LMU 2024 Bargaining Team Candidate Statements
CFA – College of Communication and Fine Arts
Barbara Dyer
I don’t know if I am the correct person to be on the bargaining team. I question highly whether I am the personality to do this job, or even have the time as I run around LA teaching.
But, we finally have a union and even though I am older, I feel the responsibility that now that we’ve got it, we’ve got to speak up for ourselves and get a much better deal. I certainly can learn, and I even look forward to learning about this because musicians are not taught to do business, nor the business of speaking up for oneself, and being an educator those statements are even more true. I don’t think I will be around much longer to take my turn, and so, if you want a person who sometimes has trouble finding words, but who can play a part, then, I might be worthy.
Nicki Heskin
Nicki Heskin is a professional theatrical stage manager and producer and grew up in a union household in Miami (IBEW Local 349) in the 70s before Florida became a right-to-work state. She has been a member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the union for professional actors and stage managers since 2019, and as a stage manager and producer, part of her roles has been to ensure compliance with the many complex rules in the numerous contracts and codes that govern professional theatre in the Los Angeles region. She has also served as a member or observer on four different AEA member committees.
Nicki was an adjunct professor of stage management in the theatre arts department in Spring 2024 and will start as the full-time assistant (NTT) clinical professor of production management for the department starting Fall 2024. She volunteered to serve on the bargaining team because she is interested in helping to navigate the complexity of a contract that addresses the needs of multiple stakeholders, given the different types of adjunct and full-time employment and variations between departments and schools at the University. Production and stage management is all about facilitation collaboration and communication between the many collaborators and needs to successfully mount a theatrical show within union rules – I’m happy to serve to bring those skills to this process.
maureen Gonzales
I come from a union home. My father in the International Union of Elevator Constructors, IUEC Local 2, and my mother, the International Brotherhood/Sisterhood/Siblinghood of Electrical Workers, IBEW Local 134. My mother worked as the Union Steward for her local chapter for decades advocating for her fellow union members and ensuring that their rights and needs were being met. I am inspired, motivated and empowered by what labor unions can offer families like mine. I am happy to be nominated for the bargaining committee. If chosen for the role, I aim to be listen to all of our experiences and be a voice for all of us NTT Faculty. We grow in dialogue and can suffer in monologue. There is power in unifying. Let’s come together and demonstrate the power of the people! We have an opportunity to make real gains for us as NTT Faculty, and for our students at LMU so they can have the experience they deserve. (And the one their families are paying for!)
Darrin Murray
I was part of the first attempt to form our union about 10 years ago and would be honored to continue working with the non-tenure track faculty here at LMU to ensure that we are treated fairly and as the professionals that we are. I have been teaching in the Department of Communication Studies “temporarily,” semester-to-semester, for 32 years. This sort of precarious employment insecurity needs to stop. While compensation is certainly important, and worth bargaining for, I also believe that part-time faculty need to have a fair and reasonable reassurance of reappointment to courses they are qualified to teach. No one should have to worry every single semester whether they will continue to have courses assigned to them. I also believe our bargaining with the administration does not require an adversarial relationship; rather, we have the ability to work with one another to ensure the best possible outcomes for both employees and the University. I will do everything I can to urge our administration to engage in a cooperative approach to creating a strong contract together.
SFTV – School of Film and Television
MICHAEL DALEY
Having lived through two WGA (Writers Guild of America) Strikes and knowing several members of those bargaining committees, I feel I’ve learned a lot about the union process. I also have served on the Faculty Senate at LMU and now serve as the Grad Director for my program, so I’m also known to administration and can talk to them with some ease. I’m an alumni of LMU (1996 MFA), started teaching parttime back in 2013, became a Visiting Professor in 2017, then got a Clinical Assistant Professor position in 2018, which I was promoted from after 6 years to Clinical Associate Professor. I’m still struggling to make rent in LA, even after a decade of working at one of the top Film Schools in the world. That said, I’m very eager to help us get the best deal we can get!
Sam Goff
Self-proclaimed “animation activist” Sam Goff (she/her) serves as a Creative Talent Manager with Fourth Wall Management by day and as a university professor by night. An alumnus of LMU, Sam has always had a passion for community building and civic responsibility. She regularly volunteers her time to mentor with Black N Animated, BRIC Foundation, Rise Up Animation, Women in Animation, and many others. She teaches an animation practicum course at Cal State Long Beach. With SFTV, Sam teaches her personal animation DEI activism course, Animated Perspectives. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife and 12 beloved pets.
