Dear colleagues,
Today, a reminder that there will be no BOT event, reminders of upcoming meetings Thursday at 2:00 and Tuesday at 11:30, and some more details about the tentative agreement.
First, please note that there will be no special UA effort to distribute information at the opening of this week’s BOT meeting; we planned something in case the administration did not accept the fact finder’s recommendations, but that is no longer necessary. Thanks for all who volunteered to show up.
Second, please remember the Thursday 2:00-3:30 meeting of the Delegates Assembly in Baily Howe Dean's Conference room, and the Tuesday, May 22, 11:30-1:00 Informational Meeting for all membership in Waterman 427.
Third, members of the Delegates Assembly have been fielding questions from members about the details of the contract. This is how it is supposed to work, and we hope more of you contact your DA and Dept. reps if you have any questions.
A few of the questions that have arisen so far:
- Will my raise going into fall 2018 be based on 3% of the salary I’ve been getting this past year or will it take into account the retroactive raise? The latter. Raises going into year two of the contract (we are at the end of year one), will on average be 3% calculated on top of the average 2.5% that is given retroactively. The exact percentage increases will vary from individual to individual, within a small range on either side of the contractual averages of 2.5%/3%/3%. 1% of each year’s raise will be devoted to performance (a better word than “merit”) which will be assigned to individual faculty by deans in consultation with chairs. The ATB parts of the raises will be distributed half as a flat rate and half as a percentage of salary.
- Will my pay for summer courses be based on the current contract? Yes, though the resulting increases in summer pay won’t be processed until some time after ratification. Article 19, specifies that summer courses (and all courses taught as supplemental to your appointment) will be compensated at a minimum of $2100 per credit (versus $2000 per credit in the previous CBA). Section 19.6.c, specifies that the pay is "2.75% of the faculty member's prior academic year base salary for each credit hour taught" if that is greater than the minimum. Your base pay for AY17-18, upon which this will be determined, includes the 2.5% raise.
- Are Deans expected to figure out the performance pay increases for this past year as well as this coming year? Yes. While we do not know yet exactly how this will be administered, under the tentative agreement, Deans will need to distribute 1% of the salary pool for 2017-18 in terms of performance, use that and the 1.5% ATB to calculate everyone’s base pay increase for that year, and then distribute half the total amount of the increase by way of retroactive pay checks (which in the past have come out in a few installments). Then they will also have to determine performance raises that will be used to calculate your pay starting this coming fall.
- Will the one course load reductions every third year apply to clinical faculty as well as lecturers? Yes. The reductions apply to “non tenure track faculty.”
- Will clinical CE’s count the same as regular courses towards those reductions? Sadly, no. We tried to get course equivalents into the clause but the administration would not agree. So that’s something for the next round of negotiations.
Please feel free to keep sending your questions to your Department Reps, your DA members, or directly to me.
Best,
Tom Streeter
President, United Academics
United Academics is the union of full- and part-time faculty at University of Vermont, with over 700 members from departments and colleges across the campus. We represent faculty in negotiating and upholding contracts, and we advocate for fair labor practices within and beyond our academic community. We are a member-led union committed to academic freedom, shared governance, social and environmental justice.
Get to know us at www.unitedacademics.org, and United Academics on Facebook