On the morning of March 27, the first day of the strike, Provost Courtney Coile sent out an email detailing the College’s plan for students to receive the credit despite many classes being cancelled. Coile asked students to enroll in new courses taught by tenure-track faculty to make up for lost contact hours and announced that students would receive 0.5 credits for courses taught by striking union members. 

It had been a little over eight weeks of course instruction at that point into the semester and given accreditation policies enforced by the New England Commission of Higher Education, the College deemed the credit change and course registration necessary to comply with the requirements for contact hours in order to maintain its accreditation. 

But for many students, these new policies have brought a wave of confusion, anxiety, and frustration. 

Ava Wilcox ’25, a senior history major, described her initial reaction as one of “fear and anxiety,” as she knew she would fall below full-time status, compounded by the already tense atmosphere on campus. Wilcox said, “I immediately reached out to the Class Dean, but the email was very vague. I didn’t know what to do.”

Wilcox enrolled in a new class in the Women and Gender Studies Department to keep her full-time status. However, she notes that the class only meets for two of the remaining four class sessions. “There was so much worry about contact hours, but I’m not even going to be in this class for more than six hours. The class itself is serious, but my participation in it feels like a joke.”

Wilcox expressed dissatisfaction with her “hollow” educational experience. “It just feels like a filler, like I’m just doing this so I can’t ask for my tuition back, but it doesn’t actually have value as a credit,” she said. 

Wilcox also felt skeptical about the administration’s motives, stating “my feeling is that educational value has kind of been swept aside just to get more leverage for admin in the union negotiations under the guise of education. There is some sort of obfuscation from the administration about what the impulses behind the plan are, and people are upset about that generally.”

First-year Ava Cantaoi ’28, a prospective political science major, was similarly taken aback by the abrupt changes. “I was definitely taken aback, especially given it was the day the strike started,” she said. “It was very overwhelming. There wasn’t even a lot of time for me to react.”

Cantaoi was originally enrolled in four classes, three of which were taught by NTT faculty. When the new credit policies were announced, she found herself below the threshold for full-time status, and she had to enroll in three new classes. “But because I didn’t have [the] prerequisites for other classes, I’ve been learning different things from before.”

Cantaoi stated that the transition has been challenging to the new classes. “Professors are doing as much as they can to help out, but I don’t really know what’s happening, and I’m also expected to keep moving forward with the new content,” said Cantaoi.

“I’ve been going with the mentality of doing the minimum to pass. I’m just trying to get my money’s worth out of this semester and go through so I can pass,” Cantaoi said, describing a sense of resignation both for her and amongst her peers. “These policies will have short-term and long-term effects for students.”

On the campus community, Cantaoi added, “As a student, as a product of these policies and what is happening to the school right now, it feels like not a lot of students can find comfort or community in this because nothing like this has happened before.”

Wilcox added that the credit changes have only strengthened her support for the union. “As soon as they announced the credits, I wanted to go to the picket line and it made me want to support the union more.”

As of last week, WOAW has announced the strike is over and students and faculty have returned back to the classroom.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Sazma Sarwar and Valida Pau

The College has yet to implement the cap in units. 

“I just want to assure everyone we’re not making any changes right now, all classes are staying on the books exactly as they are,” said Coile. 

However, the College’s back-up plan for students begins on Saturday. The College said they are focused on a plan providing additional half-credit unit opportunities so students can register on Saturday to start classes on Monday to avoid falling below full-time status. They are also communicating with instructors on how they should award the half-unit of credit.

“Our hope is that the strike would end very quickly and we can unwind this backup plan that we’ve been putting in place and everyone can just go continue attending the courses they’re enrolled in and earn full credit,” said Coile. 

Federal regulations

Federal regulations regarding college accreditation hinge on what are known as “contact hours” — the time students spend receiving direct classroom instruction from faculty members. 

The College generally measures credit in quarter unit intervals, which can either be a half credit or one credit. The College does not award 0.75 unit. 

Coile said the courses that continue without a faculty member present do not qualify as contact hours and cannot be counted toward the total meeting time required for academic credit, according to federal guidelines. 

About five years ago, the College revised its class schedule to comply with updated accreditation standards, according to Coile. Classes, which previously met for 140 minutes per week, were extended to 150 minutes to meet the new requirements.

Coile emphasized the importance of the College following these federal requirements. 

“It is something that gets reviewed — whether the College is in compliance with these minimum meeting times — and explicitly examined when we go through this regular review process to maintain our accreditation,” said Coile. 

Academic life in question

Under the said “back-up plan”, students will receive grades based on past assignments and the decision of department chairs in the suspended classes taught by striking faculty. This may mean students cannot improve their grades through later assignments and their finals. 

Coile reiterates hopes for a short strike so the College can unwind this plan they have.

“People can get back in their classes and have the opportunity to follow the original syllabus and with the assignments and exams that are still to come,” said Coile.

The current situation also raised a complicated question on whether the College can still award full credit based on the contact hour if the strike ends earlier and the College reverts to normal academic instruction methods after the strike ends.

Coile said the College doesn’t have a precise answer for now on measuring hours if the strike ends by a specified date, given many courses are idiosyncratic and met for different amounts of time.

“It will depend on exactly how many minutes the class has already met,” said Coile. “We’ll need to look at all that carefully at a later date and make sure that the amounts of credit that we’re awarding are really the right level, given the amount of work.”

However, since students enroll in a class mid-way and receive no prior instruction on the course they are joining for five weeks, it is unclear how agencies and education commissions may view the quality of contact hours received in those five weeks. 

