We met for an early and short bargaining session yesterday. Our team went into the session hoping that we could resolve our outstanding issues around the evaluation and transition of non-tenure track faculty members (NTTF) into a continuous appointment system. The last time we met, the administration insisted that managers needed to have a right to call for evaluation of NTTF whenever they wanted to. Our team wanted to see more protections for our members, especially since the model we had been discussing already included a mechanism for termination if a faculty member had an unsatisfactory performance and failed to remediate within one year.
As we prepared for this bargaining session, our team outlined a fair and reasonable evaluation system for non-tenure track faculty members with continuous appointments. We proposed a peer-reviewed evaluation system modeled on our current NTTF annual or multi-year review procedures. Our suggestion was for NTTF faculty with continuous appointments to be reviewed on a 3-year cycle, then proceed to a 5-year cycle. To address management’s concerns, we allowed for off-cycle review but built in a timeline and justification process that we believe would protect our faculty members from evaluations that are unwarranted.
To provide a framework for the review of both our and the administration’s proposed options (which they will prepare for the next meeting), the mediator led us through the development of a subset of interests specific to the evaluation issue. At the next session we will review AAUP’s and administration’s most recently proposed options against this subset of interests.
This has been a very long and difficult negotiation. We could really use your support as we try to wrap up this issue. Please join us this Friday Oct. 2nd at Noon in Urban 611. We’ll have lunch, a quick bargaining update, then we’ll move back upstairs to the bargaining room.