer for our recently launched Union of Tenure Stream Faculty at Michigan State University for the last two years. I’m a faculty member in the Physics and Astronomy and Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering departments. I have worked at Michigan State for ten years. I’ve worked for the better part of two decades to improve the experiences and educational outcomes for students in STEM (both in physics and computing); I’ve done this work at MSU for a decade.
I have received accolades for this work from Michigan State through the 2018 Presidential Teaching Award as well as being named the Lappan Phillips Professor of Physics Education. I’ve earned national recognition for this work through the 2023 Excellence in Physics Education Award from the American Physical Society (APS). I was also recently elected Fellow of the APS – an honor reserved for 2% of the membership. I don’t state these things to boast. I state them because they are the results of my personal journey through public higher education, and represent the commitment I hold to publicly funded higher education and the students that we serve.
I work at MSU because it is a public university. I am a first generation college student who is only working at MSU because of the public education that I received. I grew up in Deep South Texas in a family that was only one generation away from subsistence farming. My family left the farm for opportunity. They found it working as grocery clerks, bakers, and landscapers. But the work was hard, exploitative, and often unfair.
I believe in the mission of MSU and I believe in the mission of public higher education. Unionization allows me to codify both those beliefs into action. If I believe in our mission, and my colleagues do as well, why are we not collectively trying to push that mission forward? Why are we not collectively trying to make MSU a better place for our students, our colleagues, and our community? Why are we not collectively trying to make public higher education a better place for our students, our colleagues, and our community?
In asking those questions, I know that my colleagues are trying to do those things. But we are doing them in isolation. We are not organized. We are not talking with each other. We are not speaking with a single collective and strong voice to our administrators about the things that matter to us, the things that are making our jobs arduous and taxing, the things that are making student life difficult, or the decisions that are being made without our input. Not to mention the recent board shenanigans that have been happening.
It is time to reclaim our voice. The faculty, staff, and students are MSU. We are MSU. We do the research, we are doing the teaching and learning, we are keeping the lights on and the bathrooms clean, we are making sure the paperwork is properly filed, we are making sure that people get paid, and we are ensuring that our campus is safe.
Here’s a few of the reasons that I support our union, but they are all rooted in the same idea.
I have had the opportunity to talk with many of my colleagues about our union. I have heard some of the same myths about unions in higher education that stifle our ability to advocate for ourselves. I want to address a few of them here.
What problem is a union solving?
I started to articulate that above, but this question is a classic example of the false dilemma. It assumes that there is only one problem that a union can solve. And it presumes that we cannot agree on that one problem. This misinformation is meant to divide us against each other and it is not representative of the vast majority of successful contracts (e.g., Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, and UMass Amherst) A union can solve lots of problems, but people need to bring them to the table.
Unions are for blue collar workers, not white collar workers.
While it is true that the history of unionization is with factory and other blue collar workers, unions are for all workers. University faculty are not used to thinking of themselves as labor, until their employer cuts salaries and benefits without their input. We have still not been made whole. Moreover, this myth presents a false dichotomy. Unions are for all workers.
Unions will result in lower wages as we have to pay union dues and normalize salaries.
This is categorically false. The data show that unionized faculty have higher salaries than non-unionized faculty. Recent labor contracts in academia also demonstrate this; the rising tide lifts all boats (e.g., Grad students at UC, Faculty at Rutgers). How that happens and how it is distributed is part of the labor contract itself. These typically include both cost of living and merit increase pools, which the contract specifies follow the recommendations of the chair/dean as we have always done. Unions result in higher wages.
Unions make you pay dues. That’s your money. What is it even going to?
This is a problematic point because it demonstrates that we don’t understand how unions work. Unions are democratically run organizations. We elect our leaders. We elect our representatives. There are transparent proceses for how dues are spent. We have a say in how dues are spent. Moreover, those dues are typically capped and publicly known (e.g., MEA posts their dues here). In addition, the budgets of the union can be reviewed and discussed by any member of the union. Unions are democratic and transparent organizations.
Unions will keep us from being able to compete for talent.
