FEATURED STORIES
AFTER LONG BATTLE, AAUP-AFT WINS ON NEGOTIABILITY OF PATENT POLICY
On October 20, 2005 the Appellate Division ruled on the core issues of the negotiability of changes to the Patent Policy. The Rutgers University Patent Policy may not be the most important university regulation on your mind, but to a subset of faculty, it is significant. The reason that I mention this at all is that we, the Rutgers Chapters of AAUP—AFT, challenged the administration on the negotiability of the Patent Policy and won. The decision, which is described in detail in our newsletter, reminds us that the Administration cannot treat lightly those policies that are clearly negotiable. Read More
Read the Appellate Decision in Full (PDF)
AAUP SUPPORTS STRIKING NYU GRADUATE EMPLOYEES
On November 9, graduate employees at NYU went on strike. They had been working without a contract since August 31. NYU President John Sexton has refused to recognize their union and/or come to the table to negotiate the next contract. Instead he has made threats and reprisals. On November 28, President John Sexton sent a (posted on the NYU website) to graduate employees informing them if they do not return to work by December 5, they will lose their stipends and future teaching appointments.
As members of Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, AAUP-AFT, we owe it to our striking brothers and sisters to show our support. Despite threats to funding and job security these workers have chosen to stand up for their rights and exercise their right to strike. For this courage we should applaud them.
Join other Scholars in signing a letter to John Sexton
Read Op Ed piece by Jane Buck, President of the AAUP
Send a personal letter to John Sexton, President of NYU
LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO NEGOTIATE: HELP PASS S-1838, THE NON-IMPOSITION BILL
One of the greatest problems we face as a union is that the University can impose its final offer if an impasse is reached in negotiations.
Under current law, the University holds the upper hand in negotiations. If the parties cannot reach agreement, the University can declare impasse and unilaterally change our terms and conditions of employment. This imbalance of power has already been corrected in the K-12 sector, where school boards are barred from imposing their final offer. The terms of the old contract remain in effect until a new one is fully negotiated. Read More
CHANGES TO THE UNIVERSITY MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT RATE:
The University has recently reached agreement with the Rutgers AAUP-AFT and its other unions to supplement the current mileage reimbursement rate of $.31 per mile by an additional $.07. The new rate of $.38 will be effective from November 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006. The Rutgers AAUP-AFT agrees with the University that this supplement is necessary to alleviate some of the burden of recent gasoline price spikes. Read More
FEDERAL RECONCILATION BILL UP FOR VOTE AGAIN
Key issues to working families across America will be in play when the House and Senate return to Capitol Hill Dec. 5 and 12, respectively, to complete their work and adjourn the first session of the 109th Congress.
When Congress returns, representatives will be considering education and health appropriations, hurricane relief and two reconciliation bills — the spending reconciliation bill, which would make cuts to many essential domestic programs under the guise of deficit reduction, and a tax reconciliation bill that would enact a new series of tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Americans. Read More
Executive Council Update
The Executive Council of the Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, AAUP-AFT has passed the following resolution at its November 16th meeting:
1. Resolution Against Proposed Cuts to Student Aid
2. Resolution in Support of Striking NYU Teaching Assistants
The next executive council meeting is on December 13th at 9:30am at the Labor Education Center.
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UNION NEWS
PART-TIME LECTURERS WORK TO MAKE THEMSELVES LESS INVISIBLE
by Amy Bahruth, President of the PTLFC-AAUP-AFT
According to the office of the VP for Academic Affairs, 45 PTL applications were received with requests of over $81,000 for professional development. This new fund is part of the 2003-2007 PTLFC contract. Part-time lecturers do not normally have access to internal Rutgers grants or travel money for professional conferences. While the fund has only $5000, the AAUP-AFT is committed to ensuring that PTLs at Rutgers get access to necessary additional funding. Read More
NEW BRUNSWICK CHAPTER FORMULATES RESPONSE TO UNDERGRADATE REPORT
After consultation with several faculty committees and a listening session at the New Brunswick membership meeting the AAUP-AFT has formulated its response to the Undergraduate Report. The response was sent along with a response from the Part-time Chapter on December 1st to the University Senate.
Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, AAUP-AFT Response
Food for dogs by wholesale
Part-time Lecturer Faculty Chapters of AAUP-AFT Reponse
NEWARK MEETINGS A SUCCESS
Following a successful meeting of Junior Faculty on November 9 on the Newark Campus, the Newark Chapter met on November 21 to discuss workload, tenure and issues relating to contingent faculty. Members left the meeting with a commitment to building membership. To get involved on the Newark Campus contact Chapter President Jim Schlegel at or Staff Representative Rich Moser at
JOIN CAMDEN ACTIVISTS
To receive regular updates on the Camden Chapter contact Janet Golden, Camden Chapter President at to join the listserve.
TA/GA STEERING COMMITTEE CONTINUES TO ORGANIZE
At the most recent TA/GA Steering Committee meeting, the following members were elected to the Executive Council of the AAUP-AFT.
Scott Bruton, PhD candidate in History
Kristen Gilmore, PhD candidate in Social Work
Carlos Diuk, PhD candidate in Computer Science
Raphael Greenblatt, PhD candidate in Physics
Nicole Shippen, PhD candidate in Political Science
Also discussed at the meeting was workload and the next contract negotiations. The TA/GA steering committee has three committees; social committee, visibility committee, and the literature committee.
For more information on the TA/GA steering committee contact
SALARY SURVEY RESULTS
Thank you to everyone who took time to fill out last month's survey on salaries. We had an overwhelming response with a number of questions and concerns. The response confirmed that salary increases are not easily understood and that it is important for AAUP-AFT to continue to monitor FASIP and salary increases. A more detailed report will be in the next Newsletter with additional information about the FASIP distribution.
In terms of upcoming salary increases PTLs should expect a 30 dollar per credit hour increase in January and Full-time faculty will receive a 1.2% across the board increase.
WORKLOAD SURVEY
This month's survey focuses on workload issues. The results will help determine what projects we might pursue in the near future. Individual responses will be kept confidential. Please take a moment now to complete the survey by clicking on this link.
TA/GA survey
Fulltime survey
The next survey will be in February with results of the workload survey shared then.
The Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, AAUP-AFT would like to apologize for the delay of a mailing that went out to the membership expressing our support for Jon Corzine. Many members received the mailing after the election. We shared this concern with the mail room and we were not charged for the mailing.
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AFTER LONG BATTLE, AAUP-AFT WINS ON NEGOTIABILITY OF PATENT POLICY
By Lisa Klein, President of Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, AAUP-AFT, Professor in Ceramic and Materials Engineering
On October 20, 2005 the Appellate Division ruled on the core issues of the negotiability of changes to the Patent Policy. The Rutgers University Patent Policy may not be the most important university regulation on your mind, but to a subset of faculty, it is significant. The reason that I mention this at all is that we, the Rutgers Chapters of AAUP—AFT, challenged the administration on the negotiability of the Patent Policy and won. The decision, which is described in detail below, reminds us that the Administration cannot treat lightly those policies that are clearly negotiable.
As we reported in our October Newsletter, the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division heard arguments in September from the AAUP and the university administration over whether Rutgers has to negotiate over changes it made in the 1996 patent policy.
The Appellate Division has now ruled that Rutgers may not evade its obligation to negotiate over the terms of the patent policy by claiming that it has an overall research or educational policy with which negotiations would interfere. This decision flows from Rutgers appeal of a ruling by the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) – PERC ruled that the administration was obligated to negotiate over many terms of the patent policy – including the amount of royalty compensation due to researchers, ownership of laboratory notebooks and other research material that are not involved in patent applications, the reversion of the right to patent to the researcher when Rutgers decides not to patent or exploit the discovery or invention, the timelines and notice requirements in the policy, and the effective date of the patent policy changes.
