Tentative Agreement on AAUP-AFT Contract

August 24, 2007

Members of the University Community:

We are pleased to announce that the university and the AAUP-AFT have reached a tentative agreement, subject to membership ratification, on a new four-year contract. This historic agreement reflects unprecedented cooperation between the union and the administration in focusing on advancing the university's excellence in teaching, research, and service. We appreciate and applaud the efforts of our colleagues on both sides of the table in developing this very forward-looking contract.

The contract provides for faculty salary increases in the form of regular and merit-based increases of 3 percent, 3 percent, 5.5 percent, and 5.5 percent. We are particularly pleased that the contract provides for the establishment of a $12 million Faculty Development Fund, which will help us hire additional full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty.

Reflecting our mutual desire to advance Rutgers' excellence and competitiveness with other outstanding universities, we agreed that the stipends paid to teaching assistants and graduate assistants will increase by 8 percent in each year of the contract.

The tentative agreement also includes significant improvements in child care leave, health care coverage for part-time TAs and GAs, expedited grievance procedures, a new faculty compensation plan, and other improvements that will aid in the recruitment of outstanding faculty and graduate students.

The union also has agreed to the same contributions for health benefits that other unions at the state level have agreed to as part of Governor Corzine's effort to restructure the State Health Benefits Program.

We anticipate the ratification of this agreement by the union membership and look forward to carrying out its terms over the next four years.

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Lisa C. Klein
President
Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT