Article X of our contract establishes rights associated with reappointment: advance notice of your appointments and — when your established teaching load is reduced or ended — a course load reduction or termination payment. 

Article X Eligibility

Article X rights attach department by department. You build eligibility separately in each department of each School where you teach.

You are eligible for Article X rights in a department if you have prior good performance as an eligible adjunct in that department and you have taught either:

• At least two semesters in each of the two previous academic years (Article X(A)(1)), or

• At least one semester in each of the four previous academic years (Article X(A)(2)).

Any semester — Fall, Winter, Spring, or Summer — counts toward semester eligibility.

The two paths are different. Which one you qualify under changes both what NYU must offer you and what a payout is worth:

X(A)(1): two semesters × two years

X(A)(2): one semester × four years

What the May 21 letter must cover

Your appointments for the following Fall, Winter Intersession, and/or Spring

Appointment for one semester in the following academic year

Termination pay is equal to

All the monetary compensation you received for the most recent academic year. It includes

admin pay.

All the compensation you received for the previous semester's appointment. It includes admin pay.

Course load reduction pay

For each course reduced below the lowest consistent number of courses you were appointed to in each of the previous two academic years, at the contact hour pay rate of the previous academic year

For each course reduced below the lowest consistent number of courses you were appointed to in each of the previous four academic years, at the contact hour pay rate of the previous academic year

The 40-contact-hour threshold. You are covered by the contract in an academic year (September 1 – August 31) if you teach at least a total of 40 contact hours of instruction in one or more courses in that year, or at least 75 contact hours of individual instruction or tutoring in a semester. If you fall below that in a given academic year, you are not covered for that year, and you begin building toward Article X eligibility again in the following academic year.

Your Request to Teach Letter. Article X(B) requires you to notify your department Chair — or, if there is no Chair, the appropriate University administrator — in writing of your request to teach for the following academic year and of your qualification under Article X. The notification must be received no later than December 15, with a grace period of up to 10 business days after December 15. A letter submitted within the grace period is deemed timely.

If you miss the December 15 deadline entirely, you remain eligible for termination pay or course load reduction pay and for the Section C privileges, provided you otherwise meet the Article X criteria — but two things change:

1. Payment may be deferred by a full year. Termination or course load reduction pay is not owed until September 1 of the following academic year. The contract's own example- an adjunct who misses the December 15, 2024 letter would be paid by September 1, 2026- illustrates how not submitting a timely request to teach letter works

2. A 30-day acceptance rule applies. You must accept the offer of appointment(s) within 30 days of receiving your May 21 or March 21 letter. If you do not, you are not owed termination or course load reduction pay.

This is why the rep team asks every member to send a Request to Teach Letter each December to every department where you teach.

Other things that do not cost you your rights: Article X applies in the same manner to adjuncts who meet bargaining unit criteria through individual instruction and tutoring, except as to the course load reduction and course cancellation provisions. Your Article X rights continue unaffected if your appointment changes from one instruction modality to another. 

What Article X does not give you. Article X does not give you a right to be reappointed. It gives you the right to be notified of your appointments by a fixed date, and the right to a payout — course load reduction pay or termination pay — if your established baseload is not met. The job security Article X provides serves as a deterrent: because cutting an established baseload costs the department money, Article X discourages departments from reducing adjunct courses or altering established teaching patterns in the first place. Under Article XXIV, NYU determines the number, scheduling, and assignment of adjunct faculty, and how, when, and by whom instruction is delivered — but that authority is expressly subject to the rest of the Agreement, and Article X attaches a cost to using it against an established baseload.

Frequently Asked Questions

Letters and deadlines

When should I receive my reappointment letter?

For Fall, Winter, and Spring: no later than May 21 for the following academic year. For Summer: no later than March 21 preceding the Summer semester.

If you do not have Article X rights, your department can give you an appointment letter as late as 14 days before the semester starts.

Who do I send my Request to Teach Letter to, and do I have to wait until December 15?

Email it to the Chair of your department, or, in the absence of a Chair, the appropriate University administrator in that department. Send one to every department where you teach. You do not need to wait until December 15 — earlier is better. A template is available [here].

What should I do if I don't receive a reappointment letter?

Contact the union immediately at nyu@actuaw.org and include whether you submitted a Request to Teach Letter and when, and a completed copy of your work history. For Fall, Winter, and Spring appointments, get this to us as early in June as you can so we can determine the best course of action while options are still open.

My letter arrived, but it left out a semester I normally teach.

Contact the union. An incomplete May 21 letter is not the same as no letter, and it is not a clerical matter—it sets up a course load reduction or termination payment. Send us the letter, your prior appointment letters, and any correspondence with your department.

Do I have to respond to my reappointment letter?If you submitted a timely Request to Teach Letter, you are not required to respond to a reappointment letter. If you did not submit a timely letter, you must accept the appointment(s) within 30 calendar days of receiving the May 21 or March 21 letter, or you forfeit any termination or course load reduction pay you would otherwise be owed.

NYU offered me a course after May 21. What does that mean for my rights?

Talk to the union before you accept or decline. The union's position is that the May 21 letter — or the absence of one — establishes the baseline for what is owed, and that NYU cannot substitute a later offer, including a Summer (March 21) offer, for an appointment it was required to make by May 21. NYU has taken a different view. If you are in this situation, we want to hear from you before the record is set.

