Administrators took “modest” steps toward meeting Contract Faculty United’s demand to sponsor international faculty for permanent residence at their negotiations session last week. Union members contested that, amid hundreds of visa revocations across U.S. college campuses, the school’s offer to only permanently sponsor faculty under “exceptional” circumstances does not address more widespread concerns.
In its most recent bargaining session, the union — which represents the university’s full-time staff — called for NYU to sponsor international faculty members with any visa or visa extension they are eligible for, including permanent residency. Administrators countered that the Office of Global Services would decide whether to sponsor an international CFU member for a visa based on individual circumstances and departmental personnel needs, only sponsoring permanent residency on an “exceptional basis.” CFU representative Jacob Remes said administrators told the union that faculty sponsorships were decided at their respective dean’s discretion.
“Obviously the union knows that the NYU administration doesn’t issue visas, it doesn’t issue green cards — that’s the government,” Remes told WSN. “What we are seeking is for the administration to live up to the university’s values as a global network university and to sponsor our colleagues for stable immigration status so that they’re not at risk of deportation.”
In a statement to WSN, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said administrators’ counterproposal aimed to address concerns while satisfying legal mandates.
“The university and the union have been discussing these proposals at the table,” Beckman said. “I will make the point that the university has been raising with the union: that aspects of the university’s proposals on international contract faculty and on grievances are specifically designed to follow legal requirements.”
Remes referenced a Brown University professor’s deportation in March after she returned to the United States from Lebanon, despite holding a valid visa, indicating that noncitizen faculty need bolstered protections under the Trump administration. He said that NYU’s proposal enables a “not very fair system” that puts international faculty members at risk.
Administrators proposed to establish a committee of two CFU representatives and two NYU representatives that would meet up to three times per year to address grievances from international faculty members and discuss “general topics regarding international faculty.” The university also said that if faculty fail to secure a visa due to other legal barriers, they are not permitted to a grievance process.
The union also proposed an amendment to faculty grievance processes, urging the university to grant faculty members the right to appeal if they are dissatisfied with changes to their contract and stipulating that their appeal should be reviewed by a committee of contract faculty to ensure fair judgment. At the meeting, an SPS CFU member testified that they were denied promotion and spent eight months attempting to file a grievance.
The union demanded that administrators permit a faculty committee to oversee appeals and insisted that the existing conditions stated in a faculty member’s contract remain in place until a new contract is reached. Additionally, they requested the inclusion of arbitrators to finalize the decisions in the grievance process.
“To be the world class university that NYU is, we need to follow the best practices of the American university system,” Remes said. “The best practices of the American university system are that decisions over who teaches what to whom are the key freedoms of faculty, and that those decisions need to be made on the basis of faculty expertise.”
CFU also raised concerns about last month’s data breach, where over 3 million applicants’ names, test scores and other personal information were posted on NYU’s website for at least two hours. Remes said that the data leak demonstrates the university’s insufficient cybersecurity measures and urged administrators to better adhere to current data privacy policies, such as disposing of unneeded data, prohibiting data sharing to third parties without consent and informing individuals about how their information is used.
Previously, administrators said they would commit to protecting “noncitizen colleagues and students” from detention or deportation if CFU rescinds its calls for stricter data privacy and security policies. In a previous interview with WSN, Remes said that he found the offer “insulting” amid widespread concern that immigration-related personal data could be used against faculty as the Trump administration cracks down on noncitizens on university campuses.
“NYU says in its mission statement that it wants to be an internationally global university. It wants to have diverse voices and diverse people in its faculty,” Remes said. “Our position is that NYU should live up to its stated values and live up to the values of the mission statement of the university.”
Contact Amanda Chen at [email protected].
