From Senior Vice President Nancy Pringle, Provost Linda Petrosino, and Professor Gwen Seaquist, representatives of the Ithaca College bargaining committee.
What is abundantly clear to the college’s bargaining team at this point in contingent faculty contract negotiations, is that all members of the campus community, regardless of where they stand on the many various issues, want both sides to resolve these negotiations so that everyone’s attention can be refocused back to the day-to-day commitment to the education of our students.
We have worked hard at the bargaining table to show respect, to listen attentively, and to develop heightened understandings of the special needs and desires of our contingent faculty. Getting through first contract labor negotiations can be challenging and at times frustrating. One thing we believe all members of the campus community can agree upon—our contingent faculty fulfill a very important role in the education of our students, and each and every one of us owes them an acknowledgement of thanks for their service to the college.
In our message to the campus community following Tuesday’s bargaining session, we stated a commitment to working on a shared resolution of the remaining outstanding issues expressed by our contingent faculty. Today, we presented written proposals to the union representing both part-time, per-course and full-time, one-year faculty, which we believe demonstrates our responsiveness to this commitment.
Our proposals have been developed with three goals in mind:
Funds Available for Professional Development for All Contingent Faculty
Many contingent faculty have expressed aspirations for full-time academic careers. We spent considerable time reflecting on this matter and challenging ourselves to develop a response to providing professional development opportunities that might help bolster their competitiveness in obtaining a permanent position in higher education, whether at Ithaca College or elsewhere.
Therefore, our most recent proposal includes a commitment to fund professional academic conference participation by contingent faculty of sufficient seniority. For those contingent faculty who seek permanent, full-time academic status, participation in the scholarly conversations of their disciplines provides the surest pathway to development of the necessary credentials and professional networks.
This is a recognition that some, though far from all, contingent faculty do seek to use their teaching experience as a bridge to future faculty employment on a full-time and permanent basis.
Part-Time, Per-Course Faculty Wage Proposal
The college offered the part-time, per-course faculty unit a cumulative 22% increase over the life of a proposed four-year contract through the end of the 2020 academic year, with a final rate for teaching a three-credit course of $5,125.
The current rate of pay per three-credit course for part-time faculty is $4,200.
Here are the details of the offer:
Effective from January 1, 2017 -- $4,500 per three-credit course
August 2017 -- $4,900 per three-credit course
August 2018 -- $5,000 per three-credit course
August 2019 -- $5,125 per three-credit course
This offer addresses the fair pay concerns raised by the union while still maintaining the financial well-being of the college. As many of you know, the college’s budget is built around a tuition-driven model. Unfortunately, enrollment numbers continually shift, and the college needs to take that into account when structuring this offer, so that if enrollments decline, we are still able to meet our financial commitments as well as our ability to continue providing our students with outstanding educational opportunities.
Full-Time, One-Year Faculty Proposal–Job Stability
We have also made a proposal to address the remaining issues in the full-time, one-year faculty negotiations. The key provision relates to job stability, and we address this issue by offering:
Our full-time proposal also addresses all of the other open issues, including wages, benefits, and several other provisions which track with the tentative agreements we have already reached with the part-time contingent unit.
Committed to a Resolution
These proposals affirm to the entire IC community our abiding commitment to all employees regardless of status and rank.
Our next scheduled bargaining session with the union is this Sunday, March 26. We are committed to remaining at the bargaining table on Sunday for as long as necessary with both faculty units. We will work with the assistance of the neutral federal mediator to arrive at tentative contract agreements that they can bring to their members for a vote, so that together we can avert the planned March 28–29 strike that would be detrimental to all members of the campus community.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20170323181233951