This is a ludicrous argument. Wages are higher on unionized campuses; labor agreements are clearer; and the benefits are better – please look at the contracts. Our STEM colleagues are paid more than our humanities colleagues. That is both a labor issue and a market issue. The union will help solve the labor issue by typically putting in a floor for salaries as well as clear pots of money for raises that are both cost-of-living adjustments and merit-based. The market forces that will attract talent remain, chairs and deans still can work to attract and reward talented faculty. Unions do not keep us from being able to compete for talent.
Unions protect bad workers.
They do not. A union is not a shield for bad behavior, it is a way to ensure due process and protect worker’s rights. It is a way to ensure that we are treated fairly. It is a way to ensure that we are treated equitably. It is a way to ensure that we are treated with respect. Instead, clear arbitration processes are negotiated and the union provides representation for the faculty member through that process. Unions do not protect bad workers.
I can negotiate my own contract.
That is what we have done for years. I was hired at the same time as a colleague in another field in physics. I was paid $10k less than that person and didn’t know. The chair who hired me told me there was no room to move my starting salary up. I found out later that my colleague negotiated their salary up by $10k. I was never given that opportunity. That chair has left immediately after my hire, and the new chair realized the inequity in my first annual evaluation. Only through that chair’s work would I have earned a fair wage, but I was also out 10k for that first year. This practice privileges white and male faculty who hold the privilege to push back on these issues. Unions ensure that we are treated equitably.
Our union will be formed, of that I am certain. But, we need everyone to participate. Your views cannot be represented if we don’t hear them. I don’t know a damn thing about export controls, patents, international visitors, copyright issues, …
We need people that do and want to shape policy for the collective us. We need your expertise. We need your problems. We want to have a union for all of us and we are only as strong as our numbers and diversity.
Once we begin contract negotiations, we will start to see the benefits. Here’s nice summary of the benefits of unionization from the AAUP.
There’s a few things that I can guarantee if we form a union:
We need you to join us.
Sign a union card if you haven’t already.
In solidarity. ✊🏽
]]>To me, “strong” implies I should hold two feelings: the first is something like togetherness and the second is more like resilience. I deeply feel the first. Michigan State has been my home for ten years. I am deeply devoted to our mission, our state, and our students. I love MSU, East Lansing, Lansing, and the intersecting and associated communities that we share. There is no other place I want to be right now.
But I don’t feel resilient. And I don’t want to feel resilient. There is no place for gun violence on our campus, on any campus, or in anywhere in this country for that matter. But our recent history indicates that we have traded the safety and well-being of our students, friends, and family members for the wishes of a small, vocal, wealthy, and unreasonable few. The NRA, conservative legislators, and the billionaires that donate to their efforts are more interested in dividing us than keeping us safe. We have seen Spartan Strong many times before: Oxford Strong, Uvalde Strong, Douglas Strong. It’s become such a common term that we associate it with t-shirts, stickers, and tattoos.
I support every person who feels Spartan Strong or who feels it represents them. No one can tell you how to grieve the loss of our friends. I love you and want you to find solace eventually. This is not a critique of you or how you feel.
But Spartan Strong doesn’t represent me. I’ve experienced gun violence as a teen – the killing and paralysis of friends of mine and a separate attempted burglary. Last week’s events brought a wash of emotions and memories over me. I suspect this makes me a bit unique among my faculty colleagues. Violence and guns intersected with my life for a time; it’s not a good time nor one I want to remember.
My point here is not that we shouldn’t create and embrace symbols that drive us forward and lift us up. That’s not the issue. But we should be intentional about those symbols and what they mean and how they affect us in the short and long term. Resilience suggests we are going to move forward in the face of adversity, but it doesn’t deal with the root cause of adversity – we have a gun problem in the US and no legislation is taking it seriously.
My point is we shouldn’t have to be resilient. We shouldn’t have to trade our safety and well-being to go to work or to school or to the grocery store. So, I don’t feel Spartan Strong. Spartans can root out that adversity, and destroy it. But, we have to do it together.
