Columbia College part-time faculty union ratifies new contract with some cut classes restored
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Columbia College part-time faculty union ratifies new contract with some cut classes restored
Zareen Syed, Chicago Tribune
Updated 5 min read
The Columbia College Faculty Union, which represents nearly 600 part-time faculty members at the South Loop school, announced Thursday that its members had approved a new four-year contract ending the union’s historic 49-day strike.
Since Oct. 30, there have been dozens of rounds of negotiations between Columbia and the union, known as CFAC, culminating in an agreement that restores many spring semester courses that were scheduled to be eliminated and makes improvements in job security and adds a health care benefit for many adjuncts, who teach nearly 70% of courses on campus.
More than 85% of CFAC’s 584 members participated in the vote, with 99.7% of them voting yes to the agreement reached on Sunday.
“We’re still trying to understand exactly what we’ve been through and I’m sure we’ll be dealing with that for days to come, but honestly ... it is historic,” said CFAC President Diana Vallera, a photography professor. “I couldn’t be happier — it was about the quality of education, it was about our students that matter, it was about the working class. It really showed that by working together we are just stronger.”
In a statement, Columbia College President and CEO Kwang-Wu Kim said the agreement allows the upcoming January term and spring semester instruction to proceed with students and all faculty members reunited.
“The new contract reflects the intention of both parties to create more space for input and consultation at various levels, signaling our intent to move forward with a renewed sense of collaboration,” Kim said in a statement co-signed by Vallera. “Moving forward, we hope that people across the campus will continue in the respectful exchange of perspectives that can shape new and imaginative solutions to the challenges of this moment.”
Vallera said she believes the contract is the first in the country to guarantee instruction for part-time faculty members. The contract allocates adjunct faculty instruction for a minimum of 650 courses starting next fall, which Vallera said is directly connected to academic freedom.
“Right now what the contract states is that even in the worst-case scenario, if the administration did keep moving in the direction of cutting courses and doing things like that, they wouldn’t just be able to discard or treat us less than or not value us,” Vallera explained. “We are an integral part now. They have to be committed to us. That’s key.”
The strike kept part-time faculty members out of their classrooms for nearly two months while department chairs and some full-time faculty members took over those classes. Some classes were at a standstill without an instructor until the semester ended Saturday, and some had shifted to an asynchronous model.
“It’s hard to get any meaningful criticism or instruction on writing in an asynchronous class,” said Damian Cutler, 26, a first-year student in Columbia’s film department. “You don’t actually have any time with the instructor. It’s just like, write an essay and I’ll give you a little bit of notes.”
Cutler said he and other students who joined their professors on the picket lines repeatedly stressed concerns over increased class sizes, which he said contradict the essence of a school that promotes collaboration and experiential learning.
“My cinematic storytelling class had 20-some students and it was one of the classes that became impacted by the strike and later substituted,” Cutler said. “We’d have assignments where we have to write something or create a pitch. And there wasn’t enough time so we would have to go off and present in groups because the teacher didn’t necessarily have the opportunity to listen to each one of them fully and be able to give any meaningful criticism as quickly or as effectively as they could have with a small class size.”
Cutler, who recently moved to Chicago from a small town in Wisconsin, said he was happy to hear of a provision in the new contract that would create a Class Size Committee.
Lisa Formosa-Parmigiano, CFAC vice president and adjunct faculty member in cinema and television arts, said the committee will center the voices of the part-time faculty, students and education experts to evaluate proposed administrative changes to course capacity and determine appropriate support, giving the adjunct faculty formal input into the decision-making process.
“It’s a really important step that allows for faculty and student input,” Formosa-Parmigiano said. “So as far as the courses that will be increased in size this spring, after one semester of implementing the class at a larger size, the faculty member has a right to go to the department chair with representatives from the union as well and to express what is working and what isn’t working.”
Weeks before the fall semester began, Columbia administrators cut 53 course sections for that semester and eliminated 317 course sections for the spring semester. The move heightened tensions between CFAC and the school, especially because the courses are typically taught by part-time faculty members.
“I think what has made Columbia special is that classes are taught by working professionals, so when I originally heard what was happening and there was a decrease in those working professionals actually teaching classes, it angered me as an alum and as a faculty member,” said Justin Kulovsek, an adjunct faculty member in the business and entrepreneurship department and a digital media strategist and marketer. “In my case, I deal with multimillion-dollar media and marketing budgets, so me walking in and saying, ‘This is how we really do things,’ is so great for students to see a real world example (of something they’re studying).”
According to the contract, Columbia agreed to restore a minimum of 50 course sections to the spring 2024 semester across a range of disciplines, including classes in literature, design, dance, theater, communications, cinema and television arts, foreign languages, history and business.
Kulovsek said unfortunately the move didn’t affect him.
“But I’m very happy for those professors who are back in a class next semester,” he said. “I think that we can continue now to heal the Columbia community.”