Some classes offered for registration include 300-level classes on real analysis and neurobiology and seminars that require prerequisites and significant knowledge. Even with a mandatory credit-non grading basis, it is unclear how students will perform in these classes. 

Mark Nicholas, Vice President at the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), which awards Wellesley’s accreditation, told the News in a phone interview that the Commission is aware of the situation. The Commission will go through with its formal process on complaints filed against the College based on its policy. 

The Commission will review complaints and determine if they meet its nine criteria to proceed. If they do, it will ask the College to provide a response in 30 working days. 

Dr. Larry Schall, the President of NECHE, wrote that interested parties can file a complaint or a public comment. It would issue decisions after it convenes and makes decisions, which it does four times a year.  

The College has two bargaining sessions with WOAW slated for next Tuesday and Thursday.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Galeta Sandercok, Sazma Sarwar

“The plan must be implemented now so that students will have enough contact hours to support the 0.5 credit by the end of the semester,” wrote Coile. 

In a statement to the News, the College said, “Since the length of the faculty strike at Wellesley is currently unknown, the College has developed a plan that will be effective no matter what the duration of the strike may be. If we were to wait to see how long the strike ends up lasting before taking action, we would have missed the window to put in place a plan that will be needed if there is a long strike.”

The College also said, “If the strike ends quickly enough, it will not be necessary for students to remain enrolled in these new classes, as students will be able to return to their original classes and earn full credit.”

The Wellesley News has asked the College to clarify what “quickly enough” means.

The News previously reported that the College is suspending courses taught by striking union members not covered by a substitute instructor. The initial announcement, which came Thursday morning, informed students that, unless they were enrolled in WOAW-taught courses with a “high number of minutes,” they would only be awarded 0.5 units upon receiving a satisfactory grade. 

Feasibility of College’s plan

To address how the plan may affect students on visas and financial aid, the College will reopen registration on Saturday, Mar. 29. 

“Tenure-stream faculty … have been asked to open up their classes to allow some number of students to join the class in progress…Students who join the class now will be signing up for a 0.5 unit, mandatory credit/no-credit version of the course,” read the Provost’s first email sent Thursday morning. 

To understand if there would be enough seats in tenure-stream faculty courses to support the number of students who courseload now drop below full-time status, The Wellesley News conducted a preliminary analysis based on data from the course browser

As of Mar. 27, Workday and the Course Browser show 425 classes with open seats, totalling 2,672 open seats. 

These figures exclude PE classes, First-Year-Writing classes and QR 140. 55 of these classes are labs, and 304 classes have registration restrictions, such as prerequisites, instructor’s permission or class-specific restrictions. 165 of these classes are taught by Non-Tenure-Track (NTT) faculty.

It is not immediately clear to the News how many NTT members in the Union choose to teach their classes. 

Students will be able to register for classes taught by tenure-stream faculty. This leaves 245 classes with open seats, totalling 1,674 open seats. This number excludes laboratories, but includes classes with registration restrictions.

As many NTT faculty are assumed to teach introductory courses, students who are most likely to be impacted by the strike will be primarily underclassmen who may lack the prerequisites to easily bypass registration restrictions. This leaves 86 classes with open seats, totalling 725 open seats. 

As of midnight on March 28, it is unclear to the News how many courses will be available for registration. Although tenure-stream faculty were asked by the Provost Office to allow affected students to join their courses, professors could decide for themselves whether they would open their classes. 

The Registrar’s Office will confirm on Friday at noon which courses will be subject to credit changes, and the Course Browser will display which classes will accept new students.

Performance

Students will take these newly-added courses as mandatory credit/non-credit, raising questions about how the new plan would affect academic performance for existing and new students.

An email template circulated among students by the Union and Labor Advocacy Taskforce (UniLAd) raises concerns about how the new plan could influence learning for both students already enrolled in tenure-stream courses and students who plan to enroll in said courses.

“Reopening courses will devalue the students already in class, who have put in half a semester of work. It devalues the students who would have to scramble to add classes, forcing them to catch up with a tremendous amount of coursework,” said the document.

“Instructors are expected to be mindful that students will not have seen content from earlier in the semester, but are not expected to re-teach this material. Having classes be graded CR/NCR will help with any learning gaps students may have,” read the Provost’s first email.

Contact hours and credit hours

The main reasoning the College has provided for the credit change and course registration is the requirement for Wellesley to comply with federally-mandated contact hours.

“It is important to understand that federal regulations govern both the number of contact hours required to earn college credit and the number of credits a student must be enrolled in to maintain full-time status for financial aid and visa eligibility purposes,” the Provost wrote in the latest email sent Thursday evening.

According to the Code of Federal Regulations, a credit hour is “one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately fifteen weeks for one semester…or the equivalent amount of work over a different period of time.”

The New England Commission of Higher Education, which awards Wellesley’s accreditation, uses this same definition.

A typical Wellesley course meets for 75 minutes twice a week, so has 2.5 contact hours per week. Wellesley’s registrar states that “One (1) unit of Wellesley College work typically equals 4 semester-hours or 6 quarter-hours.”

Even though there is a minimum requirement for credit hours, the Department of Education wrote in a Q&A page that “there is no ‘seat time’ requirement implicit in the definition of a credit hour.” 

It further clarifies that “the credit-hour definition does not dictate particular amounts of classroom time versus out-of-class student work.” Some striking faculty have encouraged students to continue to submit assignments and work as outlined in their course syllabi.

