TL;DR
At our 19th bargaining session, we pressed management to schedule more frequent sessions; we endured management’s hair-splitting counter to our Title IX Side Letter; and their striking of nearly all our proposed graduate-worker protections in the TA-GA- Fellow Grievance Procedure. We also received yet another rejection of the essential enhancements to the current Academic Freedom article. In light of the escalating political attacks on higher education, we reasserted the need for enforceable academic freedom protections for all faculty, while management insisted on excluding protections for BHSNJ members.
Highlights from the Session
The Union Pushes for More Bargaining Dates
We opened by proposing that the parties meet twice a week beginning around August 31. Our contract expired 6 weeks ago and members are already asking why they did not receive raises on July 1. Reaching a fair agreement requires management to commit sufficient time to bargaining.
Management Presents New Title IX Appeals Proposal
Management then presented a Title IX counterproposal in response to a New Jersey Supreme Court decision concerning unequal appeal rights. Under the current system, an accused employee and their union may challenge discipline through the contractual grievance process, while a complainant does not have an equivalent opportunity for independent review.
Management’s proposal would allow either the complainant or accused employee to appeal specified aspects of a decision to a neutral third party, whose ruling would be final and binding.
The union agrees that the process must protect the rights of both complainants and accused employees. However, questions remain about whether the proposal provides a full and fair review, how the neutral would be selected, what the neutral could decide, and how the process would interact with contractual just-cause protections. We will review the proposal and respond.
The Parties Review Outstanding Articles
The parties next reviewed outstanding articles. Union counsel, Steve Weissman explained that Article 9, Grievance Procedure, is close to a tentative agreement, but the procedure must apply consistently across the bargaining agreements.
Management Strikes Graduate-Worker Protections
The parties then turned to management’s counter of Article 23A. Management had struck nearly all the union’s proposed language, including basic notice requirements when academic issues could threaten a graduate worker’s TA or GA employment.
Rutgers AAUP-AFT President, Becky Givan explained that under the current model, graduate workers can lose their TA/GA employment—and therefore their income, health benefits, and financial support for completing their degrees—because of changes in advising relationships or other academic decisions for which there is currently little consistency or recourse.
Problems can arise when an advisor leaves Rutgers, when an advising relationship is no longer workable, or when a department refuses to approve a change in advisors. In some cases, graduate workers have been unable to find a path forward and have been forced to leave their doctoral programs with a master’s degree, even when there is a faculty member willing and able to serve as advisor..
The Union’s Article 23A proposal seeks basic procedural protections when academic decisions threaten a graduate worker’s employment, including adequate notice and a meaningful opportunity to address the problem.
Management struck nearly all of the union’s proposed language. Management argued that these matters are governed by academic policy and that our proposal came too close to regulating academic decisions through the contract.
The bargaining team repeatedly clarified that we are not asking to challenge academic judgments or degree requirements. We are asking for notice, consistency, and recourse when those judgments affect someone’s job. We explained at the table that management’s counter does not address the underlying problems that motivated the proposal, and, by striking the language wholesale, left us with little basis from which to construct a counterproposal. It became apparent in discussion that management used an earlier, incorrect version of our proposal for their counter. We hope they will reconsider when they review the correct version.
Academic Freedom Must Be Enforceable
The parties once more discussed the union counter on Article 2, Academic Freedom. Management again insisted on excluding BHSNJ from the article’s protections. The union questioned why the protective “detenuring” process in Rutgers’ Academic Freedom policy would not apply equally to BHSNJ faculty. Fundamental academic freedom rights should not depend on where in Rutgers someone works.
Another phrase management re-inserted into the proposal limits free expression rights to “areas of [faculty] expertise.” We explained that interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship regularly require faculty to engage with material beyond narrowly drawn boundaries of “expertise.” And this proviso is subjective and open to interpretation and misinterpretation.
Management also questioned why our proposal explicitly includes “librarianship.” We explained that librarians make professional judgments about the materials, research guides, and resources they assemble and deserve the protections of this article.
And they reinserted language stating that the university’s Academic Freedom Policy “may be revised from time to time” in order to enable them to make changes without having to negotiate them with the union. Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union Treasurer Bryan Sacks then emphasized that the political context has changed dramatically, noting that the Trump administration is pressuring universities to change their policies and academic practices, creating new threats to research, teaching, public speech, and institutional independence, as covered in a recent AAUP report. Policies that can be changed unilaterally are insufficient; enforceable contract protections would protect both university employees and Rutgers management from outside interference.
