Colleagues,
Welcome to the new academic year! I hope that you had an enjoyable and restful summer.
CSU-AAUP is looking forward to another productive year. As indicated by our union logo “Opening Minds, Opening Doors,” our union is committed to improving the transformative work faculty do every day in the classroom, in our libraries, on our athletic fields, and in our counselor’s offices across our four campuses.
We accomplished a lot last year. We negotiated a new contract with three principles in mind: Educational Excellence, Instructional Equity, and Building Stronger Communities. While we did not get everything that our members deserve (we put forward over 100 proposals), we made progress. There will be more equity for all our members with paid sick days for part-time faculty, more time off for librarians and counselors, and a taskforce to study the working conditions of coaches. Our ability to provide excellent education will be enhanced by a 4.5% raise, more money for travel to conferences, more reassigned time for research, and new faculty of practice/clinical faculty positions. Our university communities will be stronger with the wording around shared governance clarified. See here for a summary of our contract changes.
CSU-AAUP also engaged in serious legislative work to strengthen our universities, including advocating for more funding from the state and working to increase our enrollments by extending the tuition assistance program at CT State Community College (PACT) into the CSUs. This program gives some students the ability to finish their last two years at the CSUs nearly debt free.
None of this could have been done without your hard work.
We have a busy year ahead of us. Politically, we will continue to pressure the state legislature to fully fund the CSCU system, as we push legislators to consider a more sustainable model of funding. We will continue to advocate the expansion of the Finish Line program further so more students can attend the CSUs debt free. And we are spearheading an Academic Freedom bill to ensure that all institutions of higher education address potential violations with clear procedures that include faculty involvement.
We remain committed to our coalition work, helping the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) negotiate a fair deal for pensions and healthcare when the recent agreement ends in 2027. Our members also will be working with Connecticut for All to adjust the state’s budgetary fiscal guardrails that prevent legislators from allocating money from CT’s huge budget surpluses to needed public services like higher education. And we will continue to work to counter and monitor the constant attacks by the Federal government on higher education, be it academic freedom, faculty governance, diversity and equity, international faculty and students, research funding, and student aid and loans.
We are optimistic we can make some important changes this year. Just this month Governor Lamont made it clear to CSU-AAUP that he considers extending the Finish Line tuition assistance program one of his top priorities for his third term if he is reelected. He also is committed to ensuring that there will be real changes to our Board of Regents governance structure and that faculty will have a significant input in those changes and in the future of our system. CSU-AAUP plans to work with the Governor on this and ensure that he keeps his word.
You will be hearing more about our plans to address all these issues in the coming months, including the first one, which is a Forum on Academic Freedom and Shared Governance at CCSU and online, Friday September 18 11am-1pm. For more information and to register see here.
You can see there is lots to be done. We want, need and welcome help from all of our members. You will hear from the union in the weeks ahead different ways that you can get involved. Together we can accomplish all sorts of things. If you would like to jump in, please reach out to me.
I wish you all a productive semester.
In solidarity,
Louise
Louise Williams
President, CSU-AAUP
