Working within university systems presents unique challenges. One of the authors is aware of past attempts at their state university to establish a leave bank for university employees that encountered bureaucratic resistance. The idea of the leave bank would be that employees could add their unused paid leave days to an open pool for any university colleagues to use as needed; such a system already exists for other state employees but not for state university employees. Under the university’s leave policies, any unused leave is forfeited to the university and remains unused. When the union representing university employees brought forward the idea of a leave bank, campus administration claimed that the lack of a university system-wide common contract prevented them from establishing such a leave bank.
In this instance, mutual aid pursued through institutional frameworks challenged the existing power structure, but advocates encountered bureaucratic mechanisms (separate contracts) which maintained the status quo. Recently, the union negotiated a university system-wide contract. In order to achieve their goal of a shared leave bank, advocates may need to continue raising the issue with their administration.