FEBRUARY 2025
SUMMER REAPPOINTMENTS
Keep scrolling to read about these important topics:
Reps’ Corner: Summer Appointment Letters
Paid Family Leave and NYU Adjuncts
Immigration Resources for Members
Election Update
Upcoming Events and Important Dates
Links to Full Contract, Contract Highlights, and Our Website
In each newsletter we answer common questions. In this issue we focus on Summer reappointment letters.
Q: What do I do if I don’t get a Summer reappointment letter on March 21?
A: If you are expecting class reappointments for Summer 2025 and do not receive a letter by March 21, please contact your department and cc us at nyu@actuaw.org. After you receive a response – or if you don’t receive a response – please email the union. Reappointment protections are covered mainly in Article IV and X of our contract. If you sent a request for reappointment letter (also known as a request to teach letter) on or before January 9. 2024, your reappointment rights for Summer 2025 are in effect, and you are owed an appointment letter by March 21.
Q: When will I get my reappointment letter for next year?
A: Reappointment letters for Academic Year 2025-2026 should be sent to you on or before May 21. Reappointment letters should include appointments expected for all semesters except for Summer. Summer reappointments are made annually on March 21.
Q: What information should be included in my reappointment letter?
A: Reappointment letters should contain the following for each course: course name and number, scheduled course meeting day(s) and time(s), scheduled number of course credits, contact hour rate, contact hour pay frequency, expected number of contact hours, category of compensation, Director/Chair of the program/department and adjunct’s supervisor(s) (if different from the Director/Chair), information about sick and safe leave, instructions for checking the expected enrollment cap, and the expected teaching modality.
Q: Is the Summer semester different from the Fall and Spring semesters?
A: No, not really. Summer teaching is paid at the same rate; this includes administrative pay, which is paid per class, per semester. Your Summer contact hours will also apply to your health insurance subsidy and your retirement calculations. One notable difference between the summer semester and fall and spring semesters is the sick and safe policy: In the summer you are eligible for up to three days of paid sick leave if you haven't used up your seven days earlier in the academic year.
New York State Paid Family Leave (PFL) provides employees job protection with up to 12 weeks of paid time off to bond with a newly born, adopted, or fostered child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or assist loved ones when a spouse, domestic partner, child or parent is deployed abroad on active military service.
PFL is mandatory for most employers, but teaching faculty, like us, are not covered by this requirement. However, several of our peer adjunct and part-time faculty unions in New York City, including The New School, CUNY, and SUNY, have successfully won PFL benefits.
Currently, NYU does NOT provide their adjunct faculty with family leave – paid or unpaid. We are beginning a campaign to win this important benefit for adjunct faculty at NYU, but we need YOUR help. Please fill out this short survey to help us understand how lack of access to PFL has impacted you and your family.
Your privacy matters! No name or contact information from the surveys will be shared without your written consent.
Why PFL and why now?
Paid family leave is an important reproductive justice issue – it impacts the ability of workers to exercise reproductive autonomy, and paid parental leave improves health outcomes for new parents recovering from childbirth, as well as health outcomes for newborns. As reproductive justice is subject to increasing attacks on a national scale, there is no reason to wait for our next contract to fight for our members’ rights – NYU can, and should, agree to give our members access to PFL now.
PFL is also an important work-life balance issue, not only for new parents, but for everyone. PFL allows all covered workers to take necessary time away from work to care for sick family members, while maintaining job protection.
The survey will take you no more than 5 minutes to complete.
Please let your union know whether you believe PFL could help you by clicking on this link.
Immigration
Given the transition of leadership in Washington, we find ourselves dealing with a lot of uncertainty. One big issue is immigration, and how the new executive orders may impact our members.
We have gathered numerous resources for our members that you may find helpful. You can find them on our website.
From: 7902 Election Committee
To: 7902 Members
Please be advised that there will be a Special Election on April 8-10 organized by ACT-UAW Local 7902’s Election Committee for the following three Executive Board positions: second Vice President, trustee (2 open positions).
For more information, please join the Election Committee at an informational session on Zoom on February 12, 2025, from 3-4 pm.
Register using this link or contact the Election Committee at electioncommittee.7902@gmail.com.
Here is a list of noteworthy dates. Click on the designated links for details. View our ACT UAW calendar here.
Friday, February 21 (2:00 pm - 4:30 pm)
Joint Council Meeting
Joint Council Meetings are open for Rank and File members (i.e. not on the Joint Council) to observe! Rank and File members need only to register through the Zoom Registration link to receive an observer link to the meeting.
Friday, February 28 (12:30 pm - 1:30 pm)
New Hire Orientation
Join us for an information session where we will welcome you to the union, discuss the contract, your rights, amongst other items.
Tuesday, March 4 and Thursday, March 6
The National Labor Relations Board and Higher Ed Unions during a Trump Presidency
There will be major changes in the Federal government that directly impact higher education, our workplace rights, and unions.
The second Trump presidency holds a lot of uncertainty for advocates of labor unions and academic freedom. Although these issues are not grabbing press attention every day, they will impact our lives and it is critical that we understand how the administration and executive agencies affect our strategies and operations as a union.
This presentation will cover the specifics of the National Labor Relations Board, its structure, some of how it operated under the first Trump Presidency, and how we can expect it to change. Additionally, we will discuss the rights being threatened under the current board and wider Trump administration and how we can move forward as a union and grow our power without a sympathetic Presidential administration.
Friday, February 28 (5:00 - 7:30pm)
NYU Adjuncts Union Social
Come grab a drink and get to know fellow NYU Adjuncts at Vol de Nuit, a bar near the Washington Square Park campus (148 West 4th Street, entrance inside the courtyard; there is no sign!).
Pizza will be provided (vegan option available), and you can purchase beer, wine, and soft drinks at the bar.
Attend to meet colleagues, ask questions, bring up any concerns you have, and learn how to get involved with our union’s organizing efforts. New hires are especially welcome, and we will have union cards to sign if you are not yet a member.
If you can’t join us this time, but want to be involved, please fill out the RSVP form and we will keep you posted about future gatherings.
We hope you will join us! Please pass the invitation along to your colleagues.
If you have something that you would like to share in next month’s newsletter, please send it to mail@actuaw.org by Friday, February 28th at 9am.
Tandon School of Engineering adjunct, Monica Panzarino's essay, (Nip)ulations: The Nipulator Electronic Bra and the Embodiment of the Image Processing Tool, is included in Volume 57, Issue 6 (December 2024) of Leonardo journal, as part of the special section, Histories, Legacies, and Futures of Image-Processing. Published by The MIT Press, Leonardo is the leading international peer-reviewed journal on the use of contemporary science and technology in the arts and music and the application and influence of the arts and humanities on science and technology.
Have you signed your union membership card?
If you haven’t done so, now is the time.
Download the card here, fill out the pdf and add your e-signature in the two designated areas and then email the completed form with your signatures at both the middle and at the bottom of the form to mail@actuaw.org and nyu@actuaw.org.
Note: Your N# can be found on the back of your NYU ID.
If you have any difficulties filling out the pdf, email staff organizer Julia Geiger at jgeiger@actuaw.org.
Union membership is not automatic.
If you are an adjunct or part-time faculty member who works 40+ contact hours per academic year (September 1-August 31), or 75+ contact hours of individual instruction or tutoring during a semester, you are eligible to join the union.
The payment of either union dues or an agency fee is a condition of continued employment at NYU.
