Earlier this week, we had our eleventh bargaining session with the SVA administration. Watch Stephanie Stavropoulos (MFA Design for Social Innovation) and Valerie Eads (Humanities & Sciences) walk through a full recap of the session!

We brought three counterproposals on Grievance and Arbitration, Faculty Rights, and Job Posting. We are happy to report that the administration indicated they were on board with the idea of a Faculty Advisory Committee that would support more robust faculty participation in school decisions. However, SVA continues to be hesitant to commit to transparency with faculty especially around topics such as financial status, budget, and facilities.

In regard to Job Posting, we are currently pushing for SVA to develop an internal job posting mechanism that would allow current faculty the opportunity to apply to teach available classes prior to Chairs seeking external applicants.

We are happy to report we had a productive discussion about our Academic Freedom article and are extremely close to an agreement on this article. This article would make sure faculty have the right to express themselves and teach freely without fear of retaliation or retribution of any kind from the School. We also are close to reaching an agreement on Union Management Committee.

Next, we discussed a matter of demographic data. We believe it's important for SVA to provide this information to help inform our future proposals on compensation. The administration has not provided us this data, but based on our conversation, it seems possible they would reconsider. We are still waiting on counters from the SVA administration on Health and Safety and Bargaining Unit Information and hope to receive them at our next session on Tuesday, June 16th.

Need Help?
While we continue to bargain and organize, SVA faculty colleagues should know that since our union is certified, there are certain rights we can already exercise ahead of our first contract. For instance, if you are requested to attend a meeting that could result in discipline or dismissal, it is your right to have representation at that meeting . If you are facing any potential issues, please email [svafacultyunited.uaw@gmail.com] to get in touch.

SVA Faculty Zoom Drop-in Hours
This summer, we will be hosting a series of zoom sessions for faculty to drop-in to ask questions, or discuss any recent developments or updates at the School. Please keep an eye out for the first such date.

Best,

Stephanie Stavropoulos, MFA Design for Social Innovation
On behalf of SVA/FAC-UAW Bargaining Committee