Session #8: The College proposed a 25% teaching load increase!

Hello all,

This is Annie Brubaker, Organizing Committee member, here to introduce our most recent bargaining update. On August 20th, the WOAW bargaining committee met with the College for our 8th bargaining session. In this session, we passed counters on Appointments and Reappointments and Employment Records along with a new proposal for Evaluations and Performance Reviews, and the College passed counters on Health and Safety, Workspace and Materials, Wintersession and Summer, Course Assignments, and a particularly aggressive counter on Workload. As always you can find all proposals and counterproposals on our tracker here.

The College Workload counter attempts to reframe the whole article to maintain as much power as possible in the hands of the College. In their counter, the College proposed a drastically increased workload from the status quo, increasing the course load expectation from 4 courses per academic year to 5, including an additional lab with no additional lab prep unit for ISLs. The College further proposed that all bargaining unit employees be “expected to advise 15-25 students per year, including first-year advisees, major or minor advisees, and pre-professional advisees when assigned formally through a relevant College program.” There were a lot of thoughts on this counter, and this update will compile a few of those reactions from observers and participants from the last bargaining session. 

This bargaining update is provided by Christa Skow, Melissa Beers, Amy Banzaert, and María Twardy. All three of their responses emphasize the need for us to stay strong, keep showing up, and stand up for what we know will make Wellesley better for us and our students. There really is no substitute for attending a bargaining session, so we hope you can make it to one of our next three sessions.

This update will be a combination of written reactions and gifs reflecting our feelings on the counter we received on Workload. I’ll kick things off with one of my own…

Annie’s Reaction:

Christa Skow, Bargaining Committee member

The College dove right in at the start of the August 20th bargaining session and passed an aggressive counter on workload.  I was not surprised their counter included significant increases in our teaching and advising workload while simultaneously gutting professional development as a core pillar of our career track at Wellesley.  The College signaled its intentions back in January prior to our election in an email to all faculty and staff that asserted “Bargaining does not necessarily begin with the status quo; both the union and the College would be free to propose changes.” 

Indeed their workload counter is in line with their January email that “At many other schools, full-time NTT faculty are expected to teach five or (as at Barnard, for example) six courses per year.”  At the table, we questioned their team about why they are deviating so far from the status quo, and the essence of their response was “because we can”.  The College wants to increase our teaching load by 25% from four courses a year to five.  Additionally, they want to increase the number of students we advise each year by > 67% going from the current average of 9 students per BUE up to 15-25 students per year.

The College continues to signal that it values high volume teaching at the expense of educational quality in several other ways.  They proposed eliminating professional development from our job expectations.  They rejected all language establishing course caps. They also struck the entire section about BUEs being allowed to engage in research or scholarly activities at their discretion.  Wellesley College wants a zero-growth mindset for 30% of its full-time teaching faculty, and it will be the students who pay the hidden cost of these “efficiencies”.

When I consider the impact of their proposal on my workload as an ISL, it would increase my weekly time in the lab to 17.5 hours of teaching per week.  Estimating 15 minutes of grading per student per week adds up to 16 hours.  Now I am up to a 33.5 hour work week without adding in anything else (advising, answering emails, office hours, curricular development, faculty meetings, attending departmental seminars/events, and serving on departmental and college committees).  Let’s not get greedy and assume I might need a meal or a bathroom break each day!

We did not unionize to go backwards, and the bargaining committee remains resolute in negotiating a strong contract for all unit members. This session we presented our counter on appointments and reappointments and passed a new proposal on evaluations and performance reviews.  The upcoming negotiations will involve fundamental aspects of our employment like what we do, how we are evaluated, and our path for continued employment.  Our strength in the room reinforces our strength at the table, so if you haven’t observed a session yet, now would be a great time to start! 

