By Ethan Tutor
The Scene staff
The union that represents adjuncts on St. Louis Community College campuses has created a Higher Education Faculty Bill of Rights to use as a tool in contract negotiations.
Members of Service Employees International Union Local 1 are collecting signatures from adjuncts, full-time faculty and students at 13 colleges and universities in the St. Louis area as a show of support.
“Every student and teacher can sign the Bill of Rights,” said Kat Fossell, an adjunct English professor on STLCC’s Meramec campus and an SEIU member. “By getting more people to sign on, it helps the adjuncts have a good bargaining chip when negotiations resume in the spring.”
The STLCC adjunct contract expires in March. Negotiations between the union and college are expected to resume early next year.
The Higher Education Faculty Bill of Rights lists the following expectations: Shared governance; teaching resources and services; academic freedom; respectable hiring and promotion; a living wage; job security; fair scheduling and appointments; professional development and support; due process and a grievance procedure; health care; retirement; childcare; paid leave; and freedom from discrimination.
“These are obvious changes that we shouldn’t have to ask for,” said Kathy Ratino, an adjunct communications professor and member of the SEIU leadership team for the Forest Park campus.
STLCC adjuncts voted to unionize with SEIU in 2015. The union later negotiated a contract that provided for two 3 percent raises.
The union now is asking for an additional 5 percent in raises. As of last spring, the college was only offering 2 percent.
STLCC officials didn’t respond to requests for comment, including Nez Savala, communications manager; Kedra Tolson, executive director of marketing and communications; Shirley Simmons, employee and labor relations specialist; and Patricia Canada, director of human resources.
Fossel identifies a “living wage” as the most important expectation in the Higher Education Faculty Bill of Rights.
“For myself, I have to work a couple of jobs so I can still teach and be financially secure,” she said. “… We are the people in the classrooms with the students. Teachers usually have a better grasp on the students.”
The union hasn’t yet totaled the number of signatures collected on the Higher Education Faculty Bill of Rights, Ratino said, but students and faculty from the following colleges and universities have signed:
STLCC, Washington University, St. Louis University, Webster University, Maryville University, Lindenwood University, Ranken Technical College, St. Charles County Community College, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Jefferson College, Harris-Stowe State University, Southwestern Illinois College and Fontbonne University.
About 76 percent of STLCC faculty members are adjuncts. Ratino said she remains optimistic about contract negotiations in the spring.
“We can’t force (the college) to do anything they don’t want to do, but we’re unionized,” she said. “We don’t know what they’ll agree to until we come to the table.”
Adjuncts, full-time faculty and students who want to sign the Higher Education Faculty Bill of Rights can do so at
bit.ly/FacultyBillofRights.