In a similar union dispute at Columbia University in November 2021, all of Columbia’s undergraduate schools adopted a pass/fail policy for the semester after graduate student workers of the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers went on strike.

In Columbia’s case, since many classes did not meet the state-mandated 126 hours of teaching and learning per semester, Columbia adopted a “credit-pending policy” where students were required to make up classwork and instructional time through makeup essays during winter break and summer courses.

In a statement to the News, the College said that the Columbia strike, and other strikes mentioned in a recent Wellesley News opinion piece, “occurred under very different circumstances than the strike at Wellesley,” with differences in time of the semester, duration, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wellesley News cannot locate or identify the specific policy or definitions that Wellesley College currently follows and interprets for its plan regarding contact hours and credit hours and their connections for compliance matters.  

The News has reached out to the College for comments on their interpretation of contact hours and credit hours. 

Community Responds

The student executive board of Slater International Center expressed frustration with the announced plan, in an email sent Thursday night, specifically citing concerns about the disproportionate effects on international students. 

“By implementing this sudden policy without proper consultation or consideration, the administration has recklessly put us at risk…We, as international students, are already at heightened risk, and now we are under the threat of not being eligible to maintain our visas and qualify for financial aid,” the students stated in the email.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Valida Pau, Galeta Sandercock

Updated at 4:26pm on March 28th to reflect College comments.

The official strike with faculty and students is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day until WOAW and the College reach an agreement.

The College set an additional bargaining date on April 1, on top of their originally scheduled April 3 date.

When The Wellesley News visited picket lines at 2 p.m, there were about 50 people at picketing lines at the Central Street and College Road intersection and about 15 people at the Wellesley front entrance. 

NTT faculty and students, many wearing red to support the strike, held signs that said “UAW On Strike. Unfair Labor Practice” and “I’d Rather Be Teaching.” The picketers cheered and waved their signs at cars honking in solidarity and led chants on the megaphone. 

Sophia Bodor ’28, who led one of the chants on the megaphone, said that the uncertainty of her life at Wellesley inspired her to speak on the picket lines.

Gallery | 2 Photos

Margot Buehler

“There’s no real plan in place for when the strike’s going to end, what classes are going to look like during and after the strike,” said Bodor. “I just wanted to channel those emotions, so that’s what motivated me.”

This uncertain sentiment shared among students comes after Provost Courtney Coile, Dean of College Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56, and Registrar Carol Shanmugaratnam announced in an email this morning that students were only receiving 0.5 credits for WOAW-taught classes, and encouraged students to register for new courses to receive full credit. 

“It was actually very scary to read at first, I haven’t been able to check which classes of mine are affected so far,” said Avery Miller-Fabregas ’27, a student picketer who has three classes taught by NTT faculty. “I empathize with seniors and people who are doing their theses [with NTT].”

WOAW members were also not aware that the College was planning to cut class credit. However, WOAW members Jacqueline Woodford and Anne Brubaker underscore that only faculty are responsible for giving out grades and deciding what qualifies as credit. 

It is uncertain whether the College may be going against the Department of Education’s policy, which says that an institution cannot lower credits without justification. 

Coile’s most recent email says that the strike has potential to impact eligibility for financial aid and impact on student immigration status as “federal regulations govern both the number of contact hours required to earn college credit and the number of credits a student must be enrolled in to maintain full-time status for financial aid and visa eligibility purposes.” 

In a separate email to the News, the College wrote that Wellesley College, as an accredited higher education institution, must be able to demonstrate to outside agencies that students are earning credits in a timely way to make progress toward their degree. Since they do not know how long the strike would last, they created a plan “that will be effective no matter what the duration of the strike may be.”

Under the Higher Education Act, the Department of Education defines a credit hour based on instructional time and student workload. Institutions receiving federal funding must comply with this standard, and any changes to credit allocations must reflect legitimate academic criteria.

Rejecting Mediation

One day prior to the beginning of the strikes, President Paula Johnson, Provost Courtney Coile, Dean of the College Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56, and Chief Human Resources Officer Carolyn Sladoben sent a joint email titled “WOAW-UAW REJECTS MEDIATION—CHOOSES TO STRIKE.” 

The email detailed how WOAW “outright rejected” the College’s new proposals on Monday, including offering professorial titles for NTT faculty and agreeing to fewer years for promotion eligibility, in exchange for “certain provisions in the Appointments and Reappointments that favored the College’s operational needs.” 

The College further wrote that they offered “unprecedented increases in compensation” in exchange for an agreement on a five-course workload, representing a “30% increase in compensation” for bargaining unit employees (BUEs). 

Lastly, the email wrote that the College “added stand-alone protections from bullying even when not linked to a protected category.”

The College wrote that the union rejected all other packages, except a modified proposal for the article 

The News previously reported that the College proposed to move to federal mediation, a method used by Harvard and Tufts to reach agreements.  The mediation firm no longer offers such services after a presidential action effectively minimized FMCA’s operations. 

While Brubaker and Woodford acknowledged that WOAW rejected a mediation, they stressed that a mediator is typically called at the end of a bargaining process, and that WOAW was not yet at that point. 

They believed that the College made this move because they “needed to have some way to blame it on us.” 

“So their last plan to make it our fault that we’re striking is to request for mediation, which I think they knew was premature, because we aren’t at an impasse,” Woodford said. “They knew we would decline mediation, and therefore could use that against us.”

