Addressing Gender Equity through Collective Bargaining Nancy Welch Professor of English Chair, Delegates Assembly University of Vermont United Academics AFT/AAUP

Addressing Gender Equity through Collective Bargaining These slides summarize some of the key provisions of United Academics’ current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for full-time faculty, with and without access to tenure. Per the Vermont Labor Relations Board, in place for part-time faculty is a separate CBA which has brought improvements but not yet the significant equity gains detailed here. For full details:

Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure Each unit must have faculty-vetted RPT guidelines, in accord with the collective bargaining agreement’s (CBA) overall guidelines governing appointments and evaluation, with unit-appropriate and appointment-specific criteria. Committees and administrators may not augment or supplant the RPT criteria in evaluating a candidate.

Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure The CBA clarifies and defines a candidate’s responsibilities and rights (including right to review/raise objections to the list of candidates for external evaluators); chair and dean’s responsibilities; who may vote; and timetable, including when a dossier is closed, the limited circumstances in which something can be added or subtracted.

Reappointment and Promotion for Non- Tenure-Track Faculty After two initial one-year contracts, full-time lecturers(.75 FTE and above) will receive a two-year contract, which will be renewed if the position is still needed and the faculty member has a record of teaching effectiveness.

Reappointment and Promotion for Non- Tenure-Track Faculty After six full-time years (out of eight years of service), a lecturer is eligible for promotion to senior lecturer with an initial contract of two to four years and subsequent contracts of three to five years.

Reappointment and Promotion for Non- Tenure-Track Faculty Grant-funded research faculty with six or more years of service may receive up to nine months of “bridge support”– salary and health care—between grants. Lecturers who are not reappointed must be notified by March 15 for the following year; senior lecturers by December 15 for the following year.

Working Conditions and Respect for Part-Time Lecturers Most part-time lecturers are still on single-semester appointments. CBAs have brought some seniority recognition in pay and course assignments plus requirement that all lecturers have office space, desk and lockable files, phone, , office assistance, full-year library privileges, and payment in case of course cancellation within two weeks of start date.

Transparency and Equity in Compensation Salary minimum for each rank, negotiated with each CBA, addresses inversion, narrows gaps between faculty of same rank. Annual salary raise pools emphasize across-the-board, compression, and market and minimize performance (“merit” pay).

Transparency and Equity in Compensation All tenure-track faculty must receive some release from teaching during a semester prior to the tenure decision. College of Arts and Science faculty receive a pre-tenure, one-semester release from teaching.

Transparency and Equity in Compensation For every “general fund” (most full-time) faculty, each unit receives at least $1,200 annually in professional development funds from which all full-time (both “general fund” and research-funded) faculty can draw. Each unit develops written guidelines for distribution; lecturers are eligible.

Transparency and Equity in Compensation Every seventh year all faculty at the ranks of senior lecturer, associate professor, or full professor are eligible for a one-semester sabbatical at 100% salary or one year at 77.3% salary. Sabbaticals are not competitive. Sabbatical-eligible faculty may take “half sabbaticals,” one semester at 77.3% pay after every three years.

Family Friendly Policies Tenure clock may be extended, up to three years, for a faculty member who becomes a parent or legal guardian to a minor child, is caring for a seriously ill family member, or is faced with a serious illness.

Family Friendly Policies All assistant, associate, and full professors and senior lecturers—plus lecturers with four or more years of service—can take one semester (for nine-month faculty) or 15 weeks (for 12-month faculty) of paid parental leave with benefits. This benefit includes faculty who adopt or whose spouse or partner gives birth.

Family Friendly Policies All assistant, associate, and full professors and senior lecturers—plus lecturers with four or more years of service—can take per year up to 30 days of family leave with pay and benefits followed by, if needed, FMLA’s six weeks of unpaid leave.

Intellectual Property, Academic Freedom, and Faculty Governance The CBA’S intellectual property rights policy ensures that a faculty member’s syllabi, curriculum, and course materials are hers/his. CBAs have staved off administration attempts to expand “management rights” to include review of faculty civic and political activities and to take the writing/approval of RPT guidelines out of department hands.

Addressing Gender Equity through Collective Bargaining Transparency and unit-/appointment-sensitivity in RPT Longer-term contracts, professional treatment for lecturers Improved compensation and professional development support, with emphasis on equity over “merit” Family friendly policies including tenure-clock extensions and paid parental/family leaves Protections for intellectual property, academic freedom, and faculty governance

Addressing Gender Equity through Collective Bargaining Nota bene: Negotiating a contract is a faculty-wide effort so that a negotiating team goes to the table knowing that their proposals, discussed and shaped by members, reflect the needs and have the support of an educated membership who will also lend continual assistance to the negotiating team.

Addressing Gender Equity through Collective Bargaining Feedback via whole-membership surveys and meetings through department representatives and collective-bargaining caucuses Testimony and presentations for negotiating sessions and public actions: press conferences, “pep rallies,” public campaigns with students, parents, community

Addressing Gender Equity through Collective Bargaining “[B]ecause of our Fall meetings, our surveys, and our ongoing meetings with the delegates assembly, we had a much firmer idea of what our members wanted and why … [B]ecause of the initial press conference—where we led with our goals, demands, and rationale—the administration could anticipate what a public campaign would have done…” –Chief negotiator, CBA for full-time faculty

Addressing Gender Equity through Collective Bargaining Nancy Welch Professor of English Chair, Delegates Assembly University of Vermont United Academics AFT/AAUP