Opportunities abound for adjunct faculty members to participate in university governance.
Put your talents to good use.
Adjunct faculty members are eligible for serve on the Faculty Senate and College Council in each college. Senate meets once a month; College Council meetings vary by College. Your voice and vote will count in these positions.
Learn more about being involved in RAFO and your college during a Zoom meeting on Friday, May 15 at 4:00 pm Central Time (US and Canada).
Join Zoom Meeting
https://roosevelt.zoom.us/j/96114909636
Meeting ID: 961 1490 9636
RAFO Executive Committee
This is the first of regular updates from the RAFO Executive Committee about ongoing negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with Roosevelt University (RU).
Negotiations have been spirited but clear. RAFO is fighting to ensure it will get the best deal possible for the years to come, both in the wake of the Robert Morris merger and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. RAFO must also inform you that it has attempted to open negotiations to discuss the change in working conditions that took place due to the pandemic. To this point RU has denied this request. RAFO will press RU to live up to its social justice mission by opening these talks and will use every legal means at its disposal to do so.
Be on the lookout for more Zoom conferences and messages to find out about the status of all negotiations, changes at RU due to COVID, and the overall state of RU in these uncertain times. Your support of RAFO – both by communicating with us and by volunteering to help us do the work of helping your fellow adjuncts – is appreciated and necessary.
Major issues RAFO is fighting for include:
Read more: Update on RAFO Contract Negotiations with Roosevelt University
Coronavirus Pushes Colleges to the Breaking Point, Forcing 'Hard Choices' About Education; Forecast declines in enrollment and revenue trigger spending cuts and salary freezes; 'the world order has changed.'
by Melissa Korn, Douglas Belkin, and Juliet Chung. Wall Street Journal (Online). April 30, 2020
MacMurray College survived the Civil War, the Great Depression and two world wars, but not the coronavirus pandemic. The private liberal-arts school in central Illinois announced recently it will shut its doors for good in May, after 174 years.
Like many small schools, it faced declining enrollment and financial shortfalls. To lure prospective students, it was using steep discounts to its $30,000 listed tuition. Then the global health crisis brought unexpected costs for shifting classes online and partially reimbursing room and board for students forced to finish out the spring term at home. The loss of a $3-million-plus bridge loan was the final straw.
The pandemic "squeezed out the last rays of hope," said President Beverly Rodgers.
From schools already on the brink to the loftiest institutions, the pandemic is changing higher education in America with stunning speed.
Read more: Wall Street Journal Outlines Financial Challenges Ahead for Higher Education
Subcategories
Contracts
RAFO Members:
As lead negotiator for the 2020-2024 contract, I am pleased to announce that your negotiating team and Roosevelt University have come to an agreement. RAFO is extremely pleased with the final outcome and we believe you will be, too. The University was adamant on 0% for the first year, but as an offset for that 0%, we negotiated a signing bonus of $150 for each bargaining unit member that taught either in Spring 2020 or will teach in the upcoming Fall 2020 semester. That then takes us into the final three years of the contract where adjuncts will receive a 2% increase for each of those years.
As I hope you can see from the above, RAFO worked hard to ensure that you are rewarded for the professionalism and integrity all have shown during these unusual and trying times. We are attaching a copy of the final contract for you to review and eventually ratify. The areas that appear in green are changes that were made to the verbiage in the contract that will support RAFO during the upcoming 4 years. Appendix A reflects the 2% increase for each step in the final three years.
A link with the time will be sent next week for all to join this a zoom meeting, where we can answer your questions about the contract.
In closing, we hope you will be as excited as we are regarding the new contract.
In solidarity,
Don Wlodarski and the RAFO team:
Jen Wilson, Joseph Fedorko, Amelia Hicks, Stan Traywick, Mike Pinsoff and Dennis Tucker
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