91¾«¼ò°æ

Dear Colleagues,

If you are in the Saratoga Springs area, I trust you are enjoying this stretch of very warm summer weather. If not, I hope you are making the most of our summer break in another beautiful place.

As President Conner mentioned , we are continuing to receive questions about the choice our full-time and part-time non-tenure-track faculty will be making about whether or not to unionize. I’ve provided answers below to some common questions and will answer others in the coming weeks. We will also continue to update the . If you have questions, please feel free to send them to me (dfaculty@skidmore.edu) and we will address them.

Sincerely,

Michael Orr

Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs

New FAQs

Q: The College recently increased faculty pay. Is this a result of the union activity?

A: No. These increases are the result of a year-long faculty and staff compensation study that began in May 2021. Among its outcomes, the study resulted in a broad restructuring of compensation levels to better recognize and reward the vital contribution our non-tenure-track faculty colleagues and other faculty members make and to ensure 91¾«¼ò°æ remains competitive as it seeks to attract and retain talented individuals.

Q: Why are so many faculty on terminal contracts of short duration?

A: We recognize that many non-tenure-track faculty have been on successive terminal contracts for many years. During the past year, the Office of the Dean of the Facultyhas been exploring ways to provide greater security, stability, and continuity for ourNTT colleagues. When the College was notified about potential unionization, we were required to pause our work on this project, pending the outcome of the unionization choice. Like many colleges, 91¾«¼ò°æ has issued these contracts to ensure that experienced, well-qualified faculty members are available to fulfill institutional needs, including teaching much-needed courses in the curriculum, alleviating enrollment pressures, and serving as replacements for other faculty members’ absences, sabbaticals, or leaves. But we fully appreciate the need for a better system for renewing/reissuing the contracts of NTT faculty and are eager to resume work on this.

Q: Why have the full-time and part-time NTT faculty been split into separate voting groups?

A: The NLRB has long-standing principles governing the appropriate makeup of bargaining units. After some discussion among NLRB and union and college representatives, the union withdrew its proposal to combine the two groups and the NLRB has approved separate elections for each group.

Q: Does having two separate elections mean that more than one bargaining unit could be formed?

A: Yes. Depending on the majority of votes cast in each election, the result could be one bargaining unit, two bargaining units, or no bargaining units.

Q: Would electing a union automatically result in higher pay, better benefits, and greater job security? Would my benefits remain the same as they are now?

A: Not necessarily. If a union is elected, the existing terms and conditions of employment would remain unchanged until a negotiated collective bargaining agreement is reached. There are no guarantees about the outcome of the negotiations nor about what pay, benefits, and other terms would be agreed upon. There could be positives and there could be negatives. Negotiating a collective bargaining unit is complex and time-consuming. Studies have shown that most first contracts take more than a year to negotiate.