IVORY TOWERS: Temple U., A campus still divided 1 yr. after strike

One year after Temple University faculty went on strike, many students and faculty at the North Philadelphia school say the truce between faculty and administration is uneasy at best, and they fear times of rocky relations are not behind them. Students said last week they doubt the February agreement which ended the year-long contract dispute resolved the fundamental problems between the faculty and administration that triggered Temple's second strike in four years. And while administration officials claimed that relations have eased between the two sides, several faculty members said the administration has not yet addressed all the important issues facing the school. · Temple's faculty union called for the walkout, which began September 4, 1990 and lasted 29 days, after a disagreement between teachers and administrators over a university contract offer. Teachers took to the picket lines for a month, leaving over 23,000 students without at least one of their classes and 6000 students with none. At the height of the strike, the faculty union estimated that over 70 percent of classes had been canceled. On October 3, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Samuel Lehrer ordered striking Temple faculty members back to the classroom, but over 1800 students had already withdrawn from the university. Temple officials said the transfers cost the school over $10 million in tuition revenues. But the students who stayed supported the faculty and harassed the administration for not offering an "acceptable contract." Daily protests shook the North Philadelphia campus. Students and faculty members chastised Temple President Peter Liacouras for his "lack of commitment to education" and lack of interaction with faculty. Students burned Liacouras in effigy, chanting "Peter, Peter, tuition eater," and many students protested in the middle of Broad Street. After rejecting a November offer, the faculty agreed to a four-year contract in February. That contract gave faculty a five percent salary increase in the first three years, with an extra one percent in the third year. In the fourth year, the faculty will receive a two percent salary increase. The issue of health care co-payments -- one of the most thorny issues in the dispute -- was resolved as the $260 in co-payments were maintained while a faculty-administration Health Care Advisory Board was created to study health care costs and make recommendations. · Temple Association of University Professionals President Arthur Hochner said faculty members are content with the stability provided in the current agreement in light of the massive nationwide cutbacks in education funding. "The [faculty] has become increasingly satisfied because of what's going on in other states" where university budgets are being slashed, Hochner said. While he said he was pleased with the salary gains of the strike, Hochner criticized administration efforts toward better faculty relations as "token." "There's a lower morale and a lot of fear . . . ultimately the stresses will show up," Hochner said. In fact, several faculty members said last week they are not happy with the strike's results. "It was a pittance -- I hear people talking in terms of waiting for retirement, and to me that's not happiness," Journalism Professor John Lent said. One faculty member, who declined to be identified, characterized the strike as a "totally demoralizing" loss. Others similarly said the strike hurt faculty spirit. "The strike did terrible damage to morale, the recovery from which is very hard to assess," Political Science Chairperson Lynn Miller said. "There is a good deal of damage that is not yet entirely healed." But some noted the strike proved the faculty's willingness to walk out -- what could be useful leverage in future contract negotiations. Some faculty members said last week the strike did not address the real problems at Temple which, faculty members claim, include an administration too narrowly focused on business concerns of the university. Journalism Professor Lent said that class sizes are growing, professors are being forced to teach more classes, and research funds have steadily diminished over the last nine years. But he said while the University is looking at these problems, other major issues are not being addressed. Lent said that Temple's administration has a burgeoning bureaucracy which is eating up a disproportionate amount of tuition and state funding and is threatening Temple's reputation as a research institution. "The same image over substance approach exists," he said. Temple spokesperson George Ingram said that while faculty-administration relations are not perfect, they are "improving." Administration officials said they have taken many steps to improve their relationship with faculty, including regular open forums and the appointment of several faculty members as ex-officio, non-voting members of the board of trustees. Temple administrators have taken several steps to prevent a drop in enrollment and loss of money. Temple, which typically spends nearly $1.5 million on advertising, increased advertising in 1990-91 by almost $700,000. The most prominent campaign featured Temple alumnus Bill Cosby. Ingram refuted claims of an expanding bureaucracy and said increased class sizes, decreased research funds, and increased classes per professor is the result of the recession which has reduced Temple's two primary sources of revenue -- state aid and tuition. · Several students said this week they think the strike did not resolve many of the issues that originally led to the walkout. "The strike is over per se but the faculty is very dissatisfied and it shows," said senior Erin Friar. "Freshmen are crazy to come here." Ingram said last week that despite some students' claims that many professors leaving the school, they are simply observing the normal "ebb and flow" of faculty. Most students no longer talk about the strike, enrollment has almost returned to normal and the campus is quiet as students began a new semester. "It's back to business," said sophomore Edward Affrunti. However, several students said they fear strikes may again disrupt their studies in the future. Indeed, last fall's strike was the second experienced by some students, who suffered one four years earlier.

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