Leslie LaPage
Leslie La Page, has Produced, Directed and Line Produced/UPM for Film, TV, Music Videos, Commercials and Theatrical productions nationally and internationally in both the independent and commercial markets. She has worked for such companies as Black Entertainment Television Action Pay Per View (BET) HBO, Lifetime TV, MTV, Paramount, and Nickelodeon just to name a few. Ms. La Page ran and operated TIGER’S EYE SOUND, a dialogue editorial company, with partner Bruce Murphy. TIGER’S EYE SOUND dialogue-edited such critically acclaimed films as: 1998 Academy Awards Nominee, Best Foreign Film – “Four Days in September”; 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for “Smoke Signals”; and the film “Dead Man’s Curve,” which was a Sundance Film Festival Invitee. Leslie and Partner Saul Stein, Co-Executive Producer of “The Holy Land,” formed BooYah! Films which were released through Cavu Pictures nationwide.
Ms. LaPage launched LA Femme International Film Festival, one of the most prestigious women’s film festivals in Los Angeles. The focus of the film festival is to empower women in entertainment now in its 18th year of programming. I have negotiated dozens of films into distribution.
She has over 15 years of creating, launching and teaching experience as an adjunct professor and really believes in the impact the instructor can have on the lives of their students. But as a professor it is important to hold true to good business practices and I am proud to be able to go to the negotiating table on behalf of the instructors at LMU.
Howard March
My name is Howard March. I am a part-time lecturer in the screenwriting department at SFTV. I love teaching at LMU. However, I find it difficult to provide for my wife and 12-year-old son on what I am paid here. The time and the energy that I put into my courses makes it challenging for me to accept other work. Last semester, I taught two classes. Next semester, I’m only teaching one. So I will be losing my family’s health insurance coverage through LMU, which, for us, is a big deal. I want to be on our new union’s bargaining team to do my part in securing higher wages, better benefits and improved working conditions for all of us. Those are the practical reasons why I agreed to put my name on the ballot. But more than that, I share with LMU, at least according to its mission statement, a passionate belief in social justice. I think that the non-tenure track faculty at LMU deserves to be treated fairly, commensurate with the value that we bring to the university. If I am elected to the bargaining team, I will look forward to hearing from all of you about your hopes for our new contract.
Jon Medici
The highest quality education is our primary focus at Loyola Marymount and The School of Film and Television, however our full-time and part-time faculty are completely under-appreciated and unfairly compensated. Part-time professors are often thought of as disposable and easily replaced, no matter how well they do, and I’ve heard on repeated occasions that full-time work is more analogous to “charity” than an actual career. This inappropriate treatment is reflected in pay rates that are often below the poverty line in the city of Los Angeles and this must stop. LMU claims they pay our professor an appropriate wage, and that they can not afford to compensate professors more because of limitations in our budget, however university spending would contradict the notion. The School of Film and Television is one of the highest rated programs in the world and it is time for SFTV’s professors to be paid a wage that reflects the value of education our students are given from our incredible faculty.
Elizabeth Quinn
I’m Elizabeth (Liz) Quinn and I am running to be on the bargaining committee for the SEIU Local 721. I was raised in a family of artists and educators who instilled the importance of what those professions can do for people and their value to society. As an alumna and part-time adjunct instructor at LMU in the School of Film and Television, I have a great deal of experience on both sides of the classroom so I feel I can speak to the needs of our faculty during bargaining negotiations and represent what is best for both faculty and students. My family was middle-class, but we never lacked for anything we needed nor the occasional vacation or splurge item. My mother was able to stay at home during my formative years because we could survive on the salary that my dad made as a full-time professor at Kent State University. We all know that decades of policies and budgetary priorities have created our current situation where our part-time instructors are struggling financially with very little, if any, job security, yet relied upon heavily by LMU. I hope to represent you proudly during negotiations to get what you need and deserve and will listen to you during the entire process. Thank you.
BCLA – Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
Lauren Cole
I am a Senior Lecturer in the History Department who has taught and learned from LMU students for nearly twenty semesters (2010-2013 and 2018-present). Until a few years ago, love for my vocation and gratitude for paying work stopped me from questioning the terms of my employment. But then I began wondering: since LMU employs me to teach foundational classes semester after semester, why am I hired one semester at a time and treated as a temporary employee? The answer led to more questions and conversations with non-tenure track (NTT) faculty with similar concerns. In 2023 we became the Steering Committee for the campaign to unionize LMU NTT faculty. Now that we have successfully unionized, I hope to serve on our bargaining team and help build a contract that better meets our needs, supports our work, and enhances our dignity and well being.
