SAIC non-tenure-track faculty ratifies first union contract
Note: Following is a joint release from AICWU/AFSCME and SAIC administration.
Non-tenure-track faculty members of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) have voted unanimously to approve their first union contract.
In an online ballot that closed Wednesday night [May 21], eligible faculty voted 342-0 to ratify the agreement.
SAIC non-tenure-track faculty voted to join the School and Museum’s existing staff union, Art Institute of Chicago Workers United/AFSCME, in December 2022. Negotiations for the faculty contract began in June 2023 and resulted in a tentative agreement at the end of this April.
“Non-tenure-track faculty are critical members of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago community, shaping the experiences and influencing the careers of our nearly 3,400 undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students,” said Martin Berger, SAIC’s provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. “We are gratified to have a contract with the union that offers significant improvements to the working conditions of our faculty and allows us to continue providing our students with a world-class art and design education.”
“Together in our union, SAIC non-tenure-track faculty have achieved significant gains that move them strongly forward in the struggle to better their working lives,” AFSCME Council 31 executive director Roberta Lynch said. “By improving compensation and protecting their rights, this historic agreement lays a rock-solid foundation on which adjuncts and lecturers can continue to build.”
The contract provides for annual increases ranging from 3 percent to 4.75 percent; compounded over the four-year term, it raises wages 16.14 percent for lecturers and 15 percent for adjuncts.
Among other provisions:
Lecturers will receive a health care stipend to subsidize insurance costs and other relevant health care needs. Eligible adjunct-rank faculty who so choose will continue to participate in institutional health care plans on the same terms and conditions as other employees.
SAIC will create a professional development fund dedicated to supporting non-tenure-track faculty’s continued education and ensuring their ability to remain at the forefront of new pedagogies and approaches to classroom instruction.
To recognize non-tenure-track faculty members who demonstrate exceptional teaching practices, the merit-pay pool will increase, as will the number of available paid leave opportunities.
Higher course caps, greater course guarantees, and longer contract lengths will help faculty to stabilize their employment and provide predictability in work and earnings.
To ensure that the School better supports exceptional educators, SAIC will establish a full-time, non-tenured Teaching Professor position with a renewable five-year contract that guarantees six courses annually.
