UFWW Note on the 12/03/2020 WWU-UFWW MOU

Across the country, Covid-19 is affecting faculty labor conditions in multiple ways. Faculty organizations and unions have published brief but important studies showing how, as a result of this crisis, faculty labor conditions have deteriorated with the onset of Covid-19. Due to these exceptional circumstances, it is now very difficult to accomplish the essential tasks of teaching, research, and service. This has simultaneously produced numerous professional and personal challenges.

1. Research and scholarship have been drastically disrupted. On campus research continues to be a challenge. Fieldwork faces severe restrictions. Article reviews and publishing are delayed. On-campus research in laboratories has been difficult. Faculty who need to go out of state or out of the country to pursue research have developed some temporary strategies to continue their research, but often have not been able to pursue their work to the same degree and this has resulted in major challenges to productivity. Faculty members who often carry out field work—broadly defined—overseas have not been able to do so. In some disciplines, the publication of articles and/or books are taking longer than usual because either university presses are having hard time finding reviewers or because paper shortage is now part of the process. These factors impact all faculty but, in particular, these conditions have increased stress and anxiety for untenured faculty who are vitally concerned about their ability to make progress toward tenure and promotion.
2. As we know, online teaching will never replace the quality of face-to-face teaching that we do at Western, . Nevertheless, but faculty have worked energetically and swiftly to switch to online teaching in incredibly difficult circumstances. Faculty have taken workshops on how to make online teaching better, they have completely revamped course materials to increase access for students, and they have collaborated with each other to provide the best possible educational experience for students. For many faculty, this switch has doubled their workload and preparation time and has significantly impacted labor conditions.
3. Service responsibilities have not been reduced but in effect increased as faculty are engaged in additional duties to ensure shared governance, academic performance, student needs, and equity and justice goals are protected.

Despite the challenges, we, as faculty, have been pro-active and responsive to the current crisis. UFWW has worked with the administration in order to address the needs and concerns of students, focusing on the university’s central mission. As part of this effort, UFWW and the administration have signed a new MOU for Winter and Spring 2021. It is also important to remind faculty of previous MOUs, and, in particular, the fact that all current probationary faculty members will receive a one-year extension to their original tenure review date due to COVID-19.

UFWW Recommendation for Department Evaluation Plans

We value protecting our faculty’s eligibility to go up for promotion and review on the timeline they envisioned before COVID. In this spirit, some department across campus have already produced addendums to their Department Evaluation Plans (DEPs). UFWW strongly encourages departments to assess their current unit evaluation plans to account for the challenges of teaching, research, and service within the context of the COVID pandemic.

Please let us know if you have any questions

Blanca Aranda Gómez García

Josh Cerretti

Kristen Drickey

Ricardo López-Pedreros

Vicki Hsueh

Nabil Kamel

Lysa Rivera

Mark Springer

Theresa Warburton

UFWW, Union Exec

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