Catherwood LibraryILR School

A group of undergraduate and graduate students in the ILR School went into Dean Kevin Hallock’s office yesterday to present a letter they collaborated on, voicing concern for the upcoming changes to the ILR curriculum. These changes were guided by the particular calls for de-emphasizing labor in the curriculum at a recent ILR Town Hall meeting. The letter includes a list of demands, including: Add a required ILR course that discusses critical race, gender, and class theory in relation to labor; Hire at least three tenure track professors to make up for shortages and upcoming retirements of faculty in the Labor Relations, Law, and History Department within the next two years; Faculty should be required to undergo diversity and inclusion training upon hiring, and again every two years, as trainings are updated to ensure proper action in response to campus incidents and an ever-changing national and international political climate; Add a number of electives that explore, in depth, issues of labor and the working class; Career Services should dedicate greater resources to outreach efforts concerning labor and nonprofit organizations; and that the administration should meet bimonthly with students to discuss progress on these steps. They also requested a meeting with the committee in charge of the curriculum changes. The students’ are adamant in their resolution that ILR should not be a space that values the promotion of marketable, cooperate skills over the fight for workers’ rights.