Higher Education Faculty & Support Staff

Note – updates on the impact of the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak on college and university faculty and support staff and members of higher education local unions will be linked here. *

Click here for our “Q&A” on quarantine and illness policies (Aug. 25, 2020).

Click here for AFT’s online forum with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director (Jul. 31, 2020).

Click here for results of our national union’s survey on reopening safely (Jul. 31, 2020).

Click here for our legal counsel’s memo on COVID-19 and employment rights (Jul. 27, 2020).

Click here for our national union’s webinar on safely “reopening” (Jun. 3, 2020).

Click here to report COVID-19 pandemic issues of concern/hardships impacting you (Mar. 23, 2020).

Click here for our national union’s COVID-19 resources for higher education faculty and staff (Mar. 23, 2020).

Click here for the federal disease control agency website’s higher education COVID-19 resources page (Mar. 19, 2020).

Faculty and support staff at several public and private higher education institutions across Connecticut are members of AFT Connecticut-affiliated unions. These educators hold avariety of positions in their institutions, ranging from full-time, part-time or adjunct faculty to research, clerical, administrative, security staff and more. Though each may have unique concerns and needs, they share goals of promoting academic and institutional excellence and securing the rights and respect they deserve as higher education professionals.

Click here to learn more about the “Higher Ed, Not Debt” campaign.

Click here for our national union’s campaign to unite contingent faculty, graduate and undergraduate workers.

* updates for members of the unions in the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) will be linked to our main ‘Public Employees’ page.

Higher Education News

  • “Ensuring a Brighter Future” through Equitable Investments

    Despite a record state budget surplus, Governor Ned Lamont’s proposed fiscal blueprint calls for destructive cuts to public higher education. Louise Williams (middle, in photo below), the president of our affiliated CSU-AAUP in a recently published opinion piece warned of the consequences; faculty and staff layoffs, student tuition hikes, program cuts and campus closures. She…

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  • Securing ‘Hero Pay’ for Unprecedented Service

    Unions in the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), which includes ten AFT Connecticut-affiliated locals, in the spring of 2022 began negotiations with agency chiefs over pandemic hazard pay. Labor leaders had previously agreed to set the issue aside for future resolution in talks that eventually produced agreements for four-year contracts covering more than 40,000…

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  • Advocating for those Who Have Been Historically Under-Resourced

    Effectively teaching and supporting students, whether in PreK-12 or higher education settings, requires the entire school or college community to embrace a “whole child” approach. That is one of the central themes of a recently published op-ed by Christopher Trombly (speaking in photo, below), a member of our recently affiliated CSU-AAUP. It drives his demands…

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