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Posted on behalf of the Ithaca College Collective Bargaining Committee To the Ithaca College Community: We are writing to share some extensive background information that we have just posted to the Office of Human Resources website regarding the negotiations between Ithaca College and its part-time, per-course faculty bargaining unit. As many of you know, for the past 11 months, Ithaca College has actively participated in a thorough and intensive negotiation process for the first-ever collective bargaining agreement with our part-time, per-course faculty bargaining unit, represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Faculty hired to teach on a per-course basis play a valuable role at Ithaca College, sharing their academic and professional expertise with students in areas ranging from core academic disciplines to specialized professional topics or individualized lessons. At Ithaca College, approximately 14.6 percent of class sections, and 15.1 percent of credit hours, are taught by faculty teaching on part-time, per-course contracts. We are committed to bargaining in good faith and to reaching an agreement that is fair, responsible, and financially sustainable for our part-time, per-course faculty, our students, and the college, both now and over the long term. To date, we have reached tentative agreements on 18 out of 26 proposals under review. Even during our most challenging conversations, it has remained abundantly clear that everyone involved in these negotiations feels an abiding personal and professional commitment to addressing the issues and doing so in a way that supports our students. The matters under negotiation are complex and multifaceted and deserve to be discussed that way, something which is difficult if not impossible to achieve through press releases and media interviews. For this reason, we do not support the union’s choice to take this conversation substantively into the public realm, and we are deeply disappointed by the union’s recent public announcement that it may be planning to halt negotiations. We strongly prefer to work through these topics at the bargaining table. However, now that some aspects of the negotiations are part of the public discourse, we feel an obligation to provide additional context and to correct critical inaccuracies or misinterpretations. To that end, we have created a resource page that includes deeper explanations of the compensation factors being weighed, complications in the negotiation process to date, and intentions for next steps, as well as data showing IC’s current levels of faculty staffing and courses. We will post additional data and updates on that page as needed and, in the meantime, we look forward to returning to the bargaining table and resuming progress toward a final contract. We thank you all for your commitment to our students and to the mission of Ithaca College. Sincerely, Nancy Pringle Linda Petrosino Gwen Seaquist
IC part-time faculty earn less than garbage collectors Comment from
tschneller on
10/22/16
Here’s a reality check: part-time faculty at IC are paid less than garbage collectors. According to the U.S. News&World Report, the average annual salary of a garbage collector was $36,030 in 2014 (http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/garbage-collector/salary). The hourly rate of an IC part-time professor is based on a hypothetical full-time annual salary of $33,600. This comparison puts into perspective just how little the IC administration values the contribution of the 33% of its faculty who are part-time. Note that this so-called “annual salary” is misleadingly high: since PTers can only work up to 50% of a full-time load, our de facto annual salary is a maximum of $16,800 (most of us earn less than that). So much for the “valuable role” of part-time faculty at IC.
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