A Typical Picketing Day

While the official picketing begins at 8 a.m. every day, some WOAW members are at the picketing lines as early as 5 a.m. to help delivery workers, many who are union workers, to not cross picket lines. It’s uncertain if Wellesley deliveries will be changing. 

Students can expect a more structured schedule at the picketing lines in the next few days, according to Brubaker and Woodford. In addition to union members speaking, WOAW also plans to invite state senators, such as Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and 2023 commencement speaker Jocelyn Benson to the picket lines, though plans are not yet finalized.

The office of Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and Jocelyn Benson did not respond to a request for comments. 

With the first day of striking over, WOAW members are energized about picketing, but have mixed feelings about the situation. 

“We are so organized and ready and committed to fighting for a fair contract, and moved by the support from the community,” Brubaker said. “But [it’s] also sad and disappointing [that] the college is taking this route and what it will mean for our community after this is all over […] a lot of trust is broken.”

Contact the editors responsible for this article: Valida Pau, Sazma Sarwar

Updated to correct Jocelyn Benson as the 2023 commencement speaker, not 2024.

Wellesley students will only receive a half-unit in courses taught by non-tenure-track faculty members in Wellesley Organized Academic Workers (WOAW) and can register for classes on Saturday, the College announced Thursday morning. 

In an email sent to all students from Provost Courtney Coile and Registrar Carol Shanmugaratnam this morning, all classes taught by Union members are suspended unless in departments where the class is substituted by an instructor or the NTT faculty continues to teach.

For classes with a laboratory component or a high number of minutes like language or studio classes, students will receive full credit for those classes. 

Students will still be considered to satisfy their major, distribution requirements and prerequisites for the classes they have already taken. 

The College will reopen registration for classes on Saturday. Classes will only be at 0.5 units and are mandatory credit/non-credit. Students are expected to attend their new classes starting next Monday, March 31. 

This comes as WOAW began a strike this morning after failing to make significant progress on compensation and workload with the College on their first contract. The News previously reported on the details of disagreements in bargaining. 

This latest policy poses an array of questions for students, especially seniors working to finish their degrees and students whose financial aid or visa status hinges upon their full-time enrollment status. 

The Dean’s Office will host a drop-in Zoom session with the Provost and the Registrar on Friday. The details of the session are not yet available and will be sent out when they are finalized, according to an email sent by the Office of the Class Deans this morning. 

It is not immediately clear how many classes will be opened for registration on Saturday and how many tenure-track faculty will choose to reopen their classes. 

It is also unclear how students and faculty should adapt to enrolling in a class consisting of existing and new students, in terms of class materials, instruction methods and grading with less than one and a half months left in the semester. 

“Students only need to focus on replacing the missing units. Students can select any new course that fits their schedule, including classes in the same block as a class that is no longer meeting during the strike,” said the email. 

The College has yet to provide information for the next steps for students when a tenure-track faculty member may choose not to reopen a class, or the available number of seats do not match the number of students in need of those seats for their enrollment status or academic plans.

The fall 2025 registration that was set to start April 8 will be delayed until further notice. 

In a poll conducted by The Wellesley News on its Instagram page, 44% of those who voted have at least a class taught by NTT faculty and 15% have 3 classes or more.

In a statement to the News, WOAW told the News that they are disappointed in the College’s policy.

“We are disappointed to see that the College has decided to set a precedent in this way— credit for courses has never been revoked from students during an academic strike before, and it is hugely disappointing that Wellesley would use this as a scare tactic to coerce students away from supporting the union. Shifting the blame for this punitive policy to federal requirements on meeting times is disingenuous at best, as the College has the full power to end this strike at any moment, and yet has declined all union offers to bargain at additional times, with no additional sessions scheduled before April 3rd,” said Leah Okumura, Senior Instructor of Science Laboratory of Biological Sciences.

Shortly after this statement was made, the College and the Union will meet for an additional session next Tuesday.

The Wellesley News has reached out to the College, academic departments for comments.

Updated on March 27th to reflect that registration re-opens on Saturday, not Friday.
Updated on March 27, 13:42 pm ET to add WOAW’s statement. 

Wellesley Organized Academic Workers (WOAW-UAW), the non-tenure track faculty union, will begin a strike this Thursday, the College announced today in an email sent to all students, faculty, and staff.

The Wellesley News reported yesterday that WOAW would likely begin a strike after both parties failed to agree on key issues, including compensation and workload in the Tuesday bargaining session. 

The College said the Union rejected the College’s offer to move to mediation facilitated by federal mediators under the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). 

FMCS is an independent federal agency that provides mediation and other conflict resolution services to help resolve labor-management disputes.

However, President Trump announced a presidential action on March 14, directing FCMS and other targeted federal agencies to eliminate “non-statutory components” and to “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”

The agency reiterated their efforts to remain operational and continue to provide their statutorily mandated services, in a press release on March 19.

“To be clear, FMCS is still operational and performing our statutory functions of collective bargaining mediation work in the private and federal Sectors, USPS dispute cases, labor-management committee work, and providing arbitration panels,” the agency said.

Members of WOAW plan to picket at the Route 135 entrance to campus, but the entrance and College Road will remain open, according to the College. 

The Union currently has plans for strikes on April 5-6 on a shift sign-up form on their website. That weekend, the College will host the Hillary Rodham Center Summit which includes speakers like former state of secretary Hillary Rodham ’69 and Arkansas State Senator Breanne Davis (R).

In an emailed statement to the News, WOAW believed the College’s mediation request was “disingenuous” and “would not have averted a strike,” on top of the fact the College announcement came after it was made aware that the FMCS is no longer able to provide such services.