Christa’s Reaction:

Melissa Beers, Organizing Committee member

As bargaining began yesterday it was obvious that the college was anxious to begin even though they entered the room 15 minutes after the proposed start time.  The normal few minutes of welcome and discussion about if each side had articles to pass was forgone for the College jumping in and starting right off with their responses to our articles.  I am going to focus my comments on Workload today.  My first impression upon seeing the papers being passed to our Bargaining Committee was “Oh No”.  What I saw was a sea of red words.  That sea of red is an indication of how far apart the two groups are on a particular article.  This became extremely evident when the College’s outside council started reading their stance on Workload.  In essence their stance is we do not work enough and are proposing to increase our workload by 25% (1 course for lecturing faculty and 1 lab and 1 prep for faculty teaching labs).  They want to set a minimum of 15-25 student advisees per BUE and remove professional development from our workload.  They commented that some colleges and universities require their faculty to teach 6, 7 or 8 classes a year (we should be grateful)! It was clear from their body language that they were prepared for us to be very upset.  None of the 5 bargaining members on the College side would look up at the 20 BU members in the room as they read their response to Workload.  I think our Bargaining Committee and those Observing did a great job maintaining neutrality and not rising to their prodding.

Honestly, my mind blanked out a bit trying to figure out how I would manage such a load.  But as I settled a bit I remembered this is a negotiation, the College is going to present their extreme offer.  Unlike 2017 when the ISLs asked for increased compensation for our work from the Provost's office and their proposal was more work for more pay - take it or leave it - we have a voice now.

I am also thinking today about the college’s mission of Inclusive Excellence.  What I have learned over the past several years, training myself through many different workshops and seminars and teaching students, is that our students need us to be available outside the classroom - for office hours, for advising, for one on one meetings - MORE than they did before.  Increasing our teaching load is going to prevent us from doing the other things that our students value at Wellesley - the one on one interactions we have building relationships.  Relationships that have flourished years after our students have graduated and moved on with their careers and lives.  I do not want to lose those relationships.  A 25% increase in teaching will prevent me from building those relationships.   I have had semesters where I taught 80+ different students.  I did not know each student well.  I am sure some slipped through the cracks.  That is not the Wellesley we all envision and love.  That is not the Wellesley our students signed up for.

Melissa’s Reactions:

Amy Banzaert, first time bargaining observer

This was my first bargaining session … I have been juggling too much and was - frankly - a bit intimidated to go, but finally made it happen. I was really glad to go; I have so much more insight into the bargaining process and our amazing WOAW leadership. In short, I encourage everyone in the union to show up to these sessions as much as you can. It’s easy (some of us worked on our computers, others knitted, others just observed), it’s educational, it’s clear that many people showing up has a meaningful impact on the process, and we all have a real stake in this process.

During bargaining, I was struck by the stark contrast on the two sides of the bargaining table. The union side had our bargaining team front and center, with our UAW rep, Courtney, on the side, there to support as needed, but the bargaining team did almost all of the speaking, and spoke both from the heart and with deep insight into the experience of bargaining unit members realities at the college, and what needs to change and/or be protected. 

Behind them sat 20+ bargaining unit members, observing and demonstrating our power in numbers. During breaks, we would check in with each other and gape at some of the more shocking proposals by the college (e.g. 5 classes as a normal load + 15-25 advisees would radically change for the worse how we’d have to teach and support our students).

On the other side were about four members of senior admin and, front and center, the lawyer the college has hired for this process, a partner at a firm that advertises itself as, “Representing management in the full range of unionized labor matters … we are a trusted management partner, spokesperson and negotiator, protecting our clients’ interests at the bargaining table.” According to their website, the firm has only 4 female partners out of 18 partners total, which makes this firm a disappointing choice given Wellesley’s mission. The lawyer did the vast majority of the speaking and regularly had to inquire about how the college operates, even getting college acronyms wrong.

This contrast stood out to me … my entire experience with WOAW from when it was just an idea until now has been a deep commitment to community-building while making a case for a fair wage and working conditions, and the bargaining team’s approach showed that ethos clearly. I am so grateful to them for the tremendous effort they are putting in and will continue to show up to support the union effort however I can, and hope to see you on the WOAW discord server and at the next bargaining session.

Amy’s Reaction:

María Twardy, regular bargaining observer

On my first time as an observer, I thought I could not contribute to the meetings with anything else but my presence. However, after the last session I learned it was not quite like that. 

Over this summer I strongly perceived the vibrant energy, the rising voices standing for the sake of improving working conditions, all out of respect and kindness. I believe that the time spent on these days, from both sides, definitely reveals  a strong disposition to help others in every possible way, and with the right tools.  To me, It is inspirational.