Rutgers argued to the court that it had a right to refuse to negotiate over every aspect of the patent policy, including traditionally negotiable terms such as compensation, and to make unilateral changes to the policy at any time. In Part C of the decision, the Court affirmed the AAUP’s right to negotiate in very strong terms. The Court explained that the terms of any assignment of patent rights to the university has a “the potential for a significant impact on the overall compensation an individual may receive as a result of his or her efforts at Rutgers. . . . The University cannot act by its own fiat in such a sphere.”
On the issues of ownership of notebooks and timing of disclosures, the court’s ruling was not as favorable. The court did not require negotiations over the administration’s claims to ownership of the physical notebooks, relying on its representations that the inventor owns the contents of the notebooks and that it will always provide access to the original notebooks themselves. The court also found that the requirement of ‘prompt’ disclosure of discoveries was not subject to negotiations. Although the court rejected the AAUP-AFT’s bid to negotiate over these issues at this time, the decision leaves the door open for possible negotiations if the administration changes its access or disclosure policies in the future.
No further appeals are expected. Further information on negotiations will be forthcoming.
Read More From the Grievance Department
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AAUP SUPPORTS STRIKING NYU GRADUATE EMPLOYEES
By Jane Buck president of the American Association of University Professors
As the voice of the higher education profession and leading advocate for the highest academic standards for almost a century, the American Association of University Professors deplores the decision of the NYU administration to sever bargaining relations with its graduate student union. In response to the legally permissible but ethically questionable choice made by the NYU administration, the graduate student employees have voted overwhelmingly to strike as a means to regain their right to bargain.
Instead of averting a strike by bargaining in good faith with the democratically elected union, the NYU administration has chosen to intensify the crisis, using confrontational language to mischaracterize the concerns of graduate student unionists. We condemn such inflammatory tactics. Colleges and universities should be held to a higher standard than profit-seeking corporations and should serve as models for our society. It is morally incumbent upon the NYU administration to honor the democratically determined wishes of its most vulnerable employees, the graduate teaching assistants who have expressed their desire to be unionized. Despite a recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, there is no legal bar to their doing so.
The NYU administration claims that the decision to break ties with the union, a United Auto Workers local, was based in part on the premise that allowing graduate students serving as teaching assistants to have bargaining rights jeopardizes the traditional roles of professor and student. The argument essentially claims that teaching assistants represented by a union are inevitably placed in an adversarial relationship with their faculty mentors. That position is rendered tenuous and indefensible by the fact that a clear majority of NYU faculty supports the teaching assistants in their efforts to obtain a new contract. The NYU chapter of AAUP has reinforced that position by organizing an initiative called Faculty Democracy to oppose the administration’s action and to clarify the nature of decision-making at NYU. More than 200 faculty members are active participants in that effort and have declared their support for the action. It is both disingenuous and risible to assert that the mentoring relationship is harmed by good faith negotiations about salaries, benefits and access to fair grievance procedures.
It would appear that the decision to sever ties with the union was motivated by a desire to continue to exploit the graduate teaching assistants, who are part of an increasingly impotent and exploited cadre of the academy that includes part-time faculty. They spend a major portion of their time and effort in lecturing, grading papers and monitoring examinations — in other words, performing the teaching duties of a professor. Too frequently, graduate assistants are forced to perform these duties with minimal administrative support, for minimal pay, with inadequate office space and with little or no access to health benefits. Additionally, there have been allegations of electronic surveillance of GAs and faculty by NYU administrators. If these charges are true, the administration is guilty of an egregious violation of academic freedom. Without the backing of a strong union, graduate teaching assistants are virtually powerless.
Graduate students have, for many years, been able to join AAUP as nonvoting members. This year, we granted our graduate student members full voting rights and the right to hold office at every level of the organization. This action reinforces our 2000 “Statement on Graduate Students,” which says, in part, that graduate student assistants, like other campus employees, should have the right to organize to bargain collectively. We view the decision by NYU graduate student assistants to strike, taken in a democratic vote, as a legitimate attempt to regain that well-earned right, and we will continue to support them in their efforts.
