Two years of negotiations and 40 bargaining sessions culminated in a quiet celebration on the second floor of Skidmore’s dining hall.
Nearly 180 non-tenure-track faculty voted to unionize with Local SEIU200United in 2022. Now representative Sean Collins is hand counting 102 ballots — all in favor of the contract.
Biology Instructor Jeremy Sloane recently became a parent. One of his favorite parts of the contract is guaranteed 12 weeks paid parental leave.
“People don’t have to worry about the timing of when they start a family. Whenever they start a family, they can rely on Skidmore providing a full semester of pay and benefits so that they can devote themselves and their whole selves to their families,” said Sloane.
Another one of the union’s demands met in the contract is a three-tiered promotional system, whereas previously faculty at the private college in Saratoga Springs on short-term contracts had limited opportunities for promotion.
“Everybody who’s on a renewable contract, who will now be most of us, now has the ability to go up for promotion twice instead of just once in our career. That was a huge ask from members of our bargaining unit and it’s something we’ve been able to secure. Likewise, most of us now instead of being on serial terminal contracts will be on renewable contracts of longer durations,” said Sloane.
English Professor and Skidmore Faculty Forward Bargaining Committee member Ruth McAdams had been on one-year contracts since she began teaching at the school eight years ago. She’ll now be on a six-year renewable contract.
“Skidmore is now going to be required to use renewable contracts when there is a long-term instructional need. And this has been really important for us who have been strung along on short-term contracts for many years running. To know that if we still do our jobs well and if there’s a need for our teaching that we’ll have a pathway to renewal, to job security, it is really incredibly meaningful to me,” said McAdams.
The contract also establishes a new process and criteria for evaluating non-tenure-track faculty, a new grievance procedure, and up to $500 a semester for professional development for full-time faculty.
New salary minimums have also been set. For the 2025-2026 academic year, associate teaching professors, associate librarians, as well as senior artists- and writers-in-residence will have a salary floor of $79,835.
Collins said he hopes the perseverance of the faculty on Skidmore’s campus can serve as an inspiration for colleges around the state.
“At the end of the day, they reached and ratified an incredible agreement that is going to provide real improvements in their job security, in their financial security. The paid parental leave benefit that they secured not only for themselves but for other faculty outside the union is a huge good that is not only to their benefit but to the entire campus community. Bringing it back to proof of a good example, I think this is a testament of what can be done through collective action, collective bargaining,” said Collins.
The contract is retroactive through June 2024 and runs through May 2027.
