The Times They Are A'Changing

This seems to be strike season in the world of higher education. UC had its large student-worker strike not that long ago which significantly raised pay for such workers and tended to upset the existing funding model of graduate student education and employment. 

There has been a trend in higher ed to shrink the proportion of "ladder" (tenure-track) faculty and rely more heavily on various forms of "temps," i.e., instructors without tenure and on short contracts. A major strike at Rutgers University in New Jersey is currently underway which involves both tenure-track and nontenure faculty. One of the major issues has been job security for the latter group.

From NJ.com: As the historic strike of three Rutgers University faculty unions reached the end of its first week Friday, the unions announced a potentially “transformative” tentative agreement on job security for non-tenured full-time professors. These 1,005 faculty members will no longer have to reapply for their jobs at the end of each contract; the presumption will be their contracts will be renewed, according to a union statement.

“This is game-changing for faculty members who haven’t had the protection of tenure,” said Rebecca Givan, president of the largest striking union, Rutgers AAUP-AFT. “We’ve taken an important step toward confronting the precarity faced by over 70% of the educators, researchers, and clinicians at Rutgers.” The other 30% are tenured or tenure-track professors, who have job security.

The union considered this a “core proposal” in the negotiations, according to the statement. Rutgers had no comment on the issue but said in its morning statement that after Thursday’s negotiations, “we are making significant progress with the continued help, engagement, and leadership of the governor and his senior staff.”* ...

Full story at https://www.nj.com/education/2023/04/rutgers-union-announces-tentative-agreement-on-core-issue-more-remain.html.

In effect, the graduate education model is eroding, the use of temps in higher ed may now begin to erode, and - as noted in prior postings - the amateur student-athlete model is eroding with compensation in the form of name-image-likeness payments. Here in California, the old 1960 Master Plan has been eroding for years with CSU pushing into doctoral education and community colleges pushing to provide 4-year bachelors degrees.

The Times They Are A'Changing.

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL_kPNFL3dY.

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*Strikes by public workers in New Jersey have been presumed to be illegal in the past, although no state statute so declares. The governor of New Jersey, however, has asked Rutgers not to go to court to try and end the strike and instead to negotiate a settlement, if possible, with the unions involved. The New Jersey situation is somewhat similar to what existed in California at one time where there was a presumption that public worker strikes were illegal, but no actual statute banning such strikes. Eventually, when tested in court, it was ruled that since there was no statutory bar, public sector strikes in California generally were legal.