“The college requested that future sessions be mediation, but still did not offer any dates before April 3. In our bargaining session yesterday, we offered to bargain with the college today to avert a strike and they declined.

“We believe mediation at this time is premature, and we have said many times we are willing to negotiate on many areas in our proposal,” said Jacquelin Woodford, lecturer in Chemistry.

The College told the News that they were unaware of the suspension of federal mediation services when the community email was sent, and their labor lawyer reached out to the mediator yesterday, before the administrative leave announcement had been made.

“The College stands by its offer to move to mediation with WOAW. Private mediation is still an option with a neutral mediator. The College is eager to take that step and calls on WOAW-UAW to join us,” said the College.

Talks falling apart

This announcement follows the 24th bargaining session between the Union and the College held earlier this afternoon. The session included WOAW’s presentation of a comprehensive package of all current proposals and discussions with the College on these high-priority issues. 

WOAW proposed to meet for an additional bargaining session tomorrow to avert a strike, but the College declined to meet before Thursday. While a strike has not been officially announced, WOAW members expressed in statements to the News that one is likely to follow. 

The College’s latest proposal for starting salary stands at $68,000 for Visiting Lecturers and $72K for lecturers, while WOAW’s latest proposal stands at $88,000 for Visiting and “Tier 1” lecturers. 

 The College’s offer also includes an “additional $10,000 increase over two years” for the new five-course workload standard, an across-the-board wage increase of 2.75% and an additional 1.5% increase for each year at the College for newly hired employees.

In an email statement to The News, the College described this offer as “a bold new package proposal” that included “unprecedented increases in compensation for union agreement on a five course annual teaching load for all unit members.”

 The College also stated that it made “serious movement” toward the Union’s proposal on discrimination and harassment, such as by adding stand-alone protections from bullying for the first time. 

According to an email statement from Erin Battat, Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program and a member of the bargaining committee, the College proposed a five-course workload with a $10,000 increase to the base salary during today’s bargaining session. This is equivalent to what non-tenure track professors currently receive when electing to teach a fifth course.

“The College’s proposal makes working overtime the new, required norm,” Battat wrote. “We had hoped that Wellesley was serious about their claims to care about averting a strike, but their actions at the bargaining prove otherwise.”

A spokesperson for the College told The News that a campus-wide announcement will also be sent out on Wednesday morning regarding the state of bargaining and the possible strike. Members of the bargaining units may choose whether to strike. 

“We would rather be teaching, but the College’s conduct has left us with no choice. We are prepared to join the picket lines on Thursday morning,” said Battat.

During the strike, Union members will receive $500 a week in strike assistance from the UAW if they picket for at least 20 hours.

During today’s bargaining session, the Union took a two-hour break and compiled a 95-page comprehensive package, which the College described as reiterating positions from months ago. 

 The College said it was “very disappointed” at the Union’s “outright” rejection of the offers without presenting alternatives “that could narrow, rather than expand, our differences.” 

Timeline of strike announcements

The News previously reported that the WOAW union’s strike authorization vote passed by 93% on February 24. However, in subsequent bargaining sessions, WOAW and Wellesley were not able to reach agreements on compensation, workload, and discrimination and harassment procedures. On March 10, WOAW held a rally to advocate for progress in the negotiations. 

Last Tuesday, March 18, WOAW announced March 27 as the strike date.

  The College responded to the strike announcement in a campus-wide email sent on March 24 by Provost Courtney Coile and Carolyn Slaboden, Chief Human Resources Officer. The email stated that the College did not feel that parties were at an “impasse” and “sincerely [hoped] that WOAW-UAW does not decide to strike,” as well as that bargaining sessions have been scheduled for the next several weeks. More information on negotiation status is available on the College’s dedicated website. 

According to the WOAW Instagram, WOAW has offered to participate in additional bargaining sessions every day since March 18, but the College declined. 

What students should know

Wellesley College’s unionization FAQ page states that affected class department chairs will notify students directly. In some departments, these notifications have already been sent out to students. 

According to a post on WOAW’s Instagram on March 24, “Over 70% of tenure-track faculty have pledged not to teach struck classes taught by WOAW members.”

In departments including Biology, Chemistry, Women’s and Gender Studies and Anthropology, classes taught by non-tenure track faculty who choose to strike will not be filled by tenure-track faculty. The Economics department has informed students that classes with striking faculty will be filled by tenure-track faculty. 

On the FAQ page for students, WOAW has asked students to demonstrate solidarity with the union by refraining from attending courses taught by those on strike, showing support at picket locations and emailing campus administration in support of the union.

Financial future

The College currently projects over $8 million in budget deficit for the fiscal year 2026, in a statement sent to faculty and staff by Provost Courtney Coile and Piper Orton, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer, seen by The News.  

In a separate statement reviewed by The News, this included a projected 30% increase in total compensation over the four-year contract for WOAW.

While the College often comes to a balanced budget, this year’s $8 million would require “significant action,” according to Coile. The email also stated that the College is considering a hiring freeze and a food and travel cut for faculty and staff. 

This comes amid uncertainties around “ongoing conversations about the possible cost to the College to the WOAW-UAW contract” and federal policy changes targeting higher education institutions. 

Wellesley, among other higher education institutions, is facing increasing pressure from the Trump administration, including a potential endowment tax hike and threats of cutting federal funding and grants. 

