Núria was elected to the BCF-UAW Bargaining Committee as a Term Associate Professor in Economics. After two years as an adjunct and two years as a term faculty member, Núria is moving on to a position at Stony Brook University. We congratulate her on her new job but are sorry to lose her voice on our Bargaining Committee. Núria would have stayed at Barnard (and on our committee) had the administration been willing to offer her a multi-year re-appointment. Her department would also have preferred that she stay. Infuriatingly, the Barnard administration would grant only a one-year re-appointment and that only after a typically opaque drawn-out process. Given Stony Brook’s offer of a three-year appointment with the likelihood of continued re-appointments versus the insecurity of a one-year appointment at Barnard, Núria felt compelled to accept the Stony Brook offer.

Many term faculty face a similar dilemma. This is not only detrimental to the affected faculty but hurts departments and students who need experienced faculty to teach and mentor. We have made proposals in negotiations to rectify this unfair situation but to date, the administration has rejected all of them. We are committed to bargaining a contract that recognizes that, as Núria often said, contingent faculty are not contingent to the operation of the college: we are central to Barnard’s pedagogical mission and deserve to be treated accordingly.

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