Session 26: We say no more tiers!

During today’s 26th session, the College questioned the integrity of our unit. They offered current BUEs the choice to maintain a four-course workload with a base pay of $72,000, while proposing that future BUEs teach a five-course load for the same starting salary. We refused this offer and made clear that any model that pits new hires against existing hires is not acceptable to our unit. 

With a four course load, NTT faculty play an integral role in strengthening Wellesley’s academic mission–a reality that the College claims to recognize. We advise 32% of the student body. We provide 140+ independent study and senior thesis research opportunities every year.  Many of our members run departments and programs in addition to teaching full time. We value our ability to provide students with one-on-one mentorship and in-depth feedback. We would not be able to do this with a five-course workload. The College’s proposal continues to undermine the Wellesley experience that students, alums, and families have come to know and love.

WOAW Movement and College Stagnation
When we rejected the College’s tiered offer on workload, we offered back a new comprehensive package with counters to all 21 remaining articles. We have signaled agreement with the College on nine articles and are close on several others. In a show of good faith, we responded to the College’s concerns on compensation and cut $1.7 million from the proposal we passed on April 1, reducing our proposed starting salary from $88,000 to $85,000 and moved towards the College throughout the article, which you can find in our package here. All in all, WOAW’s current compensation proposal would add about $2 million to the approximately $341 million in annual expenditures made by the College (source: ProPublica 2023 audit), a 0.6% increase. 

We unionized to establish a community based on equity. We will not recreate the very tiered system we unionized to address. Wellesley proclaims that “we are the ones who so often become the ‘firsts’—but we are even prouder of the ‘nexts’ we make way for.”  WE are Wellesley. We aren’t just looking out for ourselves—we are protecting the fabric of the Wellesley community and standing up for fair compensation for teaching, which has historically been considered “women’s work.”

While the College left the bargaining session early, they agreed to schedule an additional bargaining session on Monday. We hope they come prepared.

As always, you can find all passed proposals on our bargaining tracker here. 

In solidarity,
WOAW-UAW Bargaining Committee
Katie Hall
Deb Bauer
Erin Battat
Mike Mavros
Christa Skow