Students, professors and more gathered at Union Square Park to show support for NYU and New School faculty, whose employees are negotiating a new contract.

Around 150 people marched from Washington Square Park, through Union Square and to 17th Street in support of the New York University and New School adjunct faculty union from around 6-8 p.m. on April 14.

Huddled under umbrellas and blue rain ponchos, the protesters chanted and sang through the whipping winds and rain.

“What do we want? Contracts! If we don’t get it? Shut it down!” they chanted.

Protesters ended their rally outside 105 East 17th Street as NYU administrators and union employees negotiated the contract inside, in support of the union.

The union, ACT-UAW Local 7902, is made up of 4,000 part-time faculty, student workers and health service employees. Protesters advocated for the rights of adjunct faculty members as the union negotiates a new contract with the NYU administration.

Marking the end of a six year contract, the ACT-UAW Local 7902 was fighting for greater worker rights through potential changes in their current contract at the meeting. Though this was the first meeting, union members predicted that they will continue to negotiate over multiple meetings, and into August.

Better pay, expanded access to healthcare, greater job security and compensation for work outside the classroom were a few of the things the adjuncts are demanding, and the union representatives are working towards.

Outrage came from the protesters regarding the lack of respect they feel NYU administration has given to adjunct faculty, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were required to use virtual teaching platforms that they had no training in and were given no compensation for using.

Kay Gabriel, an adjunct professor at the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, who spoke at the rally, shared a story of an adjunct professor having to teach a technology course from their phone because NYU could not supplement them with a laptop while school was virtual.

“You are the second largest landowner in New York City and you can’t afford a laptop?” Gabriel shouted into a microphone, earning a “boo” from the crowd.

Better worker’s rights could not only affect the members of the union, but the rest of the university as well. Many adjunct professors have to work multiple jobs which means they are not able to provide to students the office hours or resources that full-time professors do, Mary Helen Kolisnyk, who is on the Joint Council for the union and has been an adjunct professor for NYU since 2004, told The New School Free Press. With better working conditions, Holisnyk believes she will be able to provide a better learning experience for students.

“This contract is an opportunity to build more equity at NYU,” Elizabeth Fay, a clinical associate professor in writing at the NYU College of Arts and Sciences, said in an interview.

The rally was organized in hope to increase the union’s visibility to administration and to the university’s student body, said organizer Annie Levin. Organizers of the event, including Levin, hoped the rally would  display the enormity of their support for the union to higher administration.  

The NYU Student Government Assembly shared their support in early April through a letter to the NYU community.

“Labor unions empower their members to advocate for better workplace conditions, granting power and a voice to workers,” the student government said in the letter.

“Particularly at NYU, student support is what makes them do something,” Rhetta Eubanks, a first-year law student at the NYU School of Law and rally attendant, said in reference to the administration.

The bargaining of this contract comes at a time of success for academia worker unions, following wins by the employee unions at the Tandon School of Engineering and Columbia University.