Over 100 contract faculty union members and student organizers rallied outside the Paulson Center Tuesday afternoon for the first time this semester, demanding that NYU administrators bolster protections for international faculty.
At the protest organized by Contract Faculty United, which represents nearly 1,000 full-time staff, union members doubled-down on their push to secure visas for international faculty ahead of negotiations with administrators next Friday. The demonstration featured around 10 speakers, including several CFU members, students representing NYU’s chapters of the Sunrise Movement and Young Democratic Socialists of America and New York City Assemblymembers Deborah Glick and Jo Anne Simon. Protesters held signs reading “NYU CAN’T WORK WITHOUT US” while chanting “Students, staff and faculty, stand in solidarity.”
“They have been unwilling to put anything of value forward for contract faculty members,” Richard Dorritie, a member of CFU’s bargaining committee and professor at the Rory Meyers School of Nursing, told WSN. “That’s why we held this rally today, as a public demonstration that this is not the way forward.”
Tandon professor Ahmed Ansari told WSN that when faculty members are hired, administrators do not guarantee long-term visa sponsorship or green cards. He said that faculty members who are currently on short-term visas have to go through “hours and hours” of paperwork during annual renewals, in which they could face financial depreciation or lose their jobs if visas are not approved on time.
Ansari said “slow” communications from the Office of Global Services — which oversees visa sponsorship at NYU — can impede application deadlines and subsequently lead to deportation or status cancellation. He said that to better support international faculty, administrators should be more responsive and “transparent.”
“The school can file the paperwork and sponsor people for visas, whether or not the federal government accepts the paperwork,” Ansari said. “The school can initiate all of these things, and they’re not trying very hard right now.”
Despite CFU asking NYU to reimburse fees related to obtaining visas for faculty and their families in August, union members say administrators have yet to respond. The union is also requesting a 6% standardized annual pay raise to balance longtime faculty members’ salaries with those of their newer counterparts, among other demands relating to academic freedom and shared governance.
The union’s advocacy relating to visa security for international faculty scaled after President Donald Trump took office in January and initiated a nationwide crackdown on immigration. Last week, Trump proposed a policy requiring that employers pay $100,000 for new H-1B visa applications, which sponsor individuals working in “specialty occupations” such as science or technology. NYU has sponsored 75 H-1B visas this year.
“We will continue to present and negotiate, and we feel that the administration has stalled and given us terrible offers,” Dorritie said. “We will continue to show up every day.”
NYU did not respond to requests for comment.
Contact Kaitlyn Sze Tu at [email protected].
