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Fresh Start for NTT Faculty [1]
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Date: 2025-09-06 15:00:04+00:00
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“Back to school” — for students, it means moving into the dorms, buying new art supplies, making sure U-Passes work, and starting classes. But for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Non-Tenure Track Faculty, the start of the fall semester brings a bigger change: the first school year with a signed union contract.
On May 21, 2025, the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United NTT branch ratified their new contract with the SAIC administration. According to a joint press release from AICWU and the SAIC administration, 340 eligible faculty voted unanimously in favor of the contract. This contract lasts until 2029, at which point the union and the school will once again discuss the bargaining terms. While this contract is active, no strike will occur.
According to an SAIC spokesperson, “The contract is the result of a deep collaboration between staff and faculty members, and we are grateful to all of the community members who worked together to make it possible.”
“I think people are feeling some sense of relief that we won’t have to deal with the unknowns and the risks and so on, of having to go on strike. And I’m sure management feels the same way,” said Eric Leonardson, professor, adjunct in the Art and Technology and Sound Practices department and a member of the AICWU bargaining team.
The NTT union formed in December 2022, and has been in contract negotiations with the school since June 2023.
“We had to fight for all of these big and little things. It was pretty astonishing,” said Leonardson.
So, how does the new contract affect the NTT faculty? There areis a lot of minutia, but here are some of the major points of interest.
Increasing Wages
Increasing wages for the sake of pay parity and rising inflation rates was a major goal for AICWU. With the new contract, from 2025 to 2028, NTT faculty wages will increase a total of 16.1%. In 2025, lecturers and senior lecturers will receive a 4.75%increase, and all adjuncts and the new teaching professor position will receive a 4.5% increase. Each year, the increased percentages will get smaller, so in 2028, all NTT faculty will get a 3% increase.
Additionally, the amount NTT faculty are paid for thesis advising for second and third readers has increased, and the budget for adjunct paid leave benefits has doubled.
Course Load
Previously, lecturers, who make up 53% of the total SAIC faculty, were capped at three classes a years. With the new contract, many lecturers are now able to teach up to four.
Lecturers are given a one- to two-year contract when they are hired. Once they’ve completed two cycles of these contracts, they are eligible to receive a three-year contract and the four classes a year course cap.
Lecturers who have already been through two contract cycles before the 2025 agreement are eligible to teach four courses a year.
“We had to fight very hard to get an extra course for the lecturers. And we think this is one of the biggest wins. It took the entire two years to get that fourth class,” said Danny Floyd, an assistant professor, adjunct in Visual and Critical Studies, and a member of the AICWU bargaining team.
Floyd went on to say that this was one of the top issues among union members and that they were not going to leave bargaining until they could guarantee an increase in course caps.
Grievance Process
The grievance process is one of the most significant changes to SAIC’s status quo, according to the contract guide that AICWU put out for its members. Having a grievance process gives union members the right to dispute management decisions through legally binding arbitration with a neutral arbitrator.
“Nothing like this has ever existed at SAIC for non-tenure track faculty. I think that underscores that it’s a major win,” said Floyd.
“So with the grievance process and our union, […] we can create a more equitable and transparent workplace than we’ve ever had before,” said Leonardson.
Health Care
Subsidized health insurance has not been extended to cover lecturers. Instead, a stipend pool of $150,000 per semester has been allotted to help cover health care costs. Union members who teach at least one class during the academic year and who do not have access to an employer-provided insurance plan, Medicaid, or insurance through family, can qualify for up to $2,500 stipend each semester. The stipend can be used to cover market-based health insurance, prescriptions, medical procedures, dental work, ER visits, etc.
AICWU’s guide to the agreement notes that should more than 60 members apply for these funds, the money will be split equally.
“The new healthcare stipend allows lecturers that aren’t covered under employer-subsidized health insurance to use the funds for any of their health needs. The flexibility of the use of these funds was something the union’s negotiating team expressed as being important to them,” said the school.
Promotions
SAIC’s promotion process was another major sticking point. AICWU, even with the new contract, has a long-term goal of reforming the promotion process.
The changes made to this process include the school being legally required to schedule pre-promotion meetings, and for any bargaining unit members not granted promotions to get a summary of recommended professional development steps. Additionally, there is also a new promotions committee of union members that will meet with the dean of faculty.
The Teaching Professor Position
The contract outlines a new type of professor position at SAIC — the teaching professor. The union was seeking to establish a professor of practice position: a professorship role that has become increasingly common in universities. This would be a source of advancement and stability for NTT faculty who do a comparable amount of work as full-time faculty. The teaching professor’s role is the compromise agreed upon in the new contract.
The teaching position is a five-year contract, with six courses a year. Teaching professors will also be able to take on leadership roles, such as graduate coordinator. In some ways, it bridges the gap between adjuncts and tenure-track positions.
This new role will be filled through a national search. Current NTT faculty interested in the position are guaranteed an interview if they have taught at SAIC for eight years and currently teach five or more courses a year.
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