Chatham has a long history of top-down decision making that disempowers faculty and relies on input from a narrow group of actors. We believe a union contract that legally requires that faculty be treated as equal partners in the governance of the institution will lead to a stronger, healthier university.

The teaching and learning environment (TLE) that faculty teaches, advises, and conducts research in is not always consistently or safely maintained. Right now, faculty don’t have a voice in things that impact the TLE such as classroom temperature, air quality, lack of clean water, use of toxic chemicals for cleaning, black mold, etc. We believe a union contract would offer an opportunity to establish criteria for, and faculty involvement in, maintaining a healthy, safe, and comfortable work environment.

When faculty are negatively impacted by decisions made by the board or administration, the current recourse is for faculty to make pleas for resolution. Sometimes those requests are taken seriously, at other times they are inadequately addressed or ignored entirely. We believe a union contract would offer an opportunity to set basic expectations about our agency at the university, our pay and benefits, the TLE, and decision making transparency—and establish a process to find recourse when these expectations are not upheld.