This op/ed was originally printed in the Washington Square News
Send a letter to John Sexton, President of NYU
CHANGES TO THE UNIVERSITY MILEAGE REIMBURSEMENT RATE
The University has recently reached agreement with the Rutgers AAUP-AFT and its other unions to supplement the current mileage reimbursement rate of $.31 per mile by an additional $.07. The new rate of $.38 will be effective from November 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006. The Rutgers AAUP-AFT agrees with the University that this supplement is necessary to alleviate some of the burden of recent gasoline price spikes.
Since the rate set by the state applies to our members, the Rutgers AAUP-AFT has endorsed efforts to permanently tie the state rate for mileage reimbursement to the IRS rate, which is currently set at $.485 per mile.
Bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Assemblymen John Wisniewski (D-19) and Joseph Malone (R-30), is currently in the Assembly State Government Committee. A similar bill, sponsored by Shirley Turner (D-15) and John Adler (D-6), is currently in the Senate State Government Committee.
The next Assembly State Government Committee meeting is December 8th and the next Senate State Government Committee meeting is on December 5th. Please send a message to Committee Chairs Alfred Steele and Joseph Coniglio asking them to post
PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO NEGOTIATE: HELP PASS S-1838, THE NON-IMPOSITION BILL
One of the greatest problems we face as a union is that the University can impose its final offer if an impasse is reached in negotiations.
Under current law, the University holds the upper hand in negotiations. If the parties cannot reach agreement, the University can declare impasse and unilaterally change our terms and conditions of employment. This imbalance of power has already been corrected in the K-12 sector, where school boards are barred from imposing their final offer. The terms of the old contract remain in effect until a new one is fully negotiated.
A-693, sponsored by Assembyman Rober J. Smith, (D-4) and Jeff Van Drew (D-1) would prohibit the State from imposing its final offer in negotiations. These bills would extend to state employees the same protection currently enjoyed by school board employees, i.e. leveling the playing field in negotiations. What could be fairer than that?
During the lame duck legislative session, there is a window of opportunity for these bills to be passed and signed into law by the Governor. A-693 is in the Assembly Labor Committee. Our immediate task is to get the bill voted out of committee. This committee meets on December 8, 2005, so time is short.
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FEDERAL RECONCILATION BILL ON UP FOR VOTE AGAIN
Key issues to working families across America will be in play when the House and Senate return to Capitol Hill Dec. 5 and 12, respectively, to complete their work and adjourn the first session of the 109th Congress.
When Congress returns, representatives will be considering education and health appropriations, hurricane relief and two reconciliation bills — the spending reconciliation bill, which would make cuts to many essential domestic programs under the guise of deficit reduction, and a tax reconciliation bill that would enact a new series of tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Americans.
SPENDING RECONCILIATION BILL
Congress is considering a spending reconciliation bill containing almost $49.5 billion of spending cuts not only in Medicaid but also in critical education, job training, health and other domestic programs. Proposed cuts include:
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Up to $14 billion to the student loan program that will severely limit the opportunity to attend college and dramatically increase the amount a student will have to pay back for his or her student loan.
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An $11 billion reduction in Medicaid accompanied by a new authority for states to restructure their programs, which could lead to even more drastic cuts in benefits that will harm poor families, the disabled and the elderly.
TAX RECONCILIATION BILL
On the heels of cutting programs helping our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, Congress is also considering approving $70 billion in tax cuts that primarily benefit higher-income households.
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Since these tax cuts exceed any savings realized by cutting vital domestic programs, their net effect could actually increase the nation’s ballooning deficit to a record high of $412 billion. At a time when the costs of war and Gulf Coast recovery are growing, these unpaid-for tax cuts are irresponsible.
