CUNY Contract Deal Means Big Raise for Adjuncts

The City University of New York and its Professional Staff Congress faculty union reached a tentative deal on a five-year contract that increases pay for adjuncts by 71 percent, they announced Wednesday. The agreement also allows adjuncts to take more time to advise and work one on one with students and to engage in professional development. Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez said in a statement that “all of our faculty will now devote more time to meeting with and advising students and engaging in professional development,” all of which is “crucial to our efforts to increase graduation rates, enhance learning and remain a premier university.”

Barbara Bowen, union president, said in the joint statement that the tentative deal “represents a turning point in the history of CUNY’s treatment of contingent faculty. It is a principled and imaginative contract that constitutes a victory for every member of the union -- and for CUNY students.”

The agreement increases all faculty salaries by more than 10 percent through annual increases of 2 percent. Adjunct pay will jump to $6,750 per course for those with the most senior titles, and to at least $5,500 by the end of the contract for all instructors. Currently that minimum is $3,222. The contract is retroactive, to 2017, and ends in 2023.