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June 20, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
Earlier this week, St. John's AAUP and FA virtually hosted Howard Bunsis from Eastern Michigan State University. Howard is a long-time leader in the AAUP, as well as a faculty member in Accounting at EMSU. He has a special role with the AAUP in providing chapters with detailed financial analysis of their universities as they engage in bargaining. Howard provided a detailed presentation of the current state of St. John’s University’s finances. All of the data that Howard uses for his analysis is open source, publicly available and, in nearly all cases, self-reported by the University. A copy of the slides from the presentation are available here:
Bunsis Financial Analysis St Johns 2025 updated for 2024 NCAA.pptx
The financial analysis reinforces faculty understanding of the University’s position. Although there are significant challenges facing higher education in general, and St. John’s in particular, the University has the necessary resources to meet these challenges. In fact, the best way to meet the challenges of the moment is to strengthen and support the researchers and educators that most directly serve St. John's students. Faculty are the frontlines of the university. We are in the classrooms and labs teaching students, in libraries, archives, and in the field researching, hunched over laptops writing and editing, and representing St. John’s at conferences, seminars and workshops. Using the University’s resources to support faculty is what builds student engagement and academic excellence. Strong stewardship of University resources means investing in the areas that have the best and most sustainable returns. That means stewardship of faculty (not hedge funds)!
We are all currently in the midst of contract negotiations with the University for the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. At the moment, bargaining is stalled as the University responds to the Unions' submission of an arbitration request regarding the issue of miscalculation of health insurance premiums. Initially the University demanded that the Unions drop our arbitration before they would make a counteroffer to our initial proposals regarding health insurance and full-time and part-time compensation. They have since indicated that they would return to negotiations if we put the arbitration in abeyance. The SJU-AAUP and FA are consulting with our legal counsel to determine the best course of action.
Your and your faculty colleagues all want St. John’s to succeed and be the best University it can be. We all believe in the mission of St. John’s, we believe that our students deserve the best possible education, and we know that, with support from the University, we can help our students achieve great things.
Best,
Fred Cocozzelli
SJU-AAUP Chapter President
PS. Here are some key slides from the presentation that offer insight into the university's financial ability to responsibly steward its commitments to faculty working conditions and student learning, and the need to do so: healthy financial prospects, a recent decrease in the share of the budget that supports instruction, lower faculty salaries compared to peer institutions, and increased reliance on contingent faculty to teach our students. Stay tuned for a member survey that asks what you think about how bargaining is going!
September 1, 2024
Dear St. John's faculty colleagues,
Happy Labor Day! It's time for your annual renewal as a St. John's AAUP chapter member. Not a member yet? Then it's time to join.
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2023-2024 was a very productive year for our chapter. In August 2023, we signed a new contract with (1) meaningful raises for full-time faculty, (2) historic adjunct faculty stipend increases, and (3) a health care premium reimbursement. In the year since then, we received two grants from the national AAUP/AFT, expanded communications, held public education sessions on health care, and hosted contract issue listening sessions for all faculty in May 2024.
When we negotiate a new contract with the University this coming year, your support will make our voice at the table stronger. Please join or renew, and also consider becoming involved in our union. Start by joining us at our first AAUP General Meeting online on Monday, September 23 from 1:50-3:15.
To renew or update your chapter membership, please log in to your profile at the link above, log in with your email and password and follow the suggested actions on your profile screen. If you do not know your password, you can reset it on that page by clicking "Forget Password".
Please be sure to check your profile where it says "Membership Level" to see that you are choosing the correct rate.
For full-time faculty, we ask that you choose the membership level according to your appropriate rank. If you feel the need to contribute less, we ask that you choose the Base Contribution.
Current membership rates are:
$30 - Adjunct Faculty
$60 - Assistant Professor/Instructor (Base Contribution)
$80 - Associate Professor (Suggested)
$100 - Full Professor (Suggested)
If you have just renewed, or your chapter membership is current, then you should not have received this message. In that case, please contact rosenthd@stjohns.edu to get it straightened out.
