Skidmore’s Tenured Faculty Demands a Fair Contract | News

In recent years, the union — which represents 190 tenured faculty members — and the college have argued back and forth over the union’s demands, which include higher salaries and a limit on the number of tenured faculty members on permanent contracts.

Speakers at Friday’s rally said many of the non-tenured teachers don’t make enough to afford living in Saratoga Springs and that they take home about $50,000 a year after taxes.

Music Department lecturer Casey Gray spoke during the rally about having to work additional jobs, such as being an organist at a church, just to make a livable salary.

“I’m tired of traveling, traveling to multiple places, making sure I have all my materials in my car – my travel agent – (and) keeping a meticulous calendar just to make sure I’m at the right time at the right time place,” he said. “I’m tired of the expectations placed on a full-time position, but my status doesn’t reflect that. My position at Skidmore is limited to just one credit hour before full-time, suggesting that my permanent role, along with a waiting list, would somehow place an economic strain on Skidmore’s budget. As a result, I have to save for retirement from my modest salary and am ineligible for health benefits. No paid family leave to help with my young daughter’s open heart surgery, no guarantee of career advancement.”

Senior teaching professor of Spanish Diana Barnes said she has had a permanent contract with the school for 29 years and never knows whether she will get a contract next time and has no recourse if she doesn’t.

“I have a good friend, a colleague, who said that every time their terminal boots up they cry because they are so scared and worried,” she said.

She remembered one year when the department forgot to renew her contract and someone from the facility tried to take away her computer.

Also joining the union at the rally were David A. Banks, lecturer in geography and planning and contingent officer for the United University Professions (UUP) department at the University at Albany, staff philosophy teacher Sarah Kizuk and Greg Reynoso, who is part of , supports the New York State Nurses Association.

The permanent union said one of the lawyers the college hired to negotiate a fair contract was the same one involved in Albany Medical Center’s contract negotiations with the nurses’ union.

The college said in an emailed statement Friday that it was negotiating with the union in “good faith.”

“Over the course of 30 negotiating sessions, both parties agreed on most of the proposals put forward by the NTT union representatives,” the collegium said. “In addition, the college and the Union have exchanged counter-proposals on these outstanding points, which are steadily bridging the gap between the parties. To suggest that the college did not negotiate in good faith with the union or that we set a cap on NTT faculty salaries is simply not true.”

However, the union said there were only tentative agreements at present and the college had still not met key demands.

“You can review the public records of our proposals, their counterproposals, and the minutes of every single one of our marketing meetings, and you will see that we continue to act on our proposals to address these long-standing problems.” Given the problems, the government has proposed maintaining the status quo,” said union member and philosophy professor Peter Murray. “We cannot and will not accept the continuation of a morally unacceptable status quo.”

The college claims that including the union-demanded raises in this year’s budget would cost an additional $3 million and a three-year contract would be $10 million over the college’s current budget.

“As a nonprofit institution, the college’s fiscal constraints are a reality that inevitably play a role in economic negotiations,” the college said. “However, we are working diligently and responsibly to reach an agreement that is fair and equitable to all College employees, including our NTT faculty.”

The union filed a labor practices lawsuit with the National Labor Relations Board after alleging the college “unilaterally and unlawfully implemented a 3% across-the-board salary adjustment to NTT faculty salaries without negotiating the increase with the union.”

“Despite this, the administration continues to insist on this 3% increase, claiming that anything more than that would have a negative impact on the college’s finances, even though the college has balanced its budget for years on the backs of precarious, underpaid NTT faculty,” said the union said in a press release after Friday’s rally.

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