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Contract negotiations between faculty members and administrations are supposed to happen quietly, out of the public eye. But the faculty union for four state universities in Connecticut says its talks have started out so poorly that it must speak out against the university system’s “draconian” proposals.
A draft contract put forth by the university eliminates procedural protections regarding academic freedom, terminations and retrenchment; faculty ownership of original online course materials and the right to teach them; conference, travel and research funds; universitywide tenure committees; and privacy and grievance policies for personnel files.
The university system also wants to increase teaching loads from 12 credit hours per semester to 15 and pilot changing the academic calendar from two to three terms, with faculty members required to teach for two such terms annually.