December 4 Update

Today’s half-day session was entirely devoted to negotiation on the Academic Freedom article. We began by introducing a whole new proposal, in response to the one the Administration team introduced last session. Our proposal was highly abbreviated and focused on academic freedom in research, teaching, extramural expression, and participation in shared governance. After a lengthy caucus, the administration team brought back a proposal that they characterized as a synthesis of their previous proposal and our new one. After discussion on points of consensus and revisions to the language, we moved to caucus where we drafted a counterproposal that improved the clarity of the language and re-introduced concerns they had omitted, particularly around the exercise of academic freedom in matters of shared governance and the ability to criticize University policies without fear of disciplinary action. The day concluded with a brief discussion of our counterproposal. Both sides agreed that the day was productive and we are close to agreement on an Academic Freedom article, one which we believe should be among the most important articles in the contract.

Our next bargaining session will be Wednesday, December 17, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

For more specific information regarding the proposals and tentative agreements, please see the proposal tracker at https://www.uaou.org/bargaining-tracker