Rutgers pact boosts non-tenure faculty

NEW BRUNSWICK - Rutgers' non-tenure-track faculty have approved a tentative agreement that includes more multiyear contracts, defined pathways to promotion, and titles of greater respect, a union leader said.

Once the terms are formally approved by the university, the fewer than 100 lowest paid of the full-time, non-tenure-track faculty will see a pay raise. Their pay will go from a little over $34,000 per academic year to slightly over $39,000, said Ann Gordon, retired history professor and union bargaining chairwoman.

But the agreement is less about economics than about treating the faculty more as professionals with articulated paths to career advancement, according to supporters.

"The university is pleased with the approval of this agreement, which recognizes the important roles of our non-tenure track colleagues," university spokesman Greg Trevor said Monday.

Once the agreement goes into effect, full-time, non-tenure track faculty will no longer be subject to "nonrenewable contracts" nor will they fall under the title of assistant instructor, a job description some find demeaning and which Gordon said is not used at similar institutions.

"There are people who have worked for Rutgers 18 years as an assistant instructor. That's appalling," Gordon said. Non-tenure trackers are about a third of Rutgers' full-time faculty, she said.

Supervisors will still have the option of offering short-term contracts, but non-tenure track full-timers who are paid by Rutgers rather than a grant and who have worked for the university for six years must be offered a two-year contract if they are kept on, she said.

In addition, teaching and professional practice faculty and librarians will be included in an ascending job-title system that conveys more respect and offers a pathway to promotions.

Gordon said the changes would improve morale.

"It's been demoralizing for a lot of people," she said. "Your job security is never great in a non-tenure track job and to be in a non-tenure track job with a one-year contract is even worse."

She said the union, a local of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers, wanted a minimum full-time nontenured salary of about $55,000, but that was not possible in this round of bargaining.

Lecturer Shaheen Ayubi, of Rutgers-Camden's political science department, said she is pleased non-tenure track faculty like her "will no longer be perennial 'annuals,' and the administration is no longer allowed to impose a nonrenewable contract suddenly without rhyme or reason."

Robert Puhak, who teaches math and computer science at Rutgers-Newark and received a Chancellor's Excellence Award for teaching, said he believes the agreement will also benefit students and the university.

"Beyond achieving more equitable treatment among faculty," he said, "the changes are crucially important for attracting and retaining top educators." He expected university officials to act on the agreement sometime this spring. The union approved it Friday.

- Rita Giordano