UPDATED: Sept. 14, 2011, 10:54 p.m.

CORRECTION: In this article, the difference between tenure and post-probationary status was unclear. Part-time instructors are not presently eligible for tenure.

Adjuncts United, the union for adjunct professors at Syracuse University, has come to a tentative agreement with the university for a contract covering the next three academic years.

The tentative agreement was reached Aug. 18 and runs through May 31, 2014. The prior three-year agreement expired May 31. Adjuncts United is a labor union affiliated with the New York State United Teachers Union.

The two sides held 21 meetings from April to Aug. 18 to negotiate the terms of a new contract, said Jeanette Jeneault, president of Adjuncts United. The tentative agreement will now go on to a vote, she said. Ballots are being mailed to SU’s adjunct faculty this week, and they will be returned and counted by Sept. 23, Jeneault said.

If the contract is ratified, it will go into effect retroactively for this academic year, she said. This means that pay increases and other changes will be included in the first few weeks of the semester before the contract is ratified.

Provisions of the new contract include new standards on seniority and tenure, a new set of procedures regarding work environment and raises, Jeneault said.

Under the new contract, adjunct professors will now be considered post-probationary after three years with the university, she said. There is also a new system for dealing with workplace grievances and harassment issues, Jeneault said.

Pay was another issue that had to be sorted out in the new contract.

‘Unions across the country right now are facing an uphill battle financially,’ Jeneault said. ‘So we are lucky that the university here has money and that we have common interests. Improving the teaching condition improves the university as a whole, so we want to get this contract passed.’

The number of adjunct faculty at SU changes every semester, but there is a core of about 180 people who have been teaching for five or more years, Jeneault said.

jdgenco@syr.edu

Published on September 7, 2011 at 12:00 pm