Spartans Together is how I feel. It’s how I felt at the rally on Wednesday. It’s how I felt at the vigil on Friday. And it’s how I felt at the protest yesterday. Spartans Together is my symbol.
]]>Thank you all for being here today. I know coming back to class in any way is filled with complicated emotions. I’m sorry that we faculty haven’t gotten the administration to understand that. We’re trying and are working on it.
I’ve written up this introduction, something I have never done in my life, because I don’t want to forget to say some things. Also, in writing it, I cried about ten times, so it’s gonna help me find my place. If you need to take a moment for yourself, if you need to leave, please do. You are welcome back anytime. I won’t take more than a few minutes before we get started.
The violence that we experienced last week has me feeling sad, scared, anxious, upset, frustrated, numb, exhausted, and angry all at the same time. I’m sure you have felt some of those feelings as well. They were certainly on display at the capital rally and the vigil last week. I have experienced gun violence twice as a kid. And the violence of last week brought back memories and emotions. I’m sure some of you have those feelings as well. Those feelings are valid. No one can tell you how to feel about this and you don’t owe anyone an explanation of those feelings. With time and work, you can decide how handle and use those feelings.
Before we start class, I want to take a moment to remember those students we lost: Arielle Anderson, Alexandria Verner, and Brian Fraser. And to send good feelings to those recovering in the hospital including John Hao, who we learned about this weekend. And finally to remind ourselves of what we are grateful for in our own lives. For me, in this moment, it’s my partner, Jamie, our kids, Juniper, Evelyn, and Olivia, our dogs and cats. I’m also grateful to be healthy enough to still skateboard. Please lower your heads, and try to name those things for yourself. I’ll call us back in a moment.
…
You are likely to experience these introductions in more of your classes. It might seem performative or disingenuous, and I get that. But, we are hurting, too. And this moment, here with you all, helps me immensely. Thank you.
Today’s class will not be like any of our prior ones. We are going to prioritize each other’s safety and well-being. My goal is not for any of us to be ok or to accept what has happened. My goal is to help you find your way back to learning.
I want to state a few overarching commitments we are making to you:
This is going to hard. For all of us. So, I hope you prioritize your safety and well-being. Class cannot be a therapy session; as far as I know, none of us are licensed counselors. There are many resources that MSU is providing and I would take advantage of them. I have used the Employee Assistance Program in the past and will again. It is excellent. Our counseling staff is very good.
Today we are going to take some time to reflect and talk. We will discuss the changes Patti and I are planning to make. We are going to solicit your feedback and make more changes based on that. We will also stick around after class if anyone wants to talk more.
I expect there will be lots of emotions today, so take care of yourself. If you need a moment, take it. If you need to leave, please do. You are welcome back anytime.
]]>I’ll be honest, when Associate Provost Largent asked me to speak to y’all on behalf of the faculty, I felt a pretty familiar combination of intimidation and anxiety. I know that feeling pretty well. It’s the feeling of not belonging. It’s feeling like I’m an impostor in my professional life. It’s a feeling that many of us experience. And I’d wager that a number of you are feeling similarly. You might feel anxious about starting this next chapter of your life. Or maybe a little intimidated by the new systems and structures you have to learn. Maybe, you are even questioning if you belong here at all. But, I want to tell you, from all of us on the faculty, that we are here for you. And you belong here. You belong in our classes. You belong in our departments. You belong on our campus. You belong at MSU.
As you know, MSU is the land-grant university for the State of Michigan. Each of us on the faculty carry the deepest commitment to our State and her citizens. Serving our community is what we do. And all of us take that to heart. We are the school that helped establish the Weather Bureau, which became the National Weather Service. We are the school the pioneered hybridized corn that resulted in denser plantings. Without that, we would only be able to feed about 15% of our global citizens. We are the school that built a K50 cyclotron. That lab became the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams - a place that has produced so much new science over the years, there’s just not enough time to talk about it. MSU is all this. But it’s so much more with you here.
