Information about Labor issues is not generally available. Labor Studies Departments in Universities are one of the few avenues to get labor information out to the general public.
The Division of Labor Studies is an impressive and economically and socially valuable academic unit, and deserves to be funded fully and supported. Given it's responsiveness to new funding problems, it had demonstrated that it is market-worthy, and should not be slated for any reductions or downsizing.
The continued education of adult workers is of vital importance to the future of working America. An educated workforce is an empowered work force. The DLS at IUPUI has been a strategic force in the efforts to educate, empower, and mobilize workers to continue their education. Through the programs and classes at DLS, a community that has been underserved by the IUPUI has a place on the IUPUI campuses that they can call their own.
IUPUI needs the DLS -- keep them funded and keep them growing.
Labor history is one of the few disciplines that report our history from the ground up. Top down, elitist history dominates and distorts the popular discourse. I have seen first hand how IU labor studies reaches working people in a way few centers of higher learning can. To close IU Labor Studies would be to display a contempt for everyday people that is far too common in academia. Save the program!
I have seen this kind of killing off of Labor Studies across the country, for many years. From 1974 - 1981 I was a member of the joint Labor Studies Program (ILIR) of U of M / Wayne State University at Detroit. Each year since that time it has been an on going battle to keep workers programs on these and other campuses throughout the United States. Just recently, major changes have occurred at both universities in the area of Labor Studies and other Worker Programs.
I have sought to seek an answer to this question: if it is appropriate for workers tax dollars to support "line items" in the university and college budget, such as the School of Business Administration, why then is it not acceptable for the Labor Studies Programs (ILIR) to be a "line item" budget appeal for worker programs, since they are the ones footing most of the tax burdens?
I support this petition because for several decades Labor Studies educators have sought to provide Indiana workers with information, analysis, to help them improve their workplace and community lives. The ongoing efforts of certain corporate leaders in the state, supported by members of the IU Administration,
constitute an assault on workers and their families. It is an attempt to either change the original mission of Labor Studies or essentially destroy the program. This
assault also gravely threatens the democratic participation of workers and those faculty who are committed to empowering them.
Indiana has provided leadership for Labor Studies. providing leadership in the field translates into a more accurate understanding of US history; relationship between industry and labor; and, can provide critical insight into the complexities of a world economy. Why would Indiana want to retreat from providing critical areas of academic leadership?
By any means IU should KEEP LABOR STUDIES; it's frustrating enough searching for grads schs with concentration in labor studies. IU could look at it this way if not for better reasons: labor studies enhances diversity of programs, plus making IU of the exceptions rather than joining the herd. Keep labor studies;
As a retired Professor of Political Science, I was almost always stunned at the ignorance of even my best students of the role of the Labor Movement in gaining rights and protections for all workers. Ignorance begat ignorance and my students went ignorant and incurious about labor's struggle into their professional lives. Tragic. Depressing. But your University had the good sense to try to relieve such ignorance. You deserve much praise. I hope that you will reason wisely and continue to protect the Labor Program at Indiana U. We need it now more than ever before.
Labor Studies contributes to an educated public. Education should not be dominated by corporate interests. Corporate domination is not democracy. In the interest of democracy and in the interest of establishing and maintaining a workplace that is competitive in the world market, we need labor studies. Let us not succumb to the callous, self-serving pressures of neoconservatives who lobby to undermine the rights of workers and average Americans.
