Although the faculty at the University of Northern Iowa are unionized, it is unlikely the ISU faculty will organize any time soon.

Several challenges lie in the way of a union formation, faculty members said. The enormous spectrum of viewpoints among the faculty is a primary one, along with opposition from some faculty members and fears about losing autonomy.

The wide-ranging interests and opinions at Iowa State would make it hard for the faculty form a union, said Peter Orazem, university professor of economics.

“It puts the union in a very bad position because it is hard to represent very diverse viewpoints,” he said.

Since Iowa State is a research and teaching university, the goals and interests of faculty on campus vary greatly. If the university were to focus more on teaching or research, it would make it easier for faculty to organize, he said.

Faculty unions at high levels of education are unusual because the nature of faculty members’ expertise allows them freedom in where they choose to work, Orazem said.

Faculty Senate President Jack Girton said one reason faculty members oppose unionizing might be that they do not want to give up autonomy to make their own decisions.

However, he said, right now, the faculty and the Faculty Senate do not have any legally binding contract with the administration, so they only have the power of persuasion when negotiating salary. Faculty members are rather limited on what they can or cannot do when dealing with the university, which could be a reason for the faculty to unionize, Girton said.

“ISU is very low on the salary scale,” he said.

The university is also tied in what it can do, since the amount of money it can disperse to the faculty is determined by the Board of Regents, he said.

A union would contract not with the university, but with the regents.

“The bottom line is, it works,” Girton said of unionization.

Girton said he won’t be sure about the wisdom of forming a union on campus, however, until more information is available.

The Board of Regents has already entered an agreement with one union, United Faculty, a faculty union at University of Northern Iowa.

United Faculty formed in 1975 after several women on the UNI campus filed a lawsuit concerning equal work and equal pay, said Frank Thompson, United Faculty President.

After the trial, the faculty on campus decided it would be a good idea to form a union to protect their interests.

“The role of the union is to create an environment in which the faculty can work the best,” Thompson said.

The union, with help from the Iowa chapter of the American Association of University Professors, every two years renegotiates its Master Agreement, a collective bargaining agreement outlining a set of working conditions for the employees, with the Board of Regents, he said.

Thompson said the union shares part of its governance with the American Association of University Professors.

Larry Glenn, executive secretary for the group, said the organization was not a union, but did have many individual chapters all over the nation that do engage in collective bargaining and are similar to unions.

The association normally helps faculty unions by providing consultation and training for negotiations, but United Faculty was already fairly experienced in its own negotiations, Glenn said.

“A growing number of AAUP chapters are converting to union environments,” Thompson said.

Faculty at many universities are unionizing because the universities are moving toward a more corporate business model, he said.

Bob Hollinger, president of the ISU chapter of the American Association of University Professors and professor of philosophy, said he felt the same sentiment at ISU.

“[The university] has become more corporate; the expense is the corroded role of the faculty and the respect of the university,” he said.

Hollinger said he was in favor of forming a union, but felt that there wouldn’t be any support for a union, since the campus is fairly conservative.