College profs, students protest proposed contract changes

Students and faculty at regional state universities are calling on the Board of Regents to walk back recent contract proposals that, they say, threaten to gut the universities.

The proposals include larger class sizes, increased course loads and less department and library funding.

The proposals could also curtail academic freedom by making it easier to fire faculty and harder to appeal those firings, students and faculty said.

Members of the universities’ professors union and students turned out at Central Connecticut State University Friday to protest the changes to the contract, saying they could have a lasting impact on their schools.

“We know there’s a pandemic, and we know what it’s done to universities,” said Cindy Stretch, an

English professor at Southern Connecticut State University. “But what we saw in the proposals was something completely out of the ordinary.”

The protesters also raised concerns about programs losing accreditation and CSU becoming a “diploma mill” that fails to prepare graduates for the workforce.

CSU-AAUP, which represents more than 3,000 faculty, coaches, counselors and librarians at four regional colleges, said the changes ultimately hurt students, who are often marginalized or first-generation and pursuing education to step into the middle class.

CSU-AAUP and the Connecticut State College and University system’s Board of Regents exchanged contract proposals in December. Stretch described the board’s suggested changes as “unlike any proposals we’ve seen in the past.

“It felt like a real gutpunch,” she said, “given what we had been going through since March.”

Stretch said she was concerned about the board’s proposal that fulltime professors teach five courses each semester, which she said was “totally out of alignment with our peer institutions.”

The University of Connecticut expects staff to teach four courses per year ; Connecticut State Universities currently requires four per semester.

Stretch said the heavier course load would cut into the time she otherwise spends on research, developing curricula and meeting with students.

Jacob Chamberlain, a nontraditional 28-year-old English literature student in his final year at Southern, said he has been grateful for the one-on-one attention he’s gotten from several professors in the

English department, including Stretch.

Chamberlain said he wants to go into academia, and Stretch has been instrumental in helping him land and excel in research opportunities, which Chamberlain said will bolster his graduate school applications.

“If these budget proposals go through, I can’t see that continuing,” he said. “It would be a tremendous loss to the university.”

Chamberlain said that as a nontraditional student from a low-income background, he’s invested in protecting the university’s reputation.

“Your opportunity-cost to go to a university is so much higher than somebody from a middle class family,” he said. “You really only have that one shot to get it. And once you have that bachelor degree, you need to make it work for you as much as possible.”

On the morning of the protest, Jane Gates, the interim president of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, spoke to faculty and staff in a video addressing the negotiations.

“Of course there is some disagreement between both sides this early in the process,” she said. “That’s how contract negotiations work. We will continue to work through those differences at the bargaining table in the weeks and months ahead.

“But I am confident,” she added, “that we will come to terms on a contract that maintains the quality and affordability of our institutions while setting us up for long-term viability.”

At Friday’s protest, masked students and faculty gathered at a safe distance outdoors while others watched on video, with posters calling on the Board of Regents to act on behalf of the communities it’s meant to serve.

The crowd was joined by Peter Tercyak, the state representative for New Britain; Josh Elliott, the state representative for Hamden; and Julie Kushner, the state senator for Danbury, Bethel, New Fairfield and Sherman. A 14foot inflatable skunk also made an appearance at the Davidson Hall Clock Tower.

“This is not just about protecting the faculty,” said Kushner, the chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee. “It has a great deal to do with protecting education.”

Elliott, who also chairs the General Assembly’s Higher Education Committee, said the terms of the contract were “onerous” and “disrespectful,” and added, “they treat you like chattel.”

In response, Gates, the CSCU interim president, called the comparison to slavery “beyond the pale.”