Part-Time Faculty Need Real Recourse Against Harassment and Discrimination
The part-time faculty bargaining committee has proposed providing faculty with more powerful recourse against harassment and discrimination by allowing faculty to:
File a grievance with the help of a union rep if they experience harassment or discrimination.
Take their case to a neutral arbitrator with the help of a lawyer whose expenses the union will pay.
The university’s current offer bars union reps from filing such grievances on our behalf, and locks faculty into the university's adjudication process under which a senior administrator in Human Resources who is on the university’s payroll makes a binding decision.
Adjunct faculty at universities such as NYU, Barnard, and CUNY all have the right to the union’s assistance in bringing a grievance adjudicated by a neutral arbitrator. Even other unionized employees at The New School–including academic student workers, custodians, librarians, clerical staff–have this right. Currently, faculty who experience harassment or discrimination have two options:
File a Title IX complaint with the university. In this scenario, there is a conflict of interest because the individual adjudicating the dispute is an employee of the university.
Sue the university in court, which can be prohibitively expensive and result in years-long delays.
If you believe that you and your colleagues deserve real recourse against harassment and discrimination, you should vote NO on the university’s offer.