BU adjunct faculty deal framed as model for other universities
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Adjunct faculty members at Boston University early Thursday morning agreed to a tentative contract settlement with the university administration about two months after voting to unionize, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 509 announced.
The three-year contract, which is subject to ratification by affected faculty members, will "considerably" increase minimum pay rates for adjunct faculty, provide compensation to faculty for courses canceled on short notice before a semester begins, and will give adjunct faculty "an elevated voice" in decisions affecting their work, the union said.
"Our effort began with a simple but clear demand: Boston University should value teaching," Laurie LaPorte, a lecturer in anthropology, said in a statement. "Corporatization in higher education is a growing concern here in Boston and across the country. With the support of our campus community, we’ve secured an agreement that begins to return the focus to what matters most – what happens in the classroom."
In February, about 800 BU adjunct faculty members voted to join Faculty Forward -- a division of SEIU Local 509 that now counts 3,800 educators among its ranks -- joining unionized faculty at the Northeastern, Tufts, Lesley, Bentley and Brandeis campuses.
SEIU Local 509 called it "the latest milestone in the growing faculty union movement in Massachusetts."
"This contract sets a new standard of professional compensation and development for adjunct faculty, one that every college and university in Boston must now hold themselves to,” David Kociemba, who teaches television aesthetics and history at BU, said in the statement.
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