The COLA for ALL campaign arises from work done on behalf of the faculty by the Committee on Conditions of Teaching (CCT) in the 2022-23 academic year, as designated in our bylaws.

On September 22, 2023, members of the SLC AAUP Executive Committee met with President Cristle Collins Judd, conveying to her the chapter’s call to commit to a policy that assumes an annual percentage increase equal to or greater than the annual Federal Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for all faculty. As evident in proposals brought by CCT in December 2023, we emphasized and continue to assert that additional measures will be needed to address the compression, suppression, and stagnation in faculty salaries. Nevertheless COLA for all would form the only stable foundation for any effective compensation policy to prevent further loss of salary values. We have repeatedly stated that though we can only speak with regard to faculty, we support COLA for all employees on campus. See COLA for ALL FAQ below.

Cristle encouraged us to discuss our proposal with colleagues. To do so, we launched the COLA FOR ALL Petition. On December 8, chapter members delivered to Cristle the petition below signed by 168 faculty members, requesting that she share it with the Board of Trustees.  The petition was shared at that time with both CCT and the Planning and Priorities Committee (PPC).

On December 21, 2024, emails to the entire faculty from Cristle and from Meryl Rosen, President of the Board of Trustees, stated that the process of drafting a compensation policy had been taken up by a subcommittee of the PPC, and that plans would be shared with the broader campus community in early spring, with the expectation that the Board would receive recommendations from the President to be discussed at the Board of Trustees meeting in March 2024.

Following a brief presentation by PPC at the faculty/staff meeting on January 30, 2024, the draft compensation policy and associated documents were shared with all SLC staff and faculty. An open comments period was proposed by PPC, which did not provide opportunities for dialogue. Faculty requested and were given time for discussion of the policy at the faculty meeting on February 20, 2024, where we succeeded in bringing a motion to include COLA for All in the compensation policy specifically to mitigate further decline in salary values. Once again, as demonstrated previously and consistently since CCT’s December 2022 faculty meeting presentation on salary inequities through polls, letters and petition, polling in the most recent meeting resulted in a majority in favor of including COLA for All in the compensation policy goals.

If you haven’t gotten a COLA button yet and want to show your support, write to us at slc.aaup@gmail.com and we’ll arrange to get it to you.  It’s been confirmed that the Board-approved compensation policy not only excludes guest faculty, it fails to establish a floor (or minimum) salary for individuals in each of the tenure-line tiers.   For these reasons, the COLA for All campaign continues.

https://sarahlawrencephoenix.com/campus/slc-faculty-voice-a-need-for-change