On Saturday, our elected Bargaining Committee wrote to all of us describing a disappointing bargaining session. “The tone of our conversation was civil,” they told us, “but it was clear that we will all need to keep working to show the NYU administration why these issues matter to us and why we need to win the strong first contract we deserve.”
Sign the petition demanding our academic freedom.
Here’s the next step to showing the administration that we stand behind our elected representatives as they write academic freedom into every one of the articles that they have proposed so far, from Health and Safety to Respectful Work Environment to Shared Governance to Appointments, Reappointments, and Promotions. Make sure the administration knows the importance of academic freedom at the foundation of everything we do.
The American university system rests on academic freedom: the right of faculty to research, teach, and participate in society according to their conscience and expertise, without being subject to the whims of administrators, donors, and politicians. That bedrock principle is under threat by a presidential administration seeking to defund our institutions, subvert our rights as workers, and target our most vulnerable colleagues.
To protect our profession, our students, and NYU’s mission, we need a contract that guarantees our academic freedom. Click here to join the call to the NYU administration to agree to presumptively renewable appointments and to enshrine in our contract the full participation of contract faculty in the shared governance of the university, including committees for reappointment, promotion, and related grievances. Because academic freedom cannot exist when some faculty are in more precarious positions than others, we must furthermore demand that the NYU administration agree to a contract that establishes a clear path to permanent residency for international faculty, safeguards our privacy, and shields us from harassment and discrimination.
With your signature, you can show the NYU administration that now more than ever, we demand a union contract that upholds higher education’s core principles.
In solidarity,
Contract Faculty United – UAW
Organizing Committee