Haven’t signed the academic freedom petition yet?
Join a majority of your colleagues and sign today.
Last Monday, we all got a troubling email from Linda Mills and Martin Dorph warning of austerity ahead — even before NYU has lost any revenue. It highlighted a big problem that many of us formed our union to fix: the way our raises are at the discretion of the administration, which sets and distributes AMI as it chooses, on the schedule it chooses, for the reasons it chooses. We need a contract with fixed, predictable raises set by contract faculty at the negotiating table, not the crumbs Linda deigns to give us.
Last summer, the administration and the union agreed that AMI would continue as before: we had the same AMI pool, distributed on the same basis, as our tenure track colleagues. We will demand the same this summer as well. But we know that isn’t good enough, because the AMI process is still unpredictable, unfair, and based on the whims of our bosses.
So how will we win something better? We’ll win it the same way we’ll win anything: through the full participation of all of us.
We have three more bargaining sessions scheduled this semester: Monday, March 31 from noon to 3:00pm; Friday, April 18 from 11:00am to 2:00pm; and Friday, May 2 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. Will you commit to attending one or more of them?
Commit to observe one of the three remaining sessions this semester.
One important way to set us up for winning higher salaries, fair and predictable workloads, and improvements to benefits is to win the non-economic protections we need. This coming Monday, we’ll be continuing our fight for a contract that guarantees our academic freedom, including presumptively renewable appointments and 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 also 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. Will you make sure that this demand is heard loud and clear? Be there as an observer to show the NYU administration we’re serious and united.
In solidarity,
Contract Faculty United – UAW
Bargaining and Organizing Committees