Faculty protest action at Asian Institute of Management
What: AIM Faculty Association press conference
announcing protest activities, Symposium on Academic Freedom, Tenure and the
Faculty Right to Organize
When: 8 am, Friday, September 28
Where: Main entrance (Paseo de Roxas, in front of Greenbelt Park) Asian Institute of Management, Makati City
Background:
In response to AIM management’s refusal to recognize the
faculty union and protest the harassment of its members and officers, the AIM
Faculty Association (AFA) is launching a campaign to protect its members and
assert its role in academic decision making.
AFA has called for a press conference and a public symposium
on Academic Freedom, Tenure and the Faculty Right to Organize on FRIDAY, 8
a.m., September 28 at the AIM campus, across Greenbelt Square
Right to organize
AFA was formed in 2004 to protect its members from
arbitrariness by management and assert faculty role in the academic decision
making. The association immediately sought recognition but was rebuffed by
management saying that the AIM Board of Trustees “categorically objects to the
establishment of a union/collective bargaining unit for a number of philosophical,
economic and governance considerations.”
AIM management harassed and discriminated against AFA
members who comprised more than a majority of all AIM faculty members. Two of
AFA’s founding members have been terminated despite having served more than the
three-year probationary period as defined by the Manual for Private Schools.
Faculty and staff share in 70% of tuition fee increases
Recently, Dr. Victor Limlingan and Prof. Noel Leyco, AFA
chairman and president, respectively were suspended for one year after their
lawyers wrote to the AIM governing boards regarding the unpaid share of faculty
and staff in 70% of the tuition fee increases as mandated by a PD 451 and
subsequently amended by RA 6728. AFA now estimates this amount at around P984
million.
Dr. Limlingan joined AIM in 1973 while Prof. Leyco returned
from the US in 1993 to teach at AIM. Both are tenured professors who earned their advanced
degrees from Harvard University and enjoyed high student ratings in courses they
taught.
Prof. Leyco was also barred entry from the AIM campus by
management to stop him from sending emails regarding the AFA issues that
management considered as inappropriate distractions to AIM students.
Prof. Leyco warns that if he is barred entry, they might
just as well hold a public demonstration in front of AIM instead of the
symposium inside the campus. He adds that “AIM management is seriously hurting
the image of the school before its social investors and the regional community
by violating the rights of the faculty members to organize and their right to seek
legal remedies for their legitimate issues. AIM management must engage all
sectors of the school, including its faculty.”
Contact: Prof. Noel
Leyco, AFA President, email: afa@afa.ph, cell: 0927-251-6232 blogsite:
http://asianfacultyassoc.blogspot.com/
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