February 3, 2020
Faculty Contract Negotiations Set to Begin at UVM:
Burlington, VT, February 3, 2020—“Our goals are to preserve a healthy learning environment, to increase our ability to recruit and retain superb faculty with competitive salaries and health care, and to provide greater job security for all the faculty, who make this institution great by giving of themselves.” These words were uttered in 2004 by then UVM United Academics president and chief negotiator, David Shiman. They are equally true today.
Contract negotiations will begin on Tuesday, February 4 between UVM’s administration and United Academics, UVM’s faculty union which represents over 800 faculty members across 7 colleges and schools. In preparation, United Academics surveyed faculty in the fall, and the union’s chief negotiator and economics professor, Jane Knodell, met with faculty across the university to explore their priorities and hopes for UVM. United Academics president and linguistics professor Julie Roberts noted, “The most frequent message we received, by far, was that increasing and increasingly unsustainable workload caused by faculty lay-offs and non-replacements and larger class sizes has had the effect of reducing campus morale and eroding the student-faculty relationship that is the hallmark of a UVM education. We will propose ways to support faculty and students and to preserve the quality of UVM’s educational experience.”
Contact: info@unitedacademics.org