First Contract for New Hampshire Lecturers

It took a year’s worth of effort at the table; these things usually do. But the full-time lecturers at the University of New Hampshire have ratified a first collective bargaining agreement that enhances their economic status and solidifies their job security.

The agreement will put double-digit salary increases in the hands of these AAUP members over the course of two years. A combination of across-the-board raises, merit increases, and pools to address salary inequities are all part of the mix, and minimum salary floors will be established along with guaranteed 8 percent raises upon promotion. The career commitment of lecturers will be recognized by having a university-wide, three-tier promotion structure and appointments that will now be up to five years in duration.

Perhaps most striking is the myriad of ways in which this contract will put members of the new UNH Lecturers United AAUP chapter on equal footing with their tenure-track colleagues, who have long been unionized in an AAUP chapter.

Lecturers will now have the same eligibility as their tenure-track colleagues for a host of benefits and opportunities within the university. This will include twelve weeks of paid parental leave. Lecturers will also now have a new program of paid pedagogical leaves to promote professional development. And the workload structure will explicitly include the variety of professional and service activities that these non-tenure- track faculty perform.

Finally, parity will also be established with respect to the guarantees of academic freedom: “As members of the UNH faculty, Lecturer Faculty in all ranks are subject to the principles of academic freedom and its full protections.”