Update for 12/4/19 Bargaining
Your UAOSU bargaining team met with the administration’s bargaining team on Wednesday, December 4, 12-3pm. We discussed two main topics: academic freedom and promotion and tenure.
Academic Freedom
The administration presented a counter proposal on Academic Freedom that removed their earlier language seeking to exclude academic freedom violations from the grievance procedure. Without the ability to grieve academic freedom violations, this article would have amounted to nothing more than a toothless values statement. With grievability in place, we feel close to agreement on this article.
Promotion & Tenure
Our team presented several articles related to promotion and tenure in June and again in October and November. The administration has asserted a desire to keep details of promotion and tenure out of the contract and rely instead on existing policy. They asked that we provide more context as to what we hoped to accomplish in these articles. We laid out several reasons we need promotion and tenure details in the contract, including:
- Existing policy is confusing, contradictory, and often difficult to locate.
- Existing policy excludes some classes of employees (Research Associates and PAC Instructors) from eligibility for promotion and tenure.
- Existing policy can be changed by administrators. We want to lock in the good work Faculty Senate has done over the years and protect that work against changes made without considering the voice of all affected faculty.
- Promotion and tenure are fundamental aspects of a faculty member’s conditions of employment. They are the means by which faculty access stability in employment. We cannot have a contract that is silent on such fundamental matters.
- Consistent, transparent policies enable OSU to award promotion and tenure in a fair and equitable way for all faculty members.
While the administration team acknowledged that our version cleaned up inconsistencies in existing policy, they remained locked in on a desire to include no details of promotion and tenure in the contract. We anticipate many more conversations about the importance of this language.
Our website provides a table with links to all exchanged articles. Importantly, we reached tentative agreement on Health, Safety, and Facilities on November 26.
The next bargaining session is 10am-1pm on Wednesday, December 11 in the Agriculture Science Room of the LaSells Stewart Center. We plan to present articles on sick leave, family leave, and sabbatical leave. We hope to receive proposals on compensation and appointments from the administration’s team. Even if you can only drop by for half an hour, your attendance matters: show the administration that faculty are watching this process.
We appreciate your support. You can find a full calendar of Fall Term bargaining sessions on our website.
In solidarity,