Mark Gaynor
I have been working at LMU as a lecturer since Fall 2021, and have been working as a part time lecturer across multiple universities for the past eight years. I have been involved in the organizing drive at LMU as part of the steering committee, and want to ensure that non-tenure track faculty receive fair compensation, have greater job stability, and are provided support in saving for retirement. I also have seven years of experience organizing with DSA-LA on labor solidarity, electoral, legislative, and tenant campaigns. I aim to build out union structures that facilitate high participation, ensure that we secure a strong contract, and develop workplace democracy.
Arik Greenberg
My name is Arik Greenberg. I’ve taught at LMU since 2003, and have held several NTT positions in the Theological Studies Department, both full and part-time. In 2013-2014, I was one of the leaders of our initial unionizing gambit. Even though the administration’s union busting made it untenable for us to hold our election, I never gave up on our dream to have a union, and after nearly a decade, we resumed our fight in Fall, 2022. At that time, I helped pull together numerous like-minded colleagues, and we revived our union organizing. Since that time, I have been part of the ad hoc Steering Committee that has helped us to build a strong community of colleagues who are ready to stand together for a common cause. After a year and a half of reaching out to colleagues and sharing with them our vision for a united front, we have won our election by a landslide. Now is the time to come to the bargaining table and to articulate to the administration why our families are just as important as theirs. I would like very much to continue to represent my colleagues, and I ask you to trust me with this task. It is my vision to add our nascent union to the growing ranks of NTT faculty unions across the U.S. who are doing more than merely bargaining for a better contract—they are empowering themselves to be the public intellectuals that they were always meant to be, but lacked the financial and institutional support of their universities. I want us to see what it would be like to actually advocate for ourselves and to become the moral compass of our world. I ask you to elect me to the bargaining team so I can continue this mission.
Laura Huffman
My name is Laura Huffman and I’ve been teaching French full-time in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures for six years. Thanks especially to a stimulating and supportive faculty community, this has been the most fulfilling position of my career, and yet were it not for my husband’s union job, I could not afford to work here and also live in Los Angeles. VP Kamala Harris has made freedom to unionize an explicit part of her campaign for president. LMU has just had its best fundraising year ever: it’s time for the administration to walk the walk of its noble mission and pay all its NTT faculty an honorable salary, extend our contract terms, and improve our working conditions. I’ve been part of the union organizing committee that’s brought us this far. I’d like your support to continue this work at the bargaining table.
Linh Hua
As faculty at LMU for the past 19 years, I have been under contract as Part-Time Faculty, Lecturer, Visiting Assistant Professor, Post-doctoral Fellow, Instructor, and Senior Instructor. I have served in every capacity that NTTF can serve in, and this puts me in a prime position to represent the needs of NTTF in BCLA specifically and LMU generally. As Faculty Senate Secretary, I increased the number of seats for Contingent Faculty representation in the Senate from 3 to 6 seats. And as Senate Representative for Contingent Faculty, I met with HR and Tom Poon to ensure part-time faculty receive overtime pay for online training during to Covid. Beginning in 2024, I will serve as one of the NTTF representatives on the BCLA College Council. All of these experiences have given me extensive knowledge of NTTF experiences and needs, and the ability to engage my faculty and administrative colleagues effectively, always serving those most in need of equity and recognition.
Bryan Wisch
I’ve taught at LMU for six years—five years as a part-time lecturer and one year as a full-time instructor. In that time, I experienced firsthand how our low wages and lack of job security hurt us, our families, and our students. That is why I dove into the NTT faculty unionization campaign in late spring of 2023. I served on the organizing committee where I played a major role in developing the campaign strategy that won our union. I also spent countless hours speaking with colleagues, collecting union cards, and crafting campaign messaging. Now, I seek your support in helping me to continue this work by electing me to the bargaining team. As a bargaining team member, I will champion the economic security that all of us deserve. That means wages that allow us to live comfortably in Los Angeles, job security through multi-year contracts, and guaranteed reappointment to courses previously taught. I will also fight to ensure that part-time faculty, even those who only teach a single course, are included in LMU’s healthcare and retirement plans. Ultimately, my goal is to turn our academic gigs into academic careers.