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Columbia College Chicago and its union representing part-time faculty members reached a tentative agreement Sunday, possibly ending an unusually long contingent faculty strike, which began Oct. 30.
Diana Vallera, president of the Columbia College Faculty Union, which is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that members will vote through Wednesday on whether to accept the deal.
Neither side provided details Monday about what's in the proposal, saying they were waiting until members voted. In a news release, Vallera said the deal “addresses many of our concerns on behalf of our students and adjunct faculty.”
“This agreement makes important progress towards ensuring that Columbia puts students’ educational needs and faculty equity above profits, but there is still much work to do,” Vallera said. “The contract provisions will ensure transparency and provide paths for collaboration with the administration moving forward so that we can work together to help Columbia do better."
Lambrini Lukidis, a college spokesperson, emailed one paragraph in response to Inside Higher Ed’s requests for details and interviews. “Should the agreement be ratified, the J-Term [January term] and spring semesters would proceed as normal,” Lukidis wrote. “We await the outcome of the vote by union members to share further information.”
The college, citing continued annual deficits, is increasing class sizes and cutting class sections, threatening part-time faculty jobs. A union spokeswoman has said nearly 73 percent of the college’s 805 faculty members are part-time.
Lukidis has said the college canceled 34 sections this fall, almost all “substantially under-enrolled,” and had planned to nix 317 sections in spring 2024 that had run in spring 2023. The union struck, in part, to push back against these section cuts. The college has, amid the strike, floated bringing that 317 number down to 267.
