Charges fly over CSCU faculty contract
Contract talks between the state Board of Regents and union representing faculty at Connecticut’s four regional universities haven’t really even begun, but shots are already being fired.
Patty O’Neill, a union president representing some 3,000 members of CSU-AAUP, issued a statement on Monday calling proposals put forth by the Connecticut State College and University system “draconian.”
State officials volleyed back, saying union leaders chose to “whine publicly” rather than negotiate in good faith.
“The BOR’s misrepresentation of our concerns shows how little they understand higher education,” responded O’Neill, an associate professor of psychology at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.
The two sides exchanged initial proposals on Dec. 1. Negotiations, via Zoom, don’t begin until January.
The union represents some 3,000 professors, counselors, librarians, coaches and trainers at not just Western, but Eastern, Southern and Central Connecticut state universities. This fall, just shy of 30,000 students enrolled at the four state schools — one-third less than pre-pandemic.
O’Neill said the union put forward a set of proposals that not only benefits students, members, and institutions, but builds upon work that opens minds and opens doors.
“They are based on core values of family, equity, inclusion, diversity, free inquiry and community,” O’Neill said.
In contrast, she said regent proposals hold dire consequences and are so extreme that a public statement was warranted.
“Public higher education in Connecticut will be compromised and state university accreditation will be at risk because the BOR proposals undermine the education we can provide,” O’Neill said. “Attacks on academic freedom and on the ability of faculty to create and transmit new knowledge will do nothing to prepare students for a new post-pandemic world.”
“Support systems and relationships necessary for student retention and success are being gutted,” O’Neill added.
Leigh Appleby, a CSCU spokesman, said in an email that the system does not negotiate in the media but at the bargaining table.
“While people in Connecticut and across the country continue to lose their jobs and lines at our food pantries grow, it is unfortunate that a small few — who not only have job security, but have received significant raises in each of the past two years — would whine publicly rather than negotiating in good faith,” Appleby wrote.
“Wow. He is missing the mark,” was the union response.
O’Neill said faculty, like all state employees, gave up raises for three years in a row and agreed to pay more for health coverage and toward retirement.
“His characterizations of the raises are misleading at best,” O’Neill said. “The savings to the state — as a direct result of the faculty sacrifices in the SEBAC Agreement — saved the state billions and has helped to bring the rainy day fund up to $3 billion as of September 2020.”
Union leaders would not disclose details of either side’s proposal but some were shared with Inside Higher Ed, a trade publication. A union spokeswoman called proposal descriptions spot on.
The publication said the state proposes to increase teaching loads and create a pilot program changing the academic calendar from two to three terms. It wants full-time faculty members to hold more office hours and teach later or on weekends. Tenure decisions and ownership rights to online courses created by faculty would also change.
In addition, universities could eliminate a “longevity base,” payment that equals 2.7 percent of a member’s salary. Also cut would be about $2.5 million annually spent for travel, faculty development, research grants and retraining.
The union, a chapter of the American Association of University Professors, has been at odds for some time with administration over more than its contract. In recent years it has been the strongest voice against system plans to merge the state’s 12 community colleges into a single institution.
On multiple occasions Mark Ojakian, the system president, asked why university professors cared so much about the merger.
Faculty at community colleges are represented by other unions.
“We care because community college students become our students,” O’Neill said. “We care because anything that threatens accreditation of an individual institution threatens the entire system.”
The union has also held recent rallies to decry system budget cuts during the pandemic, suggesting students were being treated as “ATM machines.”
When contract talks finally begin, Ojakian won’t be at the bargaining table. He retires at the end of December. Jane Gates, the system provost, will be the interim system president.