In March, the United Academics of the University of Kansas (UAKU)—an affiliate of the AAUP and the AFT that was certified as a union in 2024 and includes more than 1,600 faculty members and academic staff—reached a tentative first contract agreement, marking the end of more than twenty months of negotiations. An overwhelming majority of UAKU members subsequently voted to ratify the collective bargaining agreement.
The agreement supports core principles of the academic profession by establishing enforceable protections for academic freedom and shared governance, safeguarding tenure and promotion policies, improving job security for nontenured faculty members, and creating a path to promotion for lecturers. It also establishes compensation structures grounded in principles of fairness and dignity, providing a median raise of 13 percent for workers on the lower end of the pay scale and designating a pool of money to address salary compression and reward professional performance.
AAUP President Todd Wolfson praised the agreement, saying, “After nearly six years of organizing, faculty at the University of Kansas have achieved a tremendous, hard-won victory with this agreement. This is a member-driven, landmark achievement that will have an enormous impact in Kansas. This would not have been possible without the courage of our members, who dug in and fought so hard because they knew that a fair contract was possible.”