Key Issues

The College recognizes the important and distinct role of the BUEs, which is primarily teaching and advising. 

With no research expectations or the professional obligations that come with scholarship, and with fewer service responsibilities than tenured faculty, a five-course teaching load per academic year is reasonable for a full-time BUE position.  

The new five-course standard for non-tenure track faculty benefits students by:

1. 1. • • Increasing the number of high-demand and required courses we can offer with a faculty of our size.

        • Reducing our dependence on new visiting lecturers, who are only here for a short time.

        • Allowing our longer-term lecturers and senior lecturers to teach more of our students, who would benefit from their experience and from building meaningful connections with them. 

A five-course annual workload reflects the unique role and responsibility of NTT faculty. Unlike tenure track faculty, NTT faculty do not have research responsibilities and their service expectations are much more limited, which allows them to teach an additional class.

The College’s proposal streamlines expectations for all BUEs so that major/minor and first-year advising and departmental service will be the only contractual service obligations for lecturers and ISLs. There are no research expectations for BUEs, and professional development will no longer be a separate criterion for evaluation.

It’s important to know that many BUEs already teach five courses per academic year, or have done so in the past. All visiting lecturers teach five courses, and last year more than 20% of other BUEs voluntarily took on additional courses. 

The College’s proposal is grounded in a comprehensive peer analysis, which found that the vast majority of peer institutions require lecturers to teach five to six courses per academic year. 

Reflecting this analysis and role clarification, full-time ISLs who are currently teaching seven labs per year would teach eight under the College’s proposal.

To support our valued bargaining unit employees (BUEs), the College's latest proposal includes higher compensation for non-tenure track (NTT) faculty matched with a reasonable and competitive five-course teaching load aimed at strengthening the academic program to benefit students. It would:

• • • Increase salaries for NTT faculty who are bargaining unit members (BUEs) by a total of 16% in the first year, bringing the average salary for BUEs to more than $100,000 in year 1 of the contract, and by more than 26% over three years.

    • Establish a five-course teaching load standard for full-time NTT faculty (currently applicable only to visiting lecturers) and offer a $12,000 increase in year 1 of the contract for those who opt to begin teaching five courses in year 2. 

    • Increase the starting salary for lecturers to $80,000 in year 2 of the contract, and provide an additional $6,000 promotion opportunity for senior lecturers. 

    • Increase average salaries by 7% in year 1 of the contract and 18% over three years (including promotional increases) if lecturers and senior lecturers choose to opt out of the five-course teaching load.