Our ability to fight for a fair contract relies on strong membership. Joining the SJU-AAUP isn't just about paying dues, it's even more about showing the administration that we stand united as a faculty. Scholarship & Solidarity!
Sincerely,
Your St. John’s AAUP Chapter
June 21, 2024
December 29, 2023
September 1, 2023
Congratulations to all St. John's faculty! We signed our 2023-2025 contract on August 16, 2023.
See the full Collective Bargaining Agreement here (CBA 2022-25) and the revised Statutes here (July 2023). Both passed by a vote of almost 9 to 1 (509 yes votes; 57 no).
The university is then required to pay retroactive payments for last year‘s raises within 45 days, by the Oct 1st pay period at the latest, but the university will likely do so before. Thanks for your support!
Adjunct Health Assistance
The administration continues to provide annual health insurance assistance to adjuncts who teach regularly at St. John's. Payments may be up to $1500 a year. Faculty must apply by January 31st each year. Here is a link to the short application form, which must be notarized. Contact Mirian Cepeda (cepedam@stjohns.edu) at Human Resources if you have questions---it is an easy process to apply.
Here are the qualifications, according to the Human Resources office:
(1) The adjunct must be a “continuing adjunct” as defined in the contract—see “Appendix C”, basically having taught two consecutive semesters.
(2) They must complete a notarized certification no later than January 31 of the year following the year they request the reimbursement. So if they are applying for academic year 2023-24 they have until January 31, 2024 to apply. The payment should be made by the next pay period, February 15.
Graduate Student Adjunct Health Benefits:
Graduate students are eligible for health care through the university at around $3600 a year---the premium varies from year to year: http://www.stjohns.edu/admission-aid/tuition-and-financial-aid/tuition/health-insurance.
Anti-Racism
On June 8, 2020 both faculty unions received a petition signed by nearly 250 faculty, encouraging them to develop more anti-racist practices and policies. Our Executive Council, many of whom signed the original petition, responded with a pledge to improve SJU-AAUP Inc. as an anti-racist organization. On November 10, 2020, SJU-AAUP Inc. adopted a new Constitution which doubled the number of college representatives to the Council; added adjunct, contract, and equity representatives to the Council; and codified an online election system and online voting processes for chapter meetings.
What Does a Faculty Union Do?
Our faculty union bargains with the administration for wages, benefits, and working conditions as codified in the contract (formally called, "the collective bargaining agreement," or CBA; and the University Statutes, which also specify many faculty working conditions). The CBA is typically negotiated every 2-3 years, depending on the financial outlook of our school.
Who Is In Our Bargaining Unit?
All teaching faculty at St. John's are part of our bargaining unit (full-time and adjunct), with the exception of faculty administrators like Asst/Assoc/Deans or Vice/Provosts, and graduate students who teach through SJU fellowships. Graduate students who simply teach as adjuncts ARE part of the unit, however. Finally, administrators who teach classes are classified as outside our unit because of their administrative roles and titles.
Our Chapter's History
The St. John's University local chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Inc., is the oldest faculty union on campus, first organized in 1961. Its work led to the historic St. John's University faculty contract of 1970-2: for the first time at a private college in the United States, faculty collectively bargained for their employment conditions. Because of political turmoil during the early years of unionization at St. John's, the bargaining unit at the university is split equally between two faculty unions: the local SJU-AAUP Inc. chapter, and the Faculty Association (FA). Faculty members may join one, both, or neither, but all faculty vote on the contract after it has been negotiated for them by representatives from our two unions. Although the reasons for having two distinct unions are now simply a matter of SJU's history, rulings of the National Labor Relations Board since the 1980 Yeshiva case makes the two-union structure an important precedent.
How to Join our AAUP Union Chapter
Suggested membership rates
$30 - Adjunct Faculty (suggested)
$60 - Instructor / Assistant Professor (base contribution)
$80 - Associate Professor (suggested)
$100 - Full Professor (suggested)
St. John's local AAUP members support these essential functions:
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Maintaining our website
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Running elections and contract votes
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Enforcing the contract
Our AAUP chapter will fight for you either way. Join us today so we can fight harder together!