“With the Union having apparently decided to strike on Thursday and disrupt campus life for our students, the College will now consider what is the best pathway to reach an agreement,” the College wrote.

Still, union members remain confident in their bargaining demands.

“We are fighting the good fights. We are willing to fight for the contract we deserve,” said Jacqueline Woodford, lecturer in chemistry.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Sazma Sarwar and India Lacey

Updated on March 26th to reflect corrections to department announcements.

Community members wore red in solidarity with WOAW, circulating signs, chant scripts and a student pledge. Attendees remained on the sidewalk for the duration of the rally to avoid gathering on the private property of the College. Speakers included union members, students, tenured faculty and Independent Maintenance and Service Employees Unions of America (IMSEUA) members.

Attendees walked from the Central Street vehicle entrance to the College pedestrian entrance at the corner of Central Street and Weston Road. People chanted “Hey hey, ho ho!/Wellesley greed has got to go,” “When I say Union, You Say Power” and “Wellesley, step off it!/Put people over profit.” Cars driving by honked in solidarity with the rally participants.

WOAW faculty expressed excitement over the student and union member turnout at the event. 

“I always knew our students were smart enough to not buy the College’s narrative that you know what they’re proposing is totally fine for students, but to actually see it in action was really moving,” said Professor Deb Bauer.

WOAW faculty were also grateful for the amount of union members who came to the rally.

“I was really heartened to see how many unit members showed up … To see the community coming together in a moment like this to really show the College the solidarity of the unit, it was really impressive to me,” said Professor Paul Martorelli.

Professors are hopeful that this rally will encourage progress in the bargaining with the College.

“I hope they realize that the things that we have been proposing are not unreasonable and that the changes that the College is proposing would hurt the entire community,” said Professor Christa Skow.

Current State of Bargaining

This demonstration occurred following the Strike Authorization Vote, which 93% of voting members approved earlier this month. Bargaining issues that led to the vote include compensation and workplace protections.

The WOAW Instagram page stated that the College emailed several departments offering $250 per class to tenure-track faculty who remain working in the case of a strike. In a statement to The News, a spokesperson for the College said, “If there is a work stoppage, the College’s top priority will be the academic experience of our students.”

According to the College’s available union website, Wellesley is developing contingency plans to mitigate possible strike-related disruptions to academics, campus safety and other programs. The College told The News that they will share details of the plans “if and when they are needed.”

In addition to the rally, the WOAW union urged community members to email the College administration and the Board of Trustees in solidarity.

Students Pledge to Strike

In response to the ongoing back and forth between WOAW and the College surrounding the Strike Authorization Vote, students have started an independent student pledge through social media platforms and student body emails from the student Community Organizing and Inclusion Liaison. 

Students who sign the pledge agree to abstain from classes taught by non-tenure track faculty for the duration of the strike, even if, according to the pledge, “the College brings in scab labor to cover the course.” 

Alex Teasley ’27, one of the organizers of the pledge, described its purpose as a “deterrent” to a strike.

“The hope is that the school will see this and … just meet WOAW at the negotiating table,” said Teasley, “If that does happen, then I’m hopeful that WOAW will still know in the future that they have 400 students who are ready to strike with them.” 

By Saturday March 15, the pledge received 506 responses. 

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Sazma Sarwar and Valida Pau

Eligible voters in this election include instructors, lecturers and Mellon postdoctoral fellows who are currently employed by Wellesley College. If the vote passes with a two-thirds majority, the union’s bargaining committee is authorized to call for a strike if necessary.  

According to WOAW, a “yes” vote in the Strike Authorization Vote is an opportunity to “declare forcefully that unless [the College] make[s] significant progress towards a fair contract, they can expect a strike to follow.”

The call for the Strike Authorization Vote from WOAW is coming after claims that the College has stalled on major core-bargaining issues. 

“After 19 bargaining sessions and over 65 hours of face-to-face negotiations, we have not made sufficient progress on our key priorities, including compensation, workload, job security, titles, and prohibitions against discrimination and harassment,” wrote Erin Battat, a senior lecturer in the Writing Program, in an email statement to The News.

WOAW and the College have reached 15 tentative agreements out of 50 proposals, including health and safety, intellectual property, and workplace and materials.

However, the College described the vote as “premature.” In an email sent to faculty and staff on Feb. 14 from Provost Courtney Coile and Chief Human Resources Officer Carolyn Slaboden, they wrote, “It is hard to understand why the union would take this step toward bringing disruption to our students when negotiations are ongoing and in no way at an impasse.”

The main bargaining issues that the College and the Union went back and forth between in their communications are compensation, workload and protections. 

Compensation 

The College argued that their initial salary proposal is “comprehensive and highly competitive,” stating that it would bring “the average salary for all bargaining unit employees (BUEs) to $92,259, well above the average salary in the current market … ”

WOAW claims, however, that a few high earners skew the average under the College’s proposal, and still, 25% of bargaining unit employees (BUEs) make under $68,890.

WOAW unionized to address this particular issue of salary stagnation, pointing out that “the wage gap of $31,000 persists between BUEs who were hired before and after 2008.” 

The union pointed out that K-12 teachers in the region have higher starting salaries and much higher salary growth, to reinforce the efficacy of unionization.

The College describes the union’s proposed compensation plan as “unrealistic.”

On their webpage on Non-Tenure Track Unionization at Wellesley, the College states that “the cost of wages and benefits would more than double, from $12 million to at least $24 million, not including proposals for $5 million in additional benefits.”

