We are excited to announce that we reached two more tentative agreements with SVA at our Tuesday session. Our tentative agreement (TA) on Discipline and Discharge would give faculty protections and recourse against unjust termination. Additionally, we reached an agreement on our Meeting Space article, which will facilitate our ability to reserve space for future union-related meetings and gatherings on campus. Watch Bargaining Committee member and SVA faculty in Comics Joan Hilty summarize our progress.

In addition, the administration brought counterproposals on Union Management Committee (UMC) and Bargaining Unit Info. Unfortunately, SVA is still asserting they will not share information related to faculty gender, race, and other critical demographics in our bargaining unit that would help us most effectively advocate for stronger rights, equity and inclusion as faculty. We are continuing to review these counterproposals.

Thanks to the testimony of several faculty last week on their experience with harassment, bullying, and discrimination, and the importance of stronger protections against this behavior, we made significant progress on Prohibition Against Discrimination and Harassment. In response to these testimonies – which highlighted the importance of a fair, neutral process to address these workplace issues – the administration presented a counterproposal Tuesday that agreed faculty should have the right to address these issues through our union contract’s grievance procedure.

While we are continuing to review the rest of the counterproposal, this progress demonstrates that when we participate and share our experiences, faculty have more leverage in our negotiations to win improvements.

Finally, we are still awaiting counterproposals on two important topics, Faculty Rights, and Reappointment and Appointment. RSVP here to join us as an observer at our upcoming sessions: March 13th from 10-1PM, and March 23rd from 3:15-6PM. The more of us who attend, the stronger message we send to the SVA administration.

In solidarity,

Edwin Rivera-Arias, Humanities & Sciences
On behalf of SVAFAC-UAW Bargaining Committee