Your time here will be filled with new opportunities. New friends. New experiences. New places. New ideas. New ways of thinking. By embracing these opportunities you are shaping the person you will become. Our job is to help you find and navigate those opportunities. We are not in the business of simply graduating more people. We are in the business of supporting each of you as a whole person to become an informed and active citizen – someone who also takes our land-grant mission to heart in their own life. Of course, we want you to become a teacher, or a scientist, or a social worker, or a doctor, or a community organizer, or a small business owner.
But your time at MSU can be so much more if you let it. Classes are just one part of the college experience. Join the bike polo club. Start a letter writing campaign for more hammock stands. Volunteer at the Lansing food bank. Go see MSU’s women’s soccer team play. Check out some live music at The Ave. We have so much to offer you, but it’s up to you to take advantage of it. And as you do, that initial anxiety you feel will melt away. And you will figure out, for yourself, why you belong at MSU.
I want to leave y’all with some lyrics from one of my favorite bands that just happens to be from Detroit. Their name is a bit vulgar for something public like this, but this part of the song “Impossible Possibilities” reminds me why I belong at MSU:
Teach them to give and not to take.
And to lead with compassion before it’s all too late.
Can you imagine what this could become
With hope and love and a little communication.
We are so much more with you here.
Be good to each other.
]]>Until now, students completed their quizzes in class, and I would scan them to upload to Gradescope, which we have started using for grading homework and quizzes online. It’s a great service and works really well for the grading we do in this class. Going to virtual classes means that I cannot deliver quizzes in class. Supervising them taking the quizzes via Zoom seems silly and a little too “big brother-y” for my taste. So, having them complete some kind of quiz on their own time seems reasonable. Students will also need some flexibility in turning them in as they might complete them at different times (and some are moving back home); Gradescope can certainly handle this.
I know what people might think about this process though: how do you keep them from cheating?!?! Well, side-stepping the issue that most faculty think all their students are dirty little cheaters and will take every potential advantage to do so, I’m not particularly concerned about that. I trust my students to make decisions about how to take their quizzes when they do so in class and I strongly encourage collaboration on homework and projects.
But, the lack of face-to-face instruction has given me a new idea for quizzes that I think will do more for student learning than my giving them a quiz and grading it. I will be asking my students to construct their own quiz and provide a solution to it. That is, each student will write a quiz based on a concept we cover in class and will then solve that quiz – turning in the quiz, their rationale for the quiz, and their solution to it.
This will allow them to be creative in their learning, to decide what they understand and what they need more practice with, and to challenge themselves. I also think it deals with the issue of unauthorized collaboration in a novel way. It allows the students the time to complete the “quiz” that they might need and shifts their studying to do well on my quizzes to digesting the material to create their own quiz.
I am currently working on a rubric to score these quizzes, but the criteria that I am currently planning are:
My plan is to implement this next week. I will post about how it goes and the detailed rubric later.
]]>Michigan State announced it was cancelling face-to-face instruction today at noon. That was perfect timing considering that I teach an advanced undergraduate physics course to about 25 students every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4pm. I have always taken the teaching part of my job very seriously. It is important to me that students in any class that I lead feel comfortable, empowered, and intelligent. If you want to see a super slick summary of how I teach this class, check out this video that MSU made last year. I love this part of my job and working with students is my favorite part. But, for at least the next month, I have been asked to teach it virtually.
I have never taught an online course and now I have to.
The course I teach is an advanced electromagnetism course for physics and astronomy majors. It’s been redesigned over the last 3 years to use research-based active learning pedagogies and tools. Sure, I still lecture, but there’s activities, clicker questions, and lots and lots of discussion. I have tried to make the classroom space inclusive where students feel welcome and respected by me and their classmates. And now, MSU is asking me to teach them virtually – an instructional space that I have no experience with, that I personally loathe, and that appears to have little positive effects when not carefully designed.
So, this afternoon, I started testing different potential technical solutions to make the instructional aspects of the virtual course as close to the classroom that my students and I share. This is my reflection on just one class meeting. I hope that by providing this information and continuing the conversation, we, online teaching amateurs, can collectively provide quality instruction to our students. I also want to recognize the privilege I have teaching at MSU – a school with significant resources and wealth that is not shared by all schools affected by COVID-19. Also, I want to own up to the biases that I have – I believe that face-to-face instruction is incredibly valuable and important and online proxies simply can’t yet provide the same value.
