Santa Clara Adjunct and Lecturer Union Approves First-Ever Contract

The Santa Clara Adjunct and Lecturer Union (SALU) approved the first-ever contract between the union and the Santa Clara administration on May 16. The vote to approve was near-unanimous, with 97.8% of union members voting in favor of the pact.

Photo Source: Dylan Ryu

SALU is part of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021, the Northern California chapter of SEIU, which also represents employees of other schools, nonprofits and local governments in the area, according to their website.

The contract’s ratification marks the end of a 16-month negotiation process between SALU and the Santa Clara administration. The length of negotiations was due, at least in part, to the unique challenges posed by developing a union’s first contract.

“Writing a first contract is really complex because you really have to think of all of the issues that you might need to resolve related to working conditions,” said Sandy Piderit, a lecturer in the management department and a member of the SALU Contract Action Team since 2022.

One of the most significant stipulations of the contract will remove the term “adjunct” from faculty titles. Quarterly adjunct lecturers will be known as quarterly lecturers and academic year adjunct lecturers as lecturers. Additionally, renewable term lecturers will be titled assistant teaching professors if they have served less than six years, and teaching professors if they have served longer than six years.

“Instead of calling people the old ‘renewable term lecturer,’ we're going to be assistant teaching professors, associate teaching professors or full teaching professors,” Piderit said. “That, I think, is a really meaningful step forward in terms of showing that our contributions to the university are just as important as the contributions of tenured and tenure track faculty.”

Thirty new multi-year faculty positions are also being created as a result of the contract.

“We have a large number of members of our union who have been employed by the university for six or eight or 10 years, but their contracts are still formally up for renewal every spring,” Piderit said. “The fact that the university was willing to make a commitment to increasing the number of people who are going to be in three-year or longer contracts signals to me a real understanding that we all benefit when professors don't have to worry about whether they're still going to be here in the fall.”

Lecturer compensation, one of the most controversial issues during negotiations, will increase under the new contract. In addition to one-time bonuses paid to lecturers thirty days after the contract’s ratification, all bargaining unit members will see their pay increase by 6.25% on Sept. 1. Finally, the minimum salary for faculty members teaching at least seven courses during an academic year will increase to $72,000, and to $93,000 for those teaching at least nine courses.

Natalie Linnell, a senior lecturer in Santa Clara’s mathematics and computer science department, has been involved with the unionization efforts since a few months after they began in 2017. In 2022, Linnell was elected to the union’s bargaining team. She decided to run due to her years of experience in the unionization efforts and also to ensure that faculty from all corners of campus would have a part in the negotiations.

“I'm really passionate about trying to make sure that everyone's voices are represented,” Linnell said. “As a computer scientist, there weren't any other STEM people really involved, so that was something that I thought I could bring.”

In addition to the compensation and title changes outlined in the contract, Linnell referenced a requirement that the university consult faculty before making “material changes” to their working conditions. 

“For instance, during the pandemic, during lockdown, the university cut our retirement contributions in half,” Linnell said. “Those are things they would have to consult the union about now.” 

Following the ratification of the contract, the Santa Clara administration–according to both the university itself and union members–has taken a collaborative approach to implementing the contract. 

“I do appreciate that the administration has really taken an attitude of trying to work together to whatever extent possible,” Linnell said.

A committee composed of both union members and administrators will soon be formed. The committee will meet quarterly and may be able to informally resolve some issues that arise, rather than forcing every issue to be resolved through formal union channels, according to Linnell.

“We are pleased to have reached a mutually agreeable contract with the SEIU that supports our valued colleagues and advances the work of our university,” the university said in a statement emailed to The Santa Clara. “As part of our agreement, representatives from the faculty union and the administration will form a labor-management committee that will meet quarterly. In the meantime, we continue to work with the faculty bargaining team and the union to schedule initial implementation steps of the agreement.”

Now that the union’s foundational contract has been approved, further negotiations will be much smaller in scope, which will allow negotiators to spend more time on fewer issues. 

“Future contract negotiations will be much less complicated. We can really focus on a smaller number of issues, and I think that that's going to be really positive,” Linnell said. “That was one of the big challenges here. It was hard to organize people when there were so many things that we had to deal with.”

Next steps for the union include electing officers and determining their organizational structure.

According to the university, the Provost’s Office has been preparing for several months to implement the agreement in partnership with Santa Clara’s various schools and departments. The contract is effective immediately upon the signature of President Julie Sullivan.