by Mikal J. Harris

DE Campus Life Editor

Thomas Alexander’s eyes beam as he relates a favorite Native American folk tale of a young warrior who went into battle with Spider Woman as his guide.

His foe was guided by the seemingly overpowering forces of nature. While the more than worthy adversary acted upon the booming clap of thunder and the flash of ferocious lightning, the young warrior could only listen to the whispered advice of Spider Woman in his ear.

He had to stop in the midst of the fracas to hear her sage advice, but that is the point of Alexander’s folk tale. The young warrior had to stop, listen and rationalize. He eventually bested his foe.

Alexander, an SIUC professor continuing a third-generation love of teaching philosophy, may have wanted the faculty association to follow that young warrior’s plan of action during the union’s year-long negotiations with administrators. The threat of a strike now hangs over the campus like a dark, pregnant cloud, but Alexander is not so sure that his union leaders plan to consult Spider Woman anytime soon.

He believes the thunder and lightning may be too much for union heads to ignore. This belief was strong enough to fuel Alexander’s resignation from a powerful position in the union in March, where he was responsible for taking the concerns of faculty from one of the campus’ largest colleges directly to union leadership.

I believed that the association was giving in to tactics and behavior that I thought unnecessarily divisive and polemical, he said. I could not in conscience ask my colleagues to do the things the association wanted me to ask them to do if I could not.

The only thing was to resign even though it came at a sensitive time for the association.

After Alexander gave up his position as College of Liberal Arts representative in the faculty association while retaining union membership, the union later authorized leadership to seek mediation at any point during contract negotiations, then arbitration, and finally file an intent to strike. After this vote, faculty union members staged an informational picket outside administrators’ Anthony Hall offices March 23.

When administrators presented the faculty union with a contract April 2 at a press conference, union heads rejected the settlement package which included a 12-percent merit salary increase over three years less than 24 hours after it was presented. Union heads did not take the offer to the union’s bargaining unit before turning it down and opted to call for mediation April 4. Administrators joined the request April 6.

Alexander’s resignation was not a decision he made lightly. Alexander’s four-page letter of resignation to faculty union president Jim Sullivan revealed a number of concerns that eventually led him to abandon the influential position to which he was elected one year ago.

Among Alexander’s controversial concerns was his belief that internal union debates were completely absent of any concern for SIUC students who may be affected by a strike. He is opposed to allowing union heads call for picketing, mediation and arbitration without consulting the majority of union members. He believes union members had given in to what he calls unnecessarily divisive and polemical tactics. He also believes that union leadership is presenting an incomplete view of their argument to the public.

[T]he association wants to present the picture that SIUC is not a poor university,’ he stated in his resignation letter, and so we are presented in our newsletters with pie charts, isolated figures, bar graphs and so on facts’ that force the reader to the desired conclusion without presenting the whole truth.

There is a word for such a practice propaganda. To see it used in an academic setting where objectivity and love of truth, the whole truth, are key values is offensive to me.

Alexander contends these and similar offenses have lead him to conclude there are two realities of the union negotiation saga. There is a world presented by the association and a world presented by administrators.

Perhaps one is right, he stated in his letter, or the truth is in between.

Sullivan would offer little comment about Alexander’s concerns. Once considered amiable colleagues, their opposite stances have left the pair with a tense and strained relationship.

He was the association’s COLA representative and he resigned, Sullivan said. That’s all I have to say about that.

But union spokesman Walter Jaehnig chose to address Alexander’s issues. Although union leadership has been loath to disclose actual membership numbers, Jaehnig believes the majority of SIUC’s 730 tenured and tenure-track faculty agrees with the union’s actions. He said he is of this opinion because the majority of affected SIUC faculty are union members.

Jaehnig views Alexander’s stances only as being out of step with those of his peers. He said SIUC faculty members believe in what the union is trying to accomplish.

I would say the faculty association has about 400 to 450 members, and in any organization of that sort you’re going to have members with different views and opinions, he said. He’s had the same opportunity to voice his opinions as everyone else.

Although Sullivan and Jaehnig may not agree with Alexander’s selected concerns, all three share one common goal obtaining a fair contract from the University. He does not want to strike or leave the campus.

Alexander believes gradual progress was being made in the year-long contract negotiations at least until the early April shakeups pushed the SIUC campus closer to a strike.

Like other union members, he had problems with the administration’s offer. Still, he fervently wishes union heads would have taken full advantage of the proposed contract’s April 20 expiration and explored other avenues.

I think the administration presented its package in good faith, he said, but I wish it had done so with more flexibility. I wish the association had the patience to see whether the flexibility on the issues that remained might open up. Perhaps a public question and answer session could have been announced for the following week when the administration presented its offer.

Instead in my opinion, at least what we saw was like two gunslingers walking down Main Street at high noon, and then each one shooting himself in the foot.

Alexander said he was made aware of the union’s decision to reject the offer in the same way that most of the public was informed by consulting local media reports. The union’s college representatives unanimously rejected the settlement package. Alexander’s resignation last month kept him on the sidelines. It is a difficult position for someone, like Alexander, who genuinely loves his SIUC career and wants academics and administrators to be of one accord.

But he also has to make a living.

Alexander first arrived at SIUC in 1985 after being attracted by the University’s vast collection of the works of philosopher John Dewey. His grandfather, renowned philosopher Hartley Burr Alexander, has work in the University Archives.

Growing up in New Mexico allowed Alexander the opportunity to explore the rich, Southwestern Native American culture. That influence led to his passionate hobby of amassing Native American artifacts and folk tales. He reads these stories to area schoolchildren in their classes.

For Cynthia Gayman, a doctoral student in philosophy from Carbondale whose master’s work was supervised by Alexander a few years ago, Alexander’s embrace of different cultures and ideas makes him an excellent educator.

He’s very pluralistic in his philosophical approach, she said. He uses Native American, Eastern and African-American thinkers and philosophies in his classes along with some of the more traditional theorists. He’s very open to different ways of looking at philosophy.

Alexander is supervising Glenn Kuehn’s doctoral work after working with Kuehn on his thesis as well. Kuehn also is effusive in praising Alexander as an instructor.

Tom will be a guide for any student, he said. He’ll advise and befriend and lead any student who comes to him for advice.

I think he’s one of the professors who breaks down that Is it OK for me to talk to a professor?’ feeling. I’ve always been impressed with his ability to teach.

But outside of the classroom, Alexander’s philosophy faces a more difficult environment. He has received positive and negative feedback from his resignation and about his ideas. But, like the rest of the campus, he is watching the storm clouds amass and hoping for the best to come out of a precarious situation.

But in the midst of it all, he too may have to consult with Spider Woman.

I am a citizen of my university, my college and my department as well as a member of the faculty association, he said. If I believe that the association is harming rather than furthering the ideals of this University, I will have to rethink my membership.