Happy end of semester!

On Tuesday we wrapped up a very productive tenth bargaining session with the SVA administration. We made meaningful progress by coming to an agreement on a couple of articles. Here are a few highlights below:

• Generative AI: Thanks to all our faculty organizing, we were able to agree to a precedent-setting article on Artificial Intelligence that states clearly that SVA will not use AI to teach courses.This underlines our commitment to human instruction in the classroom and creates an enforceable standard for all unionized faculty nationally. You can read our AI Tentative Agreement here.

• Bulletins and Postings: This allows our faculty union to put up posters around campus to spread information.

SVA gave us a handful of counters, including Grievance and Arbitration, Job Posting, Faculty Rights, and Academic Freedom (we are a “word” away from agreeing on this!).

We brought a counter for our Bargaining Unit Information article. While getting closer, we were dismayed by our discussion with SVA’s bargaining team regarding reviewing faculty demographic information to ensure equity and inclusion across our workplace. We are hoping to continue discussing this one and hoping SVA will bridge our differences.

We have gotten this far thanks to organizing and faculty participation, so let’s keep it up! Please join our next session as an observer on May 26th, 3-5pm.

Best,
Mike Falk, Fine Arts, VCS
On behalf of SVA/FAC-UAW Bargaining Committee

Joanne Seador (BFA Photo) and Edwin Rivera-Arias (Humanities & Sciences) give a recap of our recent session.