From the FWC Executive Committee
Hello everyone,
As we wait to hear the shape of negotiations on our salary and benefits and get ready to leap into action to support our Faculty Salary Committee, all we know so far is that our healthcare costs will increase next year, yet so far we don't know anything about compensation. Our FWC Vice President Gwen Alphonso shared a stats from the 2025 Campus Climate survey that seem particularly important:
43% of Fairfield faculty felt overburdened with service responsibilities
Job creep takes many forms, including additional expectations such as running programs with no administrative support, designing promotions and social media for our programs, being responsible for program recruitment, accounting and budgeting, and writing assessment and accreditation reports. We are serving more students and adding more to the bottom line without an increase in support.
More Work + Less Help=Decreased Compensation
To understand more about how these issues are affecting faculty, the FWC EC will be doing a brief in-person survey on our healthcare and job creep that you can fill out on Feb. 28 during the General Faculty Meeting.
After that meeting, we'll hold a short Faculty Welfare Committee meeting on the topic of Faculty Safety and Well-Being on Campus.
A set of connected topics emerged last week during a Meditz faculty meeting: how planning or lack of planning affects faculty well-being, whether it's with regard to parking, student crises and how they affect faculty, safety of our classrooms, health of our buildings on campus, or how faculty might be looped into any official crisis responses that help students. The fact that the campus chapter of Turning Point is holding bi-weekly tabling in the BCC can also be included. While writing a question on a white board such as"Deportations: Yes or No?" and tabling with it near Dunkin' in the BCC (as happened a few weeks ago) might seem to some to be an innocent conversation starter, others--including faculty and students who are not citizens or who have connections to families being targeted by ICE for a range of reasons--can very easily see that the question itself, in the absence of other political tabling on campus, helps to build an environment of intolerance that takes a toll on all of us.
Meanwhile our hospitality workers with UNITE-HERE Local 217, who are on their feet all day keeping students fed, are being offered only $5.50 an hour and $0 retirement, according to an article in The Mirror (more below). The workers are contracted out through Aramark, but Fairfield pays Aramark for its services. This is unconscionable, especially considering what students pay in tuition. Sign the petition to support their negotiations!
An FWC member attended a local meeting with Make the Road CT, an immigrant rights' group in Bridgeport, last week, and we will pass on ways to get involved in the coming weeks.
Governor Ned Lamont criticized ICE at State of the State Address, Feb. 4, 2026: "ICE, everywhere you go uninvited, violence follows; go home. We are keeping CT safe without you."
Nominations are open for the Connecticut State Council of AAUP. CSC–-AAUP website. Deadline is March 14, 2026. Officer terms begin June 1, 2026 and end June 1, 2028. CSC-AAUP is soliciting Nominations and Self-nominations for eight CSC–AAUP officers: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and four At-Large Members. More information and duties available here (scroll down to Constitution). To make a nomination, or to self-nominate, please send the candidate's name, discipline, and institutional affiliation to: CSC–AAUP 2026-2028 Nominating Committee c/o CSC-AAUP Conference Office P.O. Box 1597 New Milford, CT 06776. Officer nominations may be emailed to Flo Hatcher, CSC-AAUP Executive Director, at cscaaup@gmail.com Nominees must be active AAUP members in good standing. (AAUP Election Guidance for State Conferences).
Our chapter will have at least one at-large opening on the Executive Committee of the Faculty Welfare Committee, so email me if you'd like to run and want more information!
All the best,
Sonya for the FWC Executive Committee (indigomission@gmail.com)
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Dining Workers Stage Demonstration Demanding Better Wages: Julian Nazario, Feb. 5, The Mirror: "Stags Hospitality workers staged a walkout early Thursday afternoon, demanding higher wages and retirement benefits inside the Tully Dining Commons at around 1:32 p.m., with one employee holding a cardboard reading “No contract, no peace.”
Dunkin, The Stag and Sushi Do workers also held a separate demonstration near their work areas, according to images provided by a student via Instagram.“Fairfield University is aware of the demonstration involving dining services employees who are employed by Aramark, an independent vendor that provides food services to the University,” said Jenn Anderson, Vice President of Marketing and Communication at Fairfield University. “We are confident that Aramark and its employees can work together to reach a fair and equitable agreement.” The demonstration appears to be related to an ongoing contract dispute between Aramark and Local 217 Unite Here, which represents dining workers at multiple universities in Connecticut. According to a Spanish-language flyer, the union questions why four other Connecticut universities have received better contracts than workers at Fairfield. In the flyer, the union alleges that workers at Central Connecticut State University, Southern Connecticut State University, Eastern Connecticut State University and Trinity College have contracts with wages over $8, compared to the $5.50 that was offered to Fairfield workers.
“Aramark values our employees and will continue to meet with the food services union in an effort to reach a new contract,” a company spokesperson said to The Mirror in response to Thursday’s demonstration. “We respect the right of our employees to demonstrate, and we look forward to continuing to bargain in good faith to reach an agreement that works for everyone.”
Online, students appear to be in support of the demonstration, with comments on Fizz sharing the phrase “no contract no peace”, obtaining over 650 FizzUps as of 4:30 p.m.
The FWC EC has reached out to the hospitality workers' union, UNITE-HERE 217, and has been in contact with shop stewards here on campus. We'll keep you updated on other opportunities for solidarity and support!
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We promote faculty welfare, broadly defined, through chapter programs and activities designed to advance academic freedom, advance the economic and professional status of the faculty, encourage faculty participation in governance, and inform the community about AAUP standards and policy statements to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.
