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Full-time faculty members and graduate assistants at Rutgers University reached a tentative contract agreement with their administration, averting a possible strike, they announced this week. “For the first time in the union’s nearly 50-year history, we won equal pay for equal work for female faculty, faculty of color and for faculty in the Newark and Camden campuses,” Deepa Kumar, associate professor of media studies and Middle Eastern studies, and president of the American Association of University Professors- and American Federation of Teachers-affiliated union, said in a statement. Graduate stipends will increase from $25,969 to $30,162 over the course of the contract.
Additional gains include assurances of a harassment- and stalking-free workplace, enforced with binding arbitration, according to the union. Academic freedom also now extends to social media. Non-tenure-track professors secured multiyear contracts for terms of up to seven years, plus grievance procedures with binding arbitration. Rutgers may now sponsor non-tenure-track professors for permanent residency status. All Ph.D. students who teach prior to completing course work and qualifying exams must be paid as a teaching assistant, not a part-time lecturer, the union said. The university confirmed that it had reached a tentative deal.