EDUCATION AND HEALTH APPROPRIATIONS
Congress may approve an education appropriations bill that, for the first time in a decade, cuts funding for the Department of Education.
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The current proposal underfunds key education programs such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Pell Grants.
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Congress may also attempt to attempt to enact a 2 percent across-the-board cut affecting all nondefense discretionary spending bills which would further exacerbate the hardships many school districts are facing and ultimately harm students.
HURRICANE RELIEF
Three months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf region, Congress has failed to provide aid to the students and school districts affected by these devastating events. At stake is:
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Funding for severely affected districts — such as New Orleans and Biloxi — so they can restore operations and reopen their schools as soon as possible.
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While we support attempts to provide necessary aid for all students and schools affected by the hurricanes, the AFT has serious concerns about the precedent-setting potential of the mechanism used to provide aid to private school students. Now is not the time to open up an unnecessary ideological battle over vouchers that could further delay the relief desperately needed by students and schools along the Gulf Coast.
For more information on these bills or other legislative issues please contact Patrick Nowlan
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PART-TIME LECTURERS WORK TO MAKE THEMSELVES LESS INVISIBLE
by Amy Bahruth, President of the PTLFC-AAUP-AFT
According to the office of the VP for Academic Affairs, 45 PTL applications were received with requests of over $81,000 for professional development. This new fund is part of the 2003-2007 PTLFC contract. Part-time lecturers do not normally have access to internal Rutgers grants or travel money for professional conferences. While the fund has only $5000, the AAUP-AFT is committed to ensuring that PTLs at Rutgers get access to necessary additional funding.
Such funding is necessary as the reliance on PTLs increases every year. Today, it is part-time faculty who make up 44 percent, nearly half, of the higher education faculty in the United States, and the ratio of part-time to full-time professors grows larger every year. This is largely due to the fact that as full-time tenured professors retire, cost sensitive institutions such as Rutgers University are replacing them with part timers/adjuncts. We are here in large numbers but we are the "invisible faculty."
As contingent faculty we do not have access to grants, travel money for professional conferences, or any additional incentives to engage in professional development. With the credentials and experience that the part time faculty brings to this institution, we are still seen as insignificant - most PTL's are not included in departmental meetings where critical decisions are made; we are excluded from the report that discusses undergraduate educational issues at Rutgers; and we are overlooked when it
comes to surveys of the college community.
In October a survey on campus climate was sent out to all campus employees....except part-time lecturers. After contacting the Administration and being initially told that PTLs were not accessible, the administration agreed that PTLs should be included in the climate survey.
PTLs joined non-tenure track faculty and TA/GAs in speaking to some of these issues and many more during Campus Equity Week. The AAUP-AFT hosted the first ever Contingent Faculty Hearing. Testimony and additional information about contingent faculty at Rutgers can be found here, Contingent Faculty Hearing.
There is still a lot of work do be done. If you are interested in getting
more involved contact Amy Bahruth (President of the PTLFC) at
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NEW BRUNSWICK CHAPTER FORMULATES RESPONSE TO UNDERGRADATE REPORT
After consultation with several faculty committees and a listening session at the New Brunswick membership meeting the AAUP-AFT has formulated its response to the Undergraduate Report. The response was sent along with a response from the Part-time Chapter on December 1st to the University Senate.
AAUP-AFT Responds to “Transforming Undergraduate Education”
As the Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, AAUP-AFT at Rutgers University represent 2,712 fulltime faculty, 1225 part-time faculty, 1,835 teaching assistants and graduate assistants, and 22 Educational Opportunity Fund officers, we are in support of efforts to transform undergraduate education in New Brunswick and to improve the working conditions of faculty and learning conditions of students. Quality undergraduate education is the necessary groundwork for a first rate research university.
Many of the recommendations proposed in the report are necessary and long overdue:
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We agree with common admissions standards for traditional students in the Arts and Sciences.
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We agree with uniform graduation requirements for students in the Arts and Sciences.