The union argued that management’s new language would also allow members to enforce the article only when discipline has been imposed, but not for other academic freedom violations that do not involve discipline, for example, restrictions on the choice of a guest speaker or a requirement to make changes to a syllabus.
Management acknowledged the current political environment but argued that Rutgers has historically maintained strong academic freedom practices. Our response was simple: if those practices have worked well, we should protect them by making them contractually enforceable.
The Parties Return to Graduate-Worker Protections
After the academic freedom discussion, Becky Givan returned to the correct version of Article 23A and reviewed its specific provisions with management. She explained that Section A.5 had been drafted to respond to concerns previously raised. When questioned why the notice provision in Section A.2 appears in this article rather than in an academic policy, the union again emphasized that the provision belongs in the contract because an academic decision can directly affect a graduate worker’s employment.
The parties also discussed Step 4 of the proposed procedure. Becky noted that it relied on grievance procedures to which the parties had already agreed and therefore should not present a new procedural problem.
Next Steps
Management indicated that additional responses may be forthcoming on departmental provisions and the lecturer contract and plans to present information on University finances at an upcoming session.
We will continue pushing management to confirm additional dates and bargain in good faith on issues critical to our members’ job security and working conditions. That requires substantive engagement with our proposals—not simply striking them wholesale—and real movement toward a fair contract.
We will keep members updated as bargaining proceeds and welcome your participation.
Mark your calendar!
The next session is scheduled for Thursday, September 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in New Brunswick
Other Upcoming Events
Click here for a full calendar: https://rutgersaaup.org/events/
Our Bargaining Team
| Austin | Rooney | Camden | Philosophy & Religion |
| Beth | Adubato | Newark | School of Criminal Justice |
| Bryan | Sacks | Camden | Philosophy & Religion |
| David | Letwin | College Ave-NB | Rutgers Arts Online |
| Howie | Swerdloff | Cook-NB | Labor Studies & Employee Relations |
| Boris | Paskhover | Newark | Otolaryngology (NJMS) |
| Catherine | Monteleone | RWJMS-NB | Medicine |
| Claire | O’Connell | Busch-Nb | School Of Health Professions |
| Cynthia | Sutton | RSDM-Newark | RSDM Diagnostic |
| Jeff | Levine | College Ave-NB | Family Medicine (RWJ) |
| Josh | Bucher | College Ave-NB | Emergency Medicine (RWJ) |
| Kathleen | Beebe | Newark | Orthopaedics (NJMS) |
| Melissa | Rogers | Newark | Microbiology (NJMS) |
| Pankaj | Agarwalla | Newark | Neurosurgery (NJMS) |
| Rula | Btoush | Newark | School of Nursing |
| Stephan | Schwander | NB Piscataway | SPH |
| Tessa | Bergsbaken | Newark | Immunity & Inflammation (NJMS) |
| LaToya | Gibbons | Camden | Enrollment & Student Success |
| Miguel | Rodriguez | College Ave-NB | School of Arts and Sciences |
| Adrian | Liu | College Ave-NB | Philosophy |
| Alexander | Steiner | RCI | Radiation Oncology |
| Annika | Barber | Busch-NB | Microbiology |
| Becky | Givan | Cook-NB | Labor Studies & Employee Relations |
| Britt | Paris | College Ave-NB | Library & Information Science |
| Bryan | Oller | Newark | Physics |
| Carlos | Decena | Livingston-NB | Latino & Hispanic Caribbean St |
| Chidera | Ntiwunka-Ifeanyi | Busch-NB | Biomedical Engineering |
| Emily | Marker | Camden | History |
| Ian | Oiler | Newark | Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine/Earth and Environmental Sciences |
| Kathy | Lopez | Camden | Public Policy |
| Kyle | Riismandel | Newark | History |
| Lee | Carpenter | Camden | Law School |
| Lily | Todorinova | Douglass-NB | New Brunswick Library |
| Paul | O’Keefe | Livingston-NB | Geography |
| Season | Qiu | Newark | Molecular And Behavioral Neuroscience |
| Tara | Matise | Busch-NB | Genetics |
| Heather | Pierce | College Ave-NB | Political Science |
| Luis | Soto | Livingston-NB | Criminal Justice |