covid-19

Petition to Honor and Extend Employment Commitments for Contingent Faculty at Smith College

• The petition received coverage in MassLive, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Inside Higher Ed, the Sophian, Times Higher Education, and mention in the Yale Daily News, the Kenyon Collegian, and the Daily Pennsylvanian.

• The Academic Solidarity Statement includes Smith College in its boycott, signed by prominent academics such as Judith Butler, Kimberlée Crenshaw, and Donna Haraway.

• Learn about contingent faculty and how you can support in our FAQ: Smith College Contingent Workers.

• Read Messages of Support for Smith College Contingent Workers collected from the petition and the form below.

• Read the letter of support from the Smith Program for the Study of Women and Gender and the college's response.

• Read the letter of support from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) chapter at Smith.

• Smith College Contingent Faculty: Stories and experience from students and employees (Form for supporters of contingent faculty)

• Smith College Contingent Faculty: Share your experiences (Form for contingent faculty)

• 4/3/20 Hiring freeze announced (Friday). Departments given until 4/8/20 (Wednesday) to request exceptions to these cuts.

• 4/6/20 Petition released. Over 1200 signatures in 24 hours.

• 4/8/20 No response from admin, sent a demand for response by 4/13/20.

• 4/13/20 President emailed all faculty, pointing back to 4/3/20 email. (See FAQ for text.)

• 4/14/20 Provost emailed all faculty, explaining exemption process. Reduced by 20% the courses they hoped to staff with non-tenure-track faculty, able to continue with 60% of originally approved non-tenure-track staffing. (See FAQ for text.)

• 4/20/20 Plans to furlough staff announced.

• 4/20/20 The Sophian reports on contingent labor at Smith

• 4/22/20 Faculty Q&A regarding 4/20/20 email. When asked "Do you plan to respond substantively to the petition circulated by the contingent faculty and signed by dozens of tenured and tenure-track faculty?" Provost replies that the 4/14/20 email "constitutes my substantive response."

• 4/24/20 All-Staff Q&A regarding 4/20/20 email. Faculty were not provided Zoom link.

• 4/28/20 SWG Program letter of support delivered to Smith administration.

• 4/29/20 Faculty Q&A follow up to 4/22/20. Provost read information about courses and contingent faculty, not documented anywhere. Reasoned that temporary and casual employees were also laid off, and [non-union] staff were being furloughed, so contingent faculty not the only ones affected. Declined to provide detailed list of contingent faculty who lost employment. 346 courses originally requested before the hiring freeze, 96 withdrawn by departments, 32 denied and 218 approved by the Provost. 232 of the 346 included names proposed for hire. 11 tenure-track searches before the hiring freeze, 2 withdrawn by departments, 7 approved and 2 declined by the Provost.

• 4/29/20 Smith College listed as boycotted institution by Academic Solidarity Statement.

• 4/30/20 Chairs meeting. Chairs asked again for detailed information about contingent faculty layoffs but were refused.

• 5/4/20 Letter from President and Provost in response to SWG letter of support.

• 5/14/20 All-faculty meeting. President stated that "I am not worried about the endowment." Provost had "no official response" to the Academic Solidarity Statement.

• 5/14/20 Smith AAUP chapter letter of support delivered to Smith administration.

• 5/20/20 231 staff summer furloughs announced.

• 6/11/20 Letter from the President to faculty: "Tenure-track faculty, teaching in the fall of 2020, [will] receive one semester’s worth of credit toward the six credits required for a sabbatical. For members of the non-tenure-track faculty teaching 4-credit courses in the fall, [they will] receive a stipend of $1,250 for each fall 4-credit course."

• 6/17/20 All-faculty meeting with President and Provost. Provost answered "No" to the following question: "I refer to the email about time towards sabbaticals and extra money per course for contingent faculty. I’ve talked to contingent faculty and ladder faculty, and some are willing to give up that, and maybe even take a further voluntary salary reduction in exchange for the guarantee that contingent faculty who had verbal offers rescinded, will get their jobs back. [...] Can we have such a system in place?"

• 6/30/20 Employment ends for contingent faculty that have been laid-off.

• 12/18/20 Letter of support from faculty supporting contractual 2.75% wage increase for essential workers at Smith

The College reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to cancel a course, due to low student enrollment, if the College closes its campus for an extended period of time due to a health, safety or other emergency situation, or for another unforeseen circumstance. If the College cancels a course, the College may replace the cancelled course with another being offered, or eliminate your teaching responsibilities, which would result in a corresponding reduction in compensation. If the College cancels a course you were assigned to teach, you will be contacted by your Department Chair as soon as practicable, and the College will rescind this offer, and reissue a new offer, if applicable.

• Smith College laid me off. Now what? Crowd-sourced unemployment document

• Organizing Resources for Contingent Faculty

• More than 100 Smith employees denied jobless benefits due to payroll glitch (Daily Hampshire Gazette)