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We agree with the application of uniform guidelines, standards and policies with regards to fees, student services, job descriptions, and pay scale with due regard to undergraduate and graduate students.
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We support the intent of the taskforce to bring all faculty closer to undergraduate students.
For over 35 years we have represented the needs and concerns of faculty members at Rutgers. The implementation of these or any similar recommendations will change the terms and conditions of employment, and as the faculty union, we are committed to represent all faculty in terms of negotiating these changes.
In any reorganization it is important to be mindful of the exemplary nature of programs that are currently working. We advise caution in dismantling the existing structure before the new structure is fully formulated. It is also important to identify the best practices present at Douglass, in the work of the EOF officers, and on each of the campuses in which faculty have successfully connected with students.
We raise the following concerns with the report:
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Faculty participation is crucial for the implementation committees. We expect an AAUP-AFT liaison on any committees dealing with changes to FASIP, faculty incentives, and the promotion process.
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Faculty participation in discussion of core curriculum, the interdisciplinary courses, and the learning communities is essential and incentives should be provided.
- With regard to promotion to full professor, openly established guidelines concerning the 10 year rule are needed and should uniformly be implemented.
- We recommend monetary rewards and incentives, with funds earmarked for those who excel in undergraduate teaching and co-curricular activities.
- Teaching of undergraduate courses currently rests heavily with part-time lecturers, non tenure-track faculty and teaching assistants. In order to promote long-term connections between these members and the university, we would like to take the opportunity of this restructuring to advocate for more stable relationships. One possibility would be to restructure the non tenure faculty lines using the model of existing clinical appointments with successive 1, 3, and renewable 5 year contracts. Under no circumstance do we want to see further erosion of tenure-track lines.
- Non-tenure-track faculty, including part-time lecturers and TAs/GAs need a pay structure consistent with the contribution they make to the educational process.
PTLFC-AAUP-AFT Responds to the Taskforce on Undergraduate Education’s “Transforming Undergraduate Education”
As educators and members of the Rutgers community, representing nearly 1000 part-time lecturers (PTLs), most of whom teach on the New Brunswick / Piscataway campuses, we support efforts to enhance the delivery of undergraduate education. To the extent that the transformation proposed improves working conditions for faculty and learning conditions for students, we are wholeheartedly behind it. Quality undergraduate education is the foundation of a world class research university, and PTLs at Rutgers are the backbone of the undergraduate educational process.
PTLs teach some 30% of undergraduate courses at the University.
PTLs constitute about 20% of faculty (or teaching personnel.)
PTLs are often the only faculty that students meet.
PTLs teach an enormous amount of basic requirement and core courses.
Despite all this PTLs were not invited, though requests were made, to participate in the Taskforce’s deliberations. PTLs were not tapped for input in any systematic way as the Taskforce completed its work. PTLs were not mentioned in the Taskforce’s Report.
Any discussion of undergraduate education that ignores PTLs will exacerbate some of the problems that the Taskforce’s charge was meant to address. Students will not benefit if reconnecting tenure-track faculty to students really means invisible PTLs continue to shoulder the burden of undergraduate education with no recognition. PTLs must be included in any incentive programs, both monetary and non-monetary, meant to bolster undergraduate teaching. Excluding PTLs, those responsible for so much of undergraduate education, risks further alienating the front lines of the educational delivery system.
With all this in mind, we recommend
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Increased participation of PTLs in matters affecting their professional responsibilities at Rutgers, specifically the transformation of undergraduate education
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More public acknowledgement of the role played by PTLs in undergraduate education
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A salary structure for PTLs that reflects the significant contribution PTLs make to Rutgers and that provides incentive to enhance performance
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Additional incentives in the form of both financial and recognition awards to support professional activities of PTLs outside the classroom
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Annual contracts for PTLs as a stabilizing force within undergraduate education
We put these proposals respectfully forward in addition to the many important recommendations of the Taskforce itself and those presented separately by the AAUP-AFT.
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