I don't normally teach in the summer, but my department says it will only meet my complete baseload with a summer course.

Talk to the union before you accept or decline.

The contract sets two separate notification obligations: a May 21 notice for the following Fall, Winter Intersession, and/or Spring semesters (Article X(A)(1) and (2)), and a March 21 notice for a Summer semester (Article X(A)(3)). The union's position is that these are not interchangeable — NYU cannot discharge an obligation incurred in the Fall, Winter, or Spring with a summer offer to an adjunct who has never previously taught in the summer, and it cannot defer a course load reduction payment to March 21 on that basis.

One thing to know before you respond: if you have not previously taught in the summer and you accept a summer course, NYU's position is that your baseload has been met and no course load reduction pay is owed. That is why you should discuss your decision to accept with us first—not after.

Payments

When are course load reduction and termination payments due?

By September 1. September 1 is the payment deadline for the obligation created by the May 21 letter — it is not a second chance to fix the letter.

If you did not submit a timely Request to Teach Letter, your payment may be deferred to September 1 of the following academic year (see above).

How do I check whether I was paid?

Check your paystub in PeopleSync — look at your pay history, not just the current check. If you believe you are owed a payment and do not see one by September 1, email nyu@actuaw.org the next business day with your situation as you understand it, any communications with your department administrators about your reappointment or payment, and any other records that would help us.

How are the two payments calculated differently?

• Course load reduction pay is based on the contact hours you taught during the most recent academic year, at the contact hour rate of the previous academic year. It does not include administrative service payments or other work pay you earned in that department.

• Termination pay is based on the monetary compensation you received for work in that department during the most recent academic year (or, under X(A)(2), for the previous semester's appointment). It includes all pay you received from that department.

Do you receive additional payments for long service?

Yes. Under Article X(E), if you have served as an adjunct faculty member for at least 5 but fewer than 10 consecutive academic years, any termination or course load reduction pay is increased by 10%. At 10 or more consecutive academic years, it increases by 25%.

My payment came through, but it was lower than I expected.

First, check the gross pay on your pay stub, not the amount deposited. These payments are treated as supplemental wages for tax purposes, and total withholding can run around 45–50%.

If the gross amount is lower than what you believe the contract requires, email nyu@actuaw.org right away with the amount you believe you should have received, why, and any reappointment letters, pay records, or correspondence. NYU does sometimes calculate these incorrectly, including by miscounting the courses or contact hours that make up your baseload.

Changes to your appointment

My contact hours were cut, but I kept the same number of courses. Does Article X cover that?

Possibly, and we want to know about it either way. Under Article X(D), if your contact hours are reduced from the previous academic year by more than 50%, you may, at your option, decline any appointment and accept full termination pay instead. That election is yours, not the department's.

If the cut is smaller, contact us anyway—particularly if it puts your health insurance or retirement eligibility at risk, since those relate to contact hour thresholds.

My course day or time was changed after I accepted the appointment.

Contact the union. A May 21 letter is a commitment, and a change you did not agree to and cannot accommodate may trigger an Article X payment.

What if I can't teach a course I'm appointed to, but I want to come back the following year?

Article X(C) lets some — not all — Article X–eligible adjuncts decline reappointment without a break in service. Send a Decline to Teach letter to your department chair or director, and check which provision applies to you:

• X(C)(1)(a): eligible under X(A)(1) with appointments in two semesters in each of the previous four academic years — may decline reappointment for one academic year.

• X(C)(1)(b): eligible under X(A)(1) with appointments in eight semesters during the previous four academic years — may decline reappointment for one academic year.

• X(C)(2): eligible under X(A)(2) with appointments in one semester for six consecutive academic years — may decline reappointment for any one semester.

In each case, you retain your Article X privileges and continue to maintain your existing service eligibility under Article XIX (Annuity Plans). You do not necessarily maintain your service eligibility for health insurance. The University may grant an additional one-semester extension due to illness, and it shall not be unreasonably denied; further extensions are at the University's discretion.

If you don't fall into one of these categories, talk to us before you decline anything.

Cancellations

What counts as "insufficiency of registration"?

Article X(F) defines it as a course canceled with less than 50 percent of scheduled enrollment, or with 5 or fewer students enrolled, whichever is higher. If your course was canceled with enrollment above that line, tell us.

What counts as a "change in curriculum"?

Article X(F) is explicit that these do not count as changes in curriculum:

• a change in course title or number only;

• eliminating one or more sections when other sections of the same course continue to run;

• replacing a course with one that is substantially similar;

• renaming a department or program without other changes;

• the appointment of a new dean, chair, or supervisor with no other change to the course or program of study.

My class was canceled for low enrollment. What am I owed?

Under Article X(G), if a course assigned to an adjunct entitled to the May 21 notice is canceled for insufficiency of registration or changes in curriculum, and no replacement course is assigned for a total of two consecutive academic years, you receive termination pay.

The union's position is that the replacement provision protects you against cancellation—so if a "replacement" is assigned but never actually runs, tell us. 

Do not assume a promised make-up course in a later semester settles the matter. Contact the union when the cancellation happens, not after.

My fourth qualifying semester was canceled before I finished building eligibility.

Under Article X(G), if you have prior good performance for three semesters under X(A)(1) or X(A)(2) and the appointment for the fourth semester is canceled, you may obtain the qualifying fourth semester appointment if you are appointed to an eligible position during the subsequent academic year.