Dear Vlogƽ Adjunct Faculty,
Back in 2019 Vlogƽ recognized the need to increase part time adjunct salaries and proceeded to implement an unprecedented 35% raise in part due to the transition of students from the College of New Rochelle. This also happened to coincide with a vote among Mercy adjuncts to join a labor union.
In ongoing contract negotiations, the union now wishes to ignore the 35% pay increase by simply characterizing it as part of the “the status quo”. Rather than acknowledging that the 35% increase brought the part time adjuncts to a fair and competitive market rate, to which the College has proposed to add annual cost of living increases, the union’s leadership has elected to treat this as a base to which substantial additional pay increases must be added. This posture is neither fair nor reasonable and is simply calculated to drag out the negotiations.
We cherish our faculty and believe the current rates offered for our part time adjunct faculty are on par with peer institutions in our region. Yet the SEIU demands salary rates paid by wealthy institutions such as Fordham University—a school whose tuition rate is almost triple that of Mercy’s $19,000 per year. To me, this shows that they are more interested in creating press for their organization rather than being serious about finalizing a contract with the College and for the good of their members.
I want to also clarify two points related to continuous employment and professional development. Mercy, like all institutions of higher education, is focused on providing students with courses needed to fulfill their requirements, in the order in which they are needed. Based on this need, course demand fluctuates term to term and so does the number of adjuncts the College needs. Many part time Mercy adjuncts have been consistently offered assignments for many years as a result of their exceptional work and dedication to students. In addition, Mercy has already addressed the concerns about professional development with SEIU and adjunct representatives and previously proposed establishing a dedicated professional development adjunct fund related to their teaching.
Mercy is not anti-union and has a longstanding cordial relationship with another union that represents many of our non-faculty staff. The College is eager to continue negotiations with SEIU and come to an understanding about a fair salary as well as an appropriate annual increase to protect our adjuncts from inflation among others. Unfortunately, for now SEIU and our adjuncts’ bargaining representatives have stalled negotiations by refusing to provide any counterproposals to the ones Mercy submitted on May 3rd(after which the SEIU walked out for the summer), and then proceeded to ignore further counter-proposals by Mercy on August 27th. This is unfortunate and counterproductive.
The College will continue to operate in good faith to reach a reasonable agreement and looks forward to when SEIU resumes negotiations. During this time Mercy remains focused on its mission of providing an exceptional education to its diverse and deserving students and on continuing to provide one the most affordable tuitions in the region.
Sincerely,
Tim Hall
President