AAUP Negotiating Update #4
Return to the Past
The AAUP and the University
have exchanged proposals and the negotiating team has finished a preliminary
review of the University's proposal. Based on
that review and the fact that the University has chosen to hire a major
I.
Increases in Administrative Authority
a.
Under the present
Agreement, the Provost sits on the P&T committee and must state his
position and be prepared to defend it in open discussion in the committee. Under
the Universities proposal, the Provost would not participate in the P&T
Committee's deliberations, but both the
President and the Provost could independently review and make recommendations
to the Board of Trustees in Promotion and Tenure cases. Neither would be held
to the present standard to "not substitute their judgments on the
professional expertise of the candidate for properly documented judgments
presented in the departmental recommendation(s). "
b.
Deans would
appoint Department Chairs unilaterally and there would be no mechanism for a
Department to remove a Chair.
c.
In hiring, Deans
could reject a Department's preferred
candidate for any reason.
d.
Under the present
Agreement it takes 5 votes to pass new academic policies. The University
is proposing that it become 5 votes or 4 votes if one of those votes was the
Dean. This would effectively give the Dean two votes.
II.
New Faculty Category
The
University is proposing the establishment of a full time non tenure track
category. These individuals would never be eligible for the protections of
tenure (and thus never have protection for their Academic Freedom). In addition
they would not be members of the AAUP bargaining unit and would therefore not
have the protection of the Agreement. These new unprotected faculty would have
a workload of 12 credits a semester. Since they would be out of the bargaining
unit how many overloads they could teach, compensation etc. would be at the
discretion of the University. They would of course be at will employees.
III.
Workload Issues
a.
Faculty could be
assigned to teach at any location.
This would include
b. Independent Studies and Internships would not be
compensated unless they were a required part of the curriculum.
c. The Dean could add a course above the allowable
maximum workload to a faculty member's
workload in an "emergency".
d. Faculty with fewer then 25 advisees from their own
department will be assigned advisees from other programs so as to bring him/her
up to the at least 25 advisees.
IV.
Healthcare
a.
As of January 2008 bargaining unit members will have to contribute to the cost
of both single and dependent coverage. The amount of that contribution will be
determined by the University but shall be equal to whatever the University
chooses to charge other non AAUP employees with similar salaries.
V.
As of January
2009 the University would only subsidize the so called 90/70 plan
(reimbursement at 90% for in network costs at 70% for out of network costs). If
you wanted to continue to receive the 100/80 plan (reimbursement at 100% in
network and 80% out of network) you would have to pay the full difference
between the cost of the 100/80 plan and the 90/70 plan. This would be on top of
what ever share of the premium for the 90/70 plan the University chose to set
and of course co-pays.
We could go on but I am sure
you get the idea. If you have not yet volunteered to work with the action
committee I urge you to contact Dorothy Warner (warner@rider.edu) and do so immediately.
The first negotiating session
is scheduled for June 20th and we will send out further updates
after each negotiation session.
The best way to avoid a strike is to prepare for a strike