The university came to an agreement with the Temple Association of University Professionals after a debate that lasted 15 months. The deliberation focused on protections for adjunct faculty and how they would fit into the new contract.
Now, full-time professors and adjuncts are included in one consistent contract, with a two-year plan for increasing the base wage per credit hour for adjuncts. There will also be a section of the contract that allows adjuncts to report contract violations.
It’s satisfying to know that common ground has finally been reached in applying a contract to both full- and part-time faculty — especially since the road has not been a smooth one.
The Temple News staff was concerned last spring when a series of Letters to the Editor was sent to our publication: two from Sharon Boyle, associate vice president for human resources and the university’s chief negotiator, and one from Wende Marshall, an adjunct in the Intellectual Heritage department. These letters made clear the tension and disagreement between the two groups.
A unified faculty is essential to the functionality of a university, so both sides need to be willing to work together. While recent agreements are promising, we hope the administration and TAUP can continue to make strides in future contract negotiations.
Because in 2019, Temple and TAUP will have to sit down at the negotiation table again.
If the past is any indicator of how these two organizations will act two years from now, then we will have to prepare for another long, difficult fight. But we certainly hope that’s not the case.
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