Harvard Academic Workers Union Releases Report on “Demoralizing and Humiliating” Time Limits | News

According to a report released Wednesday by Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers, more than 90 percent of the 341 students, alumni and faculty surveyed in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences called for the time limits to be eliminated.

At a press conference on Wednesday, HAW-UAW presented the results of its survey that compiled the impact of time restrictions not only on non-tenure-track faculty, but also on their students and colleagues.

Under the time caps policy, non-tenure-track faculty – college fellows, lecturers and lecturers – in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences are limited to a maximum of two, three and eight years, depending on the position. Fighting politics is a top priority for the HAW-UAW, which is negotiating its first contract with university representatives after unionizing in April.

The HAW-UAW report found that time limits have a “negative impact” on working conditions, education and diversity in departments.

According to the survey, 92 percent of teachers who responded to the survey said the policy had affected their career planning and 89 percent reported detrimental effects on their mental health.

Lead faculty who responded to the survey and are not bound by time limits also opposed the policy. The majority of respondents said time constraints made it difficult to build departmental communities and collaborate with workers with limited work hours.

Additionally, 42 percent of Harvard students and alumni surveyed reported “losing teachers and mentors due to time limit policies.”

“This is not a small thing that affects a small number of people,” history professor Kirsten A. Weld said at the news conference. “That’s the core of the pedagogy we offer at this university.”

About 20 people – mostly HAW-UAW members – took part in the event. Lecturers, students and a Ladder faculty member spoke at the afternoon press conference, shared experiences and called for action.

“It’s a demoralizing and demeaning system,” said Phyllis Thompson, senior lecturer in women, gender and sexuality. “Harvard is explicitly founded on the idea of ​​excellence. This system explicitly contradicts any notion of excellence.”

Harvard spokesman Jason A. Newton referred to an earlier statement from the university.

“We welcome the Union’s desire to suspend a policy with which it does not agree,” the statement said. “However, the University will not waive long-standing policies as part of a stand-alone proposal until the parties have fully negotiated and considered the issue of term limits in the full context of this initial contract between the parties.”

The news conference is the latest in a series of pushes by the union to eliminate time restrictions. Three weeks ago, HAW-UAW organizers released a petition calling for the system to be abolished after university officials rejected a HAW proposal to impose a moratorium on time limits in contract negotiations. According to organizers, Wednesday’s press conference was also motivated by Harvard’s rejection of the moratorium.

Jules Riegel, senior lecturer in history and literature, said they “hope it brings attention to this issue.”

“We hope it helps people understand how critical the missions are and that it jumpstarts that process for us,” Riegel said.

According to Sara M. Feldman, a HAW-UAW bargaining committee member and Yiddish instructor, a union working group prepared the report to address an apparent lack of data on time limit policies.

“Any justification for time caps is not based on research,” Feldman said. “There is no research to support them, so we tried to fill in the gaps.”

Feldman said the union had not originally intended to make the report public, but that plan “fell through.”

“We didn’t want to have to publish it,” Feldman said. “Our hope was that we could simply present the data to the administration before negotiations even took place, and that the data, which is obviously compelling, would allow us to change this policy without causing embarrassment to the institution. “

“We gave Harvard every opportunity to quietly resolve this issue and they refused,” Feldman said.

– Staff writer Aran Sonnad-Joshi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @asonnadjoshi.

—Staff writer Sheerea X. Yu can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @_shuhree_.