At the same time, the College emphasized that they will continue to pursue a contract that is fair and responsible with “respect to the long-term financial health of the College, mindful of both the College’s structural deficit and new financial threats in the current environment.”

Battat highlighted the importance of the union’s organizing efforts at a historically women’s college.

“The people who have most to gain from our efforts are primarily young women stuck in a sexist and hierarchical system — one that devalues teaching as historically ‘women’s work.’ We are fighting to give our members, in the words of President Johnson,  ‘the economy she deserves,’” she wrote.

Workload

The current proposal from the College would require non-tenure track faculty “to teach five courses to retain [their] current salaries,” which, faculty argues, would raise workloads by 25%.

The College argues that the five-course workload distinguishes the role of BUEs from that of tenure track faculty. BUEs primarily teach, while tenure-track faculty are responsible for teaching, research, scholarship and extensive College and professional service obligations. According to the College, the “proposal is consistent with the teaching load at the majority of peer institutions, where lecturers teach five to six courses per academic year.” 

WOAW-UAW rebutted this justification from the College as an attempt “to ‘adjunctify’ non-tenure track faculty at Wellesley by insisting on increasing our teaching load while stripping aspects of our jobs that enrich student experience and are essential to the functioning of the College.”

Protections

Coile refuted the union’s claim that the College is refusing standard union protection for harassment and discrimination. She continued, “To be clear, the College’s proposal prohibits such discrimination and allows for the union to take such cases to arbitration after an internal review.”

The union maintained that it is a standard union protection to be able to enforce the contract by filing a grievance and that should hold for claims of discrimination and harassment.

The College stated that if the Strike Authorization Vote is passed and if the union bargaining team decides to call a strike, the College will remain committed to prioritizing students’ academic experience. 

“While we are hopeful this will not be the case, the College is actively preparing for a variety of contingencies to minimize disruptions and ensure the continuity of our academic program for our students.”

The Wellesley News reached out to the College with a request for comment. The College stated that they have no further comment at this time beyond the email they sent to faculty members.

“We have stayed in these unfair positions because we love working with our colleagues and we love our students. But enough is enough. Ultimately, our struggle to win fair compensation and working conditions will benefit everyone,” wrote Battat. 

The vote for the strike authorization is ongoing and will end at 11:59 P.M. on Feb. 20. Results will be announced the next day on Friday, Feb. 21.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Galeta Sandercock and Valida Pau

Updated on February 20, 2025.

According to the bargaining update published on the WOAW website, the latest bargaining session led to a two-year Memorandum of Understanding between the College and the union regarding participation in the Albright Faculty Affiliates Program and the Hillary Rodham Clinton Center Faculty Research Initiative. The new memorandum allows union members to access these opportunities, as well as to be “included on all College-wide communications about all Wagner Centers Initiatives.”

Union members previously told The News that non-tenure track faculty were not allowed to apply for these initiatives on the grounds of being in active bargaining with the College. This new memorandum is a reversal of this policy.

According to bargaining updates published by both WOAW and the College, other proposals were discussed in sessions but have yet to be agreed upon. These include “Workspace and Materials,” “Privileges,” “Titles,” “Workload,” “Course Assignments,” “Wintersession,” “Employment Records” and “Evaluations and Performance Reviews.”

In September, the union created an open letter about discrimination and harassment policies on campus, which has reached over 620 signatures from college community members as of Oct. 16. No new updates in proposals or counter-proposals about this topic have occurred since September 24, according to WOAW’s proposal tracker.

Despite the signing of the memorandum, WOAW’s published bargaining update stated that the union “continue[s] to see an imbalance in the pace of bargaining.” The union also stated that the College is using “attrition oriented bargaining” where it is “moving slowly and hoping employees will become bored, frustrated, and discouraged.”

The College’s bargaining update stated, “The College hopes to continue to work to reach agreement on several other articles in the near future.”

WOAW’s next bargaining session is on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Updates about this bargaining session and future sessions can be found on the union’s bargaining hub. WOAW will also be holding a teach-in on Oct. 24 that community members can attend.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Valida Pau, Sazma Sarwar and Lyanne Wang

The efforts of Wellesley’s non-tenured track faculty are part of a broader wave of organizing among academics across U.S. higher education institutions, pushing for higher wages, improved working conditions, and better job security. While tenure provides professors with near-total job security, these protections are often not offered for other faculty members who move in and out of the Wellesley academic system.

Bargaining breakdown

The Wellesley News follows the recent bargaining sessions and the advocacy among the wider College community. As of Sept. 26, the College and the Union have only tentatively agreed on seven out of 36 bargaining proposals outlined in WOAW’s tracker.

The agreed proposals include ground rules on collective bargaining such as regulations for Zoom, severability and the union-management committee, employment and workplace-related issues regarding health and safety, and job postings discipline and dismissal. 

A tentative agreement about Health and Safety policy was reached during the latest bargaining session on Sept. 24. This includes articles regarding the prompt notification of health and safety-related concerns, the provision of safety-related equipment, and training expectations for faculty.

Disagreements over faculty titles persist. While WOAW proposed renaming lecturers and senior lecturers to “Assistant Professor of the Practice” and “Professor of the Practice,” the College insisted on the existing titles of “Lecturer” and “Senior Lecturer.” However, the College agreed that senior lecturers can be promoted to “Principal Lecturer” after 10 years in the position. The College had previously proposed the title “Master Lecturer” for this position, which the Union argued was rooted in racial and gendered language.