If you simply want to convey information to students through lecture, you can stop reading here. There’s plenty of tools to record and upload video lectures for students to watch. In fact, someone probably has already created an entire course that you would teach and put it on YouTube. But the classroom interaction and discussion are quite important for students to develop their understanding. Also, live writing helps slow the pace of lecture down and gives space for students to interject, ask question, and provide alternative explanations and understanding.
So, my instructional model needed to include a live lecture to students who could interrupt, question, and generally control the pace of the class. Fortunately, MSU has a Zoom license that 300 people can join. My class has about 25, so this was plenty. Zoom has a lot of features that you can use like breakout rooms (for discussion, which I haven’t used yet), whiteboarding (which appears to use the mouse unless you use a tablet), and polling (which seemed overly complicated for me). But the main thing Zoom had going for it (for me) was the ability to share an iPad screen via AirPlay. This meant I could write notes on my iPad live and students could follow along.
For notetaking for lecture, I tend to use Notability, which has a simple design and collects notes under a single heading. It’s like writing on a single sheet of paper that can continue to be extended. I can also export those notes to PDF and share with students directly. All my long form notes are posted already, but sometimes they asked questions where some follow-up and off-script analogies were used. I suspect that any note-taking app that you are comfortable with would work well here.
I saw an additional benefit to using the iPad when asking students clicker questions. I use clicker questions to break up lecture, illustrate challenging conceptual points, and check understanding. They are my go-to instructional tool and I have written a lot of them over the years (here’s one class period’s worth). Fortunately, they are written in markdown and processed using reveal.js, so they are available online for any device with a browser. So, pulling them up was a simple as shifting between Notability and Google Chrome.
Normally, I use the i-Clicker system, which is adopted across MSU for clickers. I really like the i-Clicker system, it’s simple, intuitive, and stable. We have used it for years. But, in teaching a class online, you can’t use this clicker system unless students have bought the app, which most of my students haven’t. My colleague, Vashti Sawtelle, told me about Poll Everywhere, which is a simple polling app that is free for up to 25 users (and $79 for up to 700 students for a month). I created a single question called “Virtual Clicker” with just 5 options (A, B, C, D, E). Then students navigated to the link and simple 5 button form came up. I could ask clicker questions that students could reply to and get real-time information on what they thought. It was similar to i-Clicker in its responsiveness, but I was unable to tell when all the students had clicked in. I could see percentages but not raw numbers.
This is where I need to do some work. By default, all the students’ cameras were off, and they were muted. This was suggested to me by Vashti as a good idea because it can be quite a cacophony if they are all logged in with mics on. I sent the norms when class started to leave the mics off unless you had a question or comment. Then you could either use the raise hand feature (which provides a nice notification) or just unmute and ask a question (this happens in class frequently and I have no problem with it).
Students typically raised hands and spoke, but there wasn’t the back and forth between students I have come to see in class. The building and combining of ideas that are really important in a class. A student would speak, ask a question, express an idea or explanation, or provide a clarifying statement and then back to awkward, awkward silence.
When using clicker questions, I frequently ask students to discuss two or more debatable ideas and vote again. In this first attempt, I was unable to think in the moment how to get that started without having 20 people shouting at each other. (Perhaps, the thoughtful use of breakout rooms might help do that, which I might try.)
Overall, I don’t think teaching this class online was the disaster I thought it was going to be. There are several things I need to work out:
There’s probably more to say here, but I will reserve it for another post after a couple more classes. I did ask students to give me their honest feedback on what we did today because if it’s not working for them, it’s not working, and we need something else. They deserve the best class that can be made in the current situation. All the feedback so far has been fairly positive. I do think they are being generous in a difficult situation and I truly appreciate that.
]]>The following computational projects are used in the PCubed Mechanics course at Michigan State University. These materials were developed by the Physics Education Research Lab at MSU.
