Union County Community College: Respect Shared Governance
The Collective Bargaining Congress of the AAUP strongly supports the faculty union at Union County Community College in its negotiations, as the union tries to prevent the administration from eviscerating all of the shared governance provisions of the existing contract.
Union County was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, and is the oldest community college in New Jersey, and one of the oldest in the United States. Up until now, the faculty has had a significant voice in the academic structure of the institution and core AAUP principles of shared governance and academic freedom have been respected. The administration is trying to silence that voice and take away that seat. Specifically, the administration is proposing that the academic committee language be stricken from the contract. The advisory and recommendation powers of department chairs would be eliminated, and the Academic Planning Committee would be struck from the contract. These changes would mean that faculty would not have any significant input into curriculum matters, or to the selection of academic administrators.
In addition, the administration is proposing to increase the faculty’s teaching load from 15 hours to 21 hours per term, making it virtually impossible to provide a quality education to students.
The Collective Bargaining Congress believes that the administration should respect the core AAUP principles that have worked so well for students, faculty, and administrators at UCC for many decades.