 |
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ (July 17, 2026)—The Rutgers faculty unions are calling on University President William Tate and the Board of Governors to rescind an unnecessary and counterproductive hiring freeze, announced last week as part of the university’s $6.2 billion spending plan.
The Rutgers Board of Governors approved the FY27 budget and a 3% tuition hike last week, arguing that it shows a commitment “to disciplined stewardship and thoughtful planning,” with an aim towards achieving a 5%—or $200 million—surplus. What the Rutgers Administration is calling “disciplined stewardship,” however, will damage the University’s core missions of education and research by moving the burden of their austerity plan onto the very workers who have kept Rutgers enrollment strong despite national declines.
This hiring freeze, combined with increased class sizes and reduced course sections, will likely result in the layoffs of many adjunct faculty, who teach more than 30% of the curriculum. Full-time faculty and graduate workers will be expected to absorb the additional teaching load, leaving less time for research, mentoring, and service—the work that sustains the university’s mission and is required for professional advancement.
“The serious negative impact that this hiring freeze will have on the University’s core mission is not unavoidable, but the consequence of deliberate budget decisions made by University leaders,” said Heather Pierce, president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union. “Budgets reflect values and priorities. This budget seems to prioritize the pursuit of investment income by appealing to bond rating agencies over that of education and research—it will result in effective layoffs for hundreds of dedicated educators and make cutting-edge research more difficult to sustain.”
President Tate in his budget statement also referenced the ongoing “very productive…good faith negotiations…leading to a fair and sustainable resolution” with our unions. But management has not presented meaningful counterproposals on many of our core bargaining demands, the central one being increased job security for all faculty. Announcing a hiring freeze in the middle of negotiations undermines negotiations with the administration claiming unfair leverage midway through bargaining. This is hardly “good faith.”
“The Union of Rutgers Administrators represents staff across all three campuses and in every off campus Rutgers location in all 21 NJ counties,” said Christine O’Connell, URA president. “In many instances, our members are the face of Rutgers in the community and are who students interact with from admission to graduation, including in dining, housing and every academic department. A threatened hiring freeze on our already understaffed members harms the service to all of the Rutgers community in all aspects and devalues the commitment we bring to Rutgers University. The proposed Rutgers FY27 budget is over $2 billion more than in 2022, when we were coming out of the COVID pandemic and we have fewer staff and more work than ever. Rather than reduce hiring, Rutgers should bolster their hiring of staff rather than high level administrators who have no contact with students, faculty and our community.”
Rutgers unions are unified in our commitment to maintaining the reputation of Rutgers as a world-class research and educational institution. “All of our researchers improve the lives of people around the globe and help drive New Jersey’s economy,” said Carlos Decena, vice president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT. “It is also necessary for students to benefit and grow from continuity of contact and mentorship from faculty, and what matters most to students is not the rank or term of appointment of their faculty. What counts is the transformative experience of their expertise and pedagogy. This hiring freeze impacts the sustenance of our world class educational programs, generates unnecessary anxiety among our colleagues, creates massive uncertainty for chairs and program directors who are stewards of our programs, and hurts the educational experience of our students.”
Our contract demands—real job security, proper class sizes and workloads, academic freedom—are designed to protect faculty, staff, students, and the future of Rutgers.
“Manufactured austerity, which is what the Tate Administration and Board of Governors are calling for, will be bad for all of us, especially our students,” said Hank Kalet, vice president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union.
###
Rutgers AAUP-AFT represents more than 5,000 full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, and EOF counselors at the state university’s three main campuses and beyond. Our union is one of the oldest higher ed unions in the country, negotiating collective bargaining agreements for full-time faculty since 1970 and graduate workers since 1972.
The Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union represents roughly 3,000 lecturers overall. Lecturers work in nearly every department at Rutgers, teaching at least 30% of all undergraduate courses, and hundreds more work in our professional and graduate schools. Adjunct faculty voted to unionize in 1988.
The American Association of University Professors – Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey (AAUP-BHSNJ) represents roughly 1500 faculty at Rutgers and Rowan Universities. These faculty teach the next generation of doctors, nurses, scientists, and health professionals.
The Union of Rutgers Administrators (URA) consists of more than 2,800 workers classified as “Administrative” who have joined the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the largest union of higher education workers, to form URA-AFT Local 1766.