At the Dec. 12 Board of Trustees meeting, MSU alumnus and outspoken campus activist Noah Saperstein was arrested for disorderly conduct after the announcement of MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon’s raise. He has plead not guilty and intends to fight the charge.
Saperstein’s attorney, Joshua Covert, said he believes the arrest was a way of silencing dissent, and that Saperstein — a known activist on campus — was targeted.
Since 2007, Simon has rejected salary increases offered to her, but at the December meeting she did not turn down the board’s raise, accepting a salary increase of $230,000 and a $100,000 bonus, raising her total compensation to $850,000 and making her the third-highest paid president of a Big Ten university.
It wasn’t announced beforehand that Simon would accept the pay raise, so when alumnus Noah Saperstein stood up and spoke in opposition, interrupting the meeting’s proceedings, he violated a rule that said all public commenters must register 48 hours in advance.
Saperstein said the question he posed was roughly, “If the university hires adjunct and associate faculties to cut costs, why don’t we hire an adjunct or associate president?”
Adjunct faculty, the common term for what MSU refers to as fixed-term faculty, are those who teach on a semester-to-semester or year-to-year basis. After each term they must reapply with the university.
From fall 2004 to fall 2013, MSU increased employment of fixed-term faculty members by nearly 41 percent, while growth of tenure-track faculty increased by only 2 percent, according to Office of Planning and Budgets reports.
The proliferation of fixed-term positions at universities like MSU has become a point of contention among those in higher education.
If not offered a full-time position, the fixed-term faculty member, who already has lower salary requirements than a tenure-track faculty member, must find appointments in other universities and community colleges or other work altogether to make a living, Union of Nontenure-Track Faculty principal organizer Elizabeth Pellerito said.
Though hiring fixed-term faculty cuts costs for universities, it does so at the detriment of the faculty member and the students studying under them, Saperstein said.
“If my teacher is putting in time at three different institutions; if they don’t have a stable office; if they don’t have benefits and things they need to survive as a human being; how’s that going to affect their ability to teach me?” Saperstein said. “Their work conditions are our learning conditions.”
MSU spokesman Jason Cody said the use of fixed-term faculty benefits students because the university can allocate teaching resources to a course or major in demand without entering into a long-term commitment. He said the increase in employment of fixed-term faculty members can be attributed to larger incoming classes.
Following Saperstein’s interjection, a reporter from The State News covering the meeting said he was first asked to sit down and refused, but Saperstein alleged he was told to leave right away.
After Saperstein moved from the doorway at the request of a plainclothes officer, he was escorted by the officer to the elevator. Saperstein said he resisted, planting his feet in order to not be moved.
Following this, the officer pushed him against a wall, at which point Saperstein shouted for the officer to get his hands off him, Saperstein said.
The officer identified himself at Saperstein’s request, and later informed Saperstein that he was under arrest for violating a university disorderly conduct ordinance, Saperstein said.
The ordinance states people can not “obstruct, hinder, or impede the normal use or operation” of any place where activites have been scheduled. such as the board of trustees meeting.
