Beginning on September 11, 2015, the faculty entered contract negotiations with the UConn Board of Trustees. Educators, represented by the UConn-AAUP presented proposals to maintain and strengthen the overall educational environment. The Administration submitted proposals that will profoundly undermine the strong tradition of shared governance that helped launch UCONN to become one of the nation’s top universities. The Administration seeks, through its proposals, to redefine the University as the Board of Trustees, the President, the Provosts, and the Deans, and will effectively silence students and faculty in academic decision-making.

Faculty proposals seek to protect the bedrock values of public higher education including academic freedom, an atmosphere free of discrimination. The UConn-AAUP also seeks to strengthen UConn by maintaining competitive compensation, gender pay equity and a strong voice for faculty that facilitates UConn’s ability to recruit and retain world-class faculty.

We believe in the strong and robust voice of educators in academic operations and priority setting and maintain that collective bargaining in good faith is the most effective means to protect and enhance faculty governance. A University is only as strong as its educators and when the faculty is able to collectively bargaining for better academic working conditions, educators, students, and the entire UConn community benefits.

We the undersigned support UConn-AAUP’s proposals to protect and strengthen the core values of higher education. We call upon the Board of Trustees to support a contract that improves faculty working conditions and supporting the faculty voice in academic decision-making. The UConn-AAUP is committed to fostering a strong academic environment that builds on our shared success.