On Wednesday, some of you asked for a moment of silence regarding the outcome of Tuesday’s election and I joked about having considered cancelling class. I also said that I wasn’t sure if our classroom space was the place to have that discussion. I was wrong. Our classroom is precisely the space where we should have had that discussion. We’ve worked together to create a safe, comfortable environment where everyone’s ideas are valued and discussed. So, I’m sorry that I didn’t have the courage to allow us that space on Wednesday. Given the moment has passed, I wanted to share something about myself with you and to address how I’m feeling as it relates to our class, our department, and our University.
I am US citizen of Mexican heritage who grew up along the Texas-Mexico border. I am the father of 3 multiracial little girls. Many of my friends and coworkers are citizens of other countries who have lived and worked in the US for many years - buying goods and services from American companies, paying US taxes, owning cars and homes. Some of those friends have European heritage, but many are from Latin and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and India. Some of my friends are undocumented workers who have worked hard to build businesses, to raise their families, and to contribute productively to American society. Some of my friends identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, or queer. While each of these folks (myself included) has felt discriminated against, marginalized, and/or dismissed in one space or another, I hadn’t really thought about the safety of these people over the last 8 years. That is, until Wednesday morning. I am terrified.
I am terrified of how this discrimination, marginalization, and dismissal may transform into something even more disgusting - hate and violence. Let me be clear, discrimination, marginalization, and dismissal should not be tolerated in any form, but my concern is shifting towards those who might feel emboldened to take action against others who they perceive as not belonging in this country.
So, let me say this to all of you, you belong here. You belong in our class. You belong in our department. You belong at MSU.
My job is devoted to helping you find your particular path in life. I do that through teaching physics. I have chosen to help each and every student that I can find their way in the world. I can’t help you find that path if I think that you don’t belong here. The space we’ve created in our classroom is meant to be a safe one where each of you is valued, where you can try on ideas, where no question is off limits, and where we can learn together. I do hope that you feel that is the case. You should never have to put up with discrimination, marginalization, or dismissal - in our class or any other space. If in our classroom, in our department, or at our university, you ever feel this way, please know that you can talk with me. My door is always open to you regardless of what you want or need to talk about. My work doesn’t end with teaching you electromagnetism.
But, I know it’s hard to share those experiences. It’s hard to feel empowered to confront those kinds of ideas. To that end, I offer you this example. I experienced discrimination when applying for graduate school. I asked a professor with whom I had conducted research for 4 semesters to write me a letter of recommendation for graduate school in physics. It seemed like a good idea as he knew what I wanted to do in life and what work I had done for his lab. He wanted me to continue graduate study with him because “I was one of the good ones.” (That should have been my first clue.) He wrote a negative letter of recommendation that went to all the graduate schools to which I applied. Even with my high grades, solid physics GRE score, and two independent research experiences (one that lead to a publication), I was rejected by all of the schools to which I applied. I only found out about the letter because my academic advisor called each school to investigate why I hadn’t been accepted. From my perspective, that kind of discrimination was not uncommon. It was something I had been accepting of (and maybe complicit in) for a number of years up to that point. But reflecting back, in the position I hold now, it sickens me. I understand how much power I can wield over students; it is something I think about everyday because of this and other experiences. This experience reminds me (daily) that I should not hold power over any of you, but rather work to empower each of you.
As we move forward, we don’t know what the future is going to hold for us, particularly as we transition to these new shepherds of American democracy who came to power using messages of intolerance, anger, isolationism, and nationalism. That uncertainty can make us uncomfortable, frustrated, and downright angry. Those feelings are valid and have to be processed. Indeed, you don’t have to “get in line” and “support our president”, that’s the beauty of American democracy, you can respectfully disagree without fear of persecution. Notice the word, “respectfully.” What we must avoid is hurting each other. We need to support each other. We should make space for each other. But we should never accept discrimination, marginalization, and dismissal from either (or any) side.
So, let me say it again. You belong here. You belong in our class. You belong in our department. You belong at MSU. This is as much your country as it is anyone’s and my door is open to you.
-Danny
]]>This post contains a PDF of the talk and the activity that was completed as part of that workshop as well as a link to the code.
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