The College also proposed to increase teaching and advising expectations. As of August 20, the College proposed to increase the full-time teaching workload from four to five courses and advise 15-25 students per year. WOAW has not yet discussed a counterproposal in the bargaining session with the College. 

At direct peer institutions including Barnard College, non-tenured faculty are expected to teach five to six courses each semester. As Barnard’s courses vary from one credit-hours to 4 credit-hours the News cannot independently verify how teaching workload differs. 

WOAW and the College have yet to discuss compensation or benefits-related topics. For the fiscal year 2023–2024, the average compensation for full-time lecturers and ISLs was $92,995 alongside benefits, according to the College. However, the current starting salary for the group stands at $64,516. Salaries differ within the non-tenured track faculty and some were offered higher salaries before the College cut starting salary in 2008. 

Sharpening priorities 

For the upcoming bargaining sessions, one goal WOAW is still pushing for is a union-centered grievance process around workplace harassment, according to faculty union members. 

“We just want there to be an option for faculty to be able to go through their union when something like this comes up. Some of the benefits of doing that, of going to your union, is that you could have clearer timelines, shorter timelines to getting to finding a resolution to the issue,” said Anne Brubaker, Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program.

The Wellesley News previously reported that WOAW is circulating an open letter to the senior college administrations advocating for such changes. Over 590 faculty, staff, students and alumni have signed the open letter as of Oct 1. 

The College’s bargaining update webpage states that the College intends to maintain a “single, College-wide set of policies and procedures.” The Union’s proposal, exclusive to Union members, would allow them to “sidestep” college processes, it said.

In a fact sheet provided by the College, they said the College’s proposal enables union members to “immediately access supportive measures after filing a complaint” and allows them to “file a union grievance” if the claimant is not satisfied with the investigation result.

The College and WOAW failed to reach an agreement at the most recent bargaining session. 

“A wild goose chase:” Concerns over language and pacing

Negotiating the first collective bargaining contract often requires more than a year, but concerns about the current pacing, the College’s bargaining strategy and language mount among Union members. 

“Even though we recognize that a first contract has a lot of dimensions to it, it feels as though there are things that could be easily settled upon,” said Brubaker.

The Union said they had meetings separated by a few weeks, which could be a “strategy on the part of the college.” Between May 30 to August 20, both parties met for six sessions that skipped the week of June 16, according to the bargaining tracker. 

The College’s initial counter to the Union’s proposal may have contributed to delays, according to WOAW. The process of bargaining typically involved tracking changes by crossing out and adding new text on proposals and counter-proposals. 

“Instead of returning our proposal and responding to it, they’ll write a whole new one, which is sort of like a wild goose chase,” said Heather Bryant, Senior Lecturer in the Writing Program.

Members also stated that the College would alter certain language after both sides had already reached a tentative agreement on articles.

Possible divisions

WOAW members have expressed concerns over potential divisions between faculty in and out of the union through language used by the College. 

At convocation, President Johnson’s message “Welcome to our new faculty, to our new administrative and staff and union members,” which WOAW members interpreted as drawing a distinction between faculty and members of the union.

“The effect of the rhetoric throughout is this: there’s the college, and then there’s the Union, and the Union is somehow not a part of the college community, which seems to fly in the face of the stated goal of coming together for the betterment of all of the college,” said Paul Martorelli, Lecturer in Political Science. 

Furthermore, members describe worries that the College has not made it clear to tenured faculty that it is now acceptable for dialogues with union members discussing the Union itself. While tenure-track faculty were not allowed to discuss the union with non-tenure track faculty as WOAW was being constituted, this is no longer the case.

The College has altered eligibility requirements for opportunities, said WOAW representatives. Flagship programs such as the Albright Institute and the Hillary Rodham Center do not currently accept applications from non-tenure track faculty in bargaining. 

“[The College is] very quick to say, ‘Well, you’re in bargaining, so we cannot discuss that.’ They’ve extended that much more broadly than it makes sense, basically, to everything,” said Bryant. 

“Eligibility for these programs is part of the terms and conditions of employment, which are currently being negotiated between the union and the College. Therefore, the College has not yet taken any position on whether bargaining unit employees can participate in faculty initiatives that have been newly introduced since the unionization vote,” said a Wellesley College spokesperson in a response to the News.

However, the College’s response did not include any additional comments on these specific concerns addressed by WOAW. In an email to the News, the College said the Community should refer to the College’s website for any updates and questions.

“Energy Bolt” 

Going back into the school year, the Union said they are excited about the “energy bolt” from the Wellesley community that could impact the bargaining process.

Many of the union’s proposals are relevant to the student body, said Bryant. For example, the rigor of recommendation letters could be stronger depending on the lecturer’s title, and the growing number of visiting faculty could impact the future of longer-term student-teacher relationships.

“The administration sometimes forgets that when things are better for the faculty, things are better for the students. That’s improving the quality of our education, so it’s in our self-interest that they have better conditions,” said Alex Teasley ‘27.

The past year has seen a swift turnaround of unionization at Wellesley College, from the announcement in November, the legal status ratified in February to the start of bargaining in May. This year, WOAW hopes that this momentum and upcoming bargaining sessions will help continue their work.

“I think our major goal has shifted, which is to win this contract fairly, equitably and quickly,” said Martorelli. 

Reporting by Valida Pau, Christina Ding and Ruby Barenberg. Contact the editors responsible for this story: Sazma Sarwar, Lyanne Wang

(Updated with additional information provided by the College in paragraph 14, non-tenured track faculty starting salary in paragraph 9.)