KU faculty vote to unionize
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Faculty at the University of Kansas has voted to unionize.
The United Academics of the University of Kansas represents over 1,550 full-time and part-time tenured and nontenure-track faculty; teaching, research, clinical and online professors; lecturers; curators; librarians; grant-funded research scientists; and other academic staff.
Faculty have been voting for the past month. They cited competitive wages, job security, safety and health concerns around aging, as well as unkept classrooms and buildings as major issues.
Ballots were counted on Thursday, and the result was 850 to 132.
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“Faculty and academic staff are coming together to fight for a better KU; and today, we voted resoundingly to have our voices heard on the critical issues facing our university,” said Kate DeJarnette, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing, in a news release. “We’re eager to get to work making KU a better place to study, teach and perform world-class research.”
The next step is bargaining their first contract with the university.
The university sent KSN the following statement:
“The Provost looks forward to working with the new union — and with all faculty, staff and students — on initiatives to advance KU’s mission of education, service and research. We are grateful to the many Lawrence campus faculty who share our goal to make KU the best place it can be.”
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