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Last week, Gabe Paquette, the new Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, introduced himself to the Senate and answered a few questions from the Senators. Several times over the course of his remarks, Vice Provost Paquette asserted that the Provost’s Office would be using the standards for promotion and tenure contained in the CBA when evaluating P&T files, such as a sustained record of scholarship. He particularly cited the CBA’s alleged requirement that candidates for promotion have a “sustained” record of scholarship. This is incorrect: the CBA provides guidelines for departments and units when they establish review criteria, not requirements for…

On Tuesday, our bargaining team met with the administration’s bargaining team to kick off a new round of bargaining. Although both parties are eager to bargain over the important provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, we must first establish the ground rules for negotiations.  Fortunately, the parties are on the same page on every issue except one. Where we differ is over who will have the ability to watch the bargaining sessions. Read the administration proposal here. Read our proposal here. The administration would like to keep the sessions open only to bargaining unit members. Their reasoning is that bargaining…

Bargaining UpdateWe are set to begin bargaining next Tuesday, February 9, from 3 to 5pm. Unfortunately, we have not yet agreed to ground rules with the administration. The main disagreement we are having with them regards who will be able to observe bargaining. The administration would like to limit the audience to bargaining unit members, administrators, and invited guests.Due to this ongoing disagreement, we do not feel comfortable widely sharing a link to the first session at this time. The bargaining team will be meeting this evening to discuss our best approach to resolve this issue. We hope you will…

***Note – Throughout the message below, we refer to Career faculty as either “instructional Career faculty” or “funding-contingent Career faculty.” We recognize that these terms do not precisely describe all of the Career faculty at UO. We have chosen to refer to faculty this way in the interest of trying to make a complicated subject a little clearer. “Instructional Career faculty” includes Librarians and all Career faculty who are not on funding-contingent contracts.  After months of negotiations, the University and United Academics have reached an agreement on the new system for employing Career faculty at the University of Oregon. Although…

While we remain entirely remote, from this week onward many of us will teach students from homes they share with parents, siblings, and others. This has always been true–many of our students share space with other people and need to attend Zoom classes from spaces that other people have access to–but it will be true for more students over the holiday week.  This is worth noting for a couple of reasons: many students will have increased connectivity and technology issues; some students may be quarantining due to travel; and some students may have roommates or family members in the room…

This is a hard time—an unbelievably hard time—for all of us. We are now eight months into unprecedented disruption due to the ongoing public-health crisis. Renewed and widespread calls for social and racial justice have been met with resistance and additional instances of brutality rather than compassion and unity. Western states experienced devastating fires and apocalyptic skies. Remote instruction for school-aged children and lack of childcare alternatives have wreaked havoc on family schedules, work, and household dynamics. Weeks after the presidential election we are still embroiled in high-stakes political uncertainty. Covid cases are now increasing faster than ever.As difficult as…

Recording of UA’s virtual Fall Term General Membership Meeting. In addition to updates on bargaining, there are reports from breakout discussions on topics including racial justice, caregiver needs, workplace safety, student experience surveys, and review criteria and processes in the time of COVID. The meeting ended with discussions with Lane County Commissioner candidates from District 3. 

Dear Colleague, It’s a new academic year and there are new challenges to face. United Academics is here to support you. Who YOU are. You are the faculty represented by United Academics! You are tenure track faculty at the assistant, associate, and full professor levels. You are research faculty such as research assistants, associates, technicians, and research professors. You are librarians and you are instructors. You are Career faculty and you are pro tems. Together we are UNITED ACADEMICS! Who we are. We are a community of scholars and our (proverbial) doors are open to discuss issues that arise on…

We are pleased to inform you that the membership has ratified the Memorandum of Understanding to restore Career faculty FTE, institute a payroll reduction plan, and allow faculty to resubmit requests for promotion by a vote of 461 to 34. The negotiations over this agreement were not easy, and UA leadership appreciates everyone who watched the bargaining and lent their support. We still have work to do to change the Career contract system. We will keep you informed of the progress we are making. We anticipate asking membership to ratify an agreement on a new system in fall. Again, thank…

Last Wednesday, Provost Philips sent instructional faculty and graduate employees a message describing a change in the approach to in-person teaching in the fall. Instructional faculty and GEs have been given the option to opt out of in-person teaching in the fall, if they have not done so already. This is great news, and we welcome this new decision by the Provost. We recommend that faculty take the opportunity now to consider the latest available information and decide whether or not they would like to opt out of in-person teaching in the fall. We have studied the university’s plans for in-person…