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Achievements | Mission Statement | Vision Campaign
President | AAUP-AFT Staff | By-Laws
Contact Information
Overview
The Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters was designated by a majority of faculty in 1970 as the exclusive labor
representative in accordance with the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act (1968). The graduate student employees were added to the full-time faculty bargaining unit in 1972. The full-time faculty unit is the negotiating representative for 2,500 faculty members and 1,700 teaching and graduate assistants. The chapters include the campuses in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick/Piscataway.
The Part-Time Lecturer Faculty Chapter and Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) Counselors are also affiliates of the Rutgers Council. As legally recognized bargaining units in their own right, they negotiate their own Agreements with the University. In 2007, the Union of Rutgers Administrators organized as an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
The Rutgers Council is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.
Founded in 1915, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is the only national professional organization dedicated exclusively to protecting and promoting academic freedom, tenure, and faculty governance in higher education. The AAUP began to advocate for the recognition of collective bargaining agents for higher education faculties in 1972.
Founded in 1916, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) led the way to union organizing in education, beginning with public school teachers. When unionization began to grow in higher education in the 1960's, the AFT formed the United Federation of College Teachers with over 70 higher education locals in 1966.
Members of Rutgers AAUP voted to begin a joint affiliation with AFT in 2005, while maintaining our original affiliation with the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP's strong defense of academic freedom has been joined with AFT's excellent track record of negotiating and legislative success.
Achievements
- Defended salary increases and working conditions in difficult economic times.
- Faculty salaries and benefits among the highest at public AAU institutions.
- Created an innovative Faculty Development Fund in 2007
- Created a generous sabbatical program for faculty and defended the right to 100% sabbatical in 2009
- 8% increase each year in TA/GA salaries from 2007-2011, resulting in $24,962 (AY) or $28,456 (CY) by 2010
- Won enforceable workload protection for TA/GAs.
- Doubled funds available for the PTL Professional Development Fund
- Won job classification upgrades for EOF Counselors
- Non-Tenure Track (NTT) policy changes working with the University Senate and negotiated a new University-wide Task Force to work on NTT issues. The recommendations of the Task Force were released in 2009 and we're preparing the next steps.
- Improved work/family benefits with a paid parental leave provision for parents of either gender, including same-sex partner, for newborn or newly adopted child. This benefit was added to the 6 weeks of paid leave for recuperation for the birth mother.
- Expanded non-discrimination protections so that the categories of protections now include race, creed, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital status, civil union status, domestic partnership status, familial status, age, disability or atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait, genetic information, refusal to submit to a genetic test or make available the results of a genetic test, veteran status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Our protections are linked to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.
- Affirmative Action salary and rank review
- Effective legislative relations program
- Negotiated comprehensive grievance procedures that protect due process and faculty rights pertaining to academic freedom, tenure, promotion and other working conditions for all members
- Negotiated effective reappointment procedures and training for TA / GAs
- Negotiated effective performance evaluations and professional development opportunities for EOF Counselors
- Advocacy for the continued involvement of retired faculty in the University community
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AAUP-AFT Mission Statement
The mission of the Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters is to uphold, promote and defend values essential to the protection of higher education such as academic freedom,
tenure, shared governance, due process, access and diversity, while at the same time enhancing the quality work life and improving the working conditions and other benefits of those we represent. These endeavors protect the interests of the university community, the academic professions, the organization, and the members of our bargaining unit.
The AAUP-AFT Vision for Rutgers
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, has provided generations of middle and working class students with an affordable university education of very high quality. Through its educational, research, and service programs, Rutgers serves as a powerful engine for economic development, for upward social mobility, and for cultural enrichment. Today, more than ever, the citizens of New Jersey look to Rutgers to drive the recovery from the current economic downturn, to enable the State to compete in the global high-tech economy, and to continue to provide excellent, affordable higher education. At the present moment, however, the ability of Rutgers to continue to fulfill its mission to the people of New Jersey is in danger. Years of underfunding by the State, culminating in the recent large budget cuts, have led to decreases in the number of full-time faculty, larger classes, enrollment caps, physical deterioration of a number of facilities, and substantial increases in tuition. The lack of appropriate State support seriously threatens the ability of Rutgers to continue to provide students with an outstanding education at an affordable cost, to serve as a powerful engine for economic prosperity, and to respond to projected large increases in the number of qualified applicants for admission.
In 2005, the Rutgers AAUP reflected on our vision for the university and what will be required to achieve it. We formulated the following vision statement, which lays out what is needed to protect the quality of and access to a Rutgers education in the years ahead. We are fully committed to working with the new Rutgers President, with other members of the university community, and with all friends of public higher education to obtain the resources essential for the realization of our vision.
Vision Statement
The Rutgers AAUP-AFT is strongly committed to preserving and enhancing the quality and accessibility of Rutgers programs and to advancing the university to the top echelon of public research universities. We believe that to achieve these goals, Rutgers must
- recruit and retain an outstanding and diverse faculty
- recruit an outstanding and diverse graduate and professional student body
- recruit an outstanding and diverse undergraduate student body
- provide students outstanding classroom instruction and mentoring, to the fullest possible extent by full-time faculty members
- provide first-class facilities, infrastructure, and staff support for teaching, research, and service to the citizens of New Jersey
- build on our strengths in the liberal arts and sciences, the applied sciences, and the professions
- uphold, in all its actions, the core academic values of academic freedom and due process, intellectual honesty, shared governance, and respect for the rights and opinions of others
- foster an atmosphere of openness, collegiality, and trust in which all members of the university community work together to obtain the resources required to move Rutgers to the next level of excellence.
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President
Members of the Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT Chapters elect a president every two years.
As the chief executive officer, the president is the spokesperson and official representative for the AAUP-AFT. The president oversees the overall operations of the organization, provides direction to other officers and oversees their activities. The president appoints the chairs, the members of standing committees, members of the administrative committees and staff members of the Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT Chapters with the advice and consent of the Executive Council. The president can initiate court action on behalf of the Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT Chapters, as approved by the Executive Council.
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Adrienne Eaton
is president. Contact her at her Rutgers office
(732) 932-8561; or the AAUP-AFT office
(732) 964-1000; or
via email adrienne@rutgersaaup.org
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Adrienne Eaton is a professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations on the Rutgers New Brunswick campus. She earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin. Her research interests are in three major areas: (1) union participation in management decision-making and the relationship of unions to direct forms of worker participation; (2) negotiation, effectiveness and outcomes of neutrality and card check agreements, and (3) unionization of managerial workers, in particular, public sector supervisors. In addition to being the department chair of Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER) and Director of Labor Extension at Rutgers, Professor Eaton serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Labor and Employment Relations Association, a position she has held since September 2002. She is also a member of the editorial board for Labor Studies Journal.
Link to Officers and contact information
AAUP-AFT Staff
AAUP-AFT has a highly dedicated and experienced professional staff charged with daily operations of the union. Staff work closely with the officers
and committee chairs to carry out the mission of the organization. Link to staff members and contact information
Bylaws
Bylaws for the full-time faculty chapter of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, including teaching and graduate assistants and EOF counselors.
Bylaws for the part-time lecturer faculty chapter of Rutgers AAUP-AFT
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