NYU Young Democratic Socialists of America is a student organization on campus.

Half of the full-time faculty on our campus are neither adjunct nor tenured, but a part of a secret third group: contract faculty. They are full-time employees of the university who teach and conduct research much like tenured professors — but often teach more students, earn over a third less than tenured professors and have no assured job security.

Every few years, they must reapply for their positions, and nothing is guaranteed. Besides students, contract faculty make up the largest body that keeps the institution functioning and provide the education that NYU is renowned for worldwide. But the university has not been treating them with the respect and dignity they deserve, pushing the union to open a strike vote — a vote open to the entire union that will determine whether or not the union says “yes” to their bargaining team starting a strike.

The contract faculty have been negotiating with the university for a fair contract since 2024. They are seeking to legally enshrine rights and protections that should be the bare minimum for any professor teaching full-time. The union is fighting for fair compensation that covers the cost of living in New York City and reflects the inequities between their pay and workload, contractual protections for academic freedom to teach and publish in an era of government-level fascism that trickles down into universities, financial support for childcare and eldercare, the ability to have a say in academic decision-making and visa sponsorship for international faculty.

These goals, in addition to the rest of the bargaining items, reflect basic human rights and freedoms that should be assured at a university like NYU, but they have been stubbornly refused by administrators — in tune with their ignorance of our human rights and freedoms as students. The university negotiating for more than a year in bad faith has been the final straw, and the contract faculty moved to a strike authorization vote because the university is clear that it will not budge.

The union struggle for a fair contract is directly intertwined with our lives as students. The demands for academic freedom and participating in curriculum-related committees are directly in service of protecting our rights to learn freely from professors protected from censorship and to learn curricula that have had their teachers involved in the decision-making process. Since Donald Trump took office, we have seen entire departments lose funding and politically related targeting of professors take place. Our professors deserve protection from this hostile climate — protection that is well within NYU’s power to give.

Additionally, we are all aware of the insanely high tuition fees we pay to attend this school. A significant 23% of all tuition paid by students at NYU goes toward credits taught by contract faculty, yet a mere 2% of NYU’s total spending on salaries goes to the contract faculty we pay for. Nearly every year, NYU ends up with a surplus budget in the hundreds of millions — and that money is not used to pay our faculty fairly, nor is it used to serve the student body where they need it most. NYU hoarding money that could be used to significantly improve our lives and educational experiences is a common struggle felt by students and contract faculty alike. Given that it is our money as students that keeps the university alive, we deserve to know what it is being used for, and we should demand that it be used to directly serve our education.

Contract faculty need our support as the student body to demonstrate to the university that the people are on the side of labor organizing and fair contracts. Despite Linda Mills’ fervent attempts to proliferate anti-union sentiment and smear the contract faculty behind closed doors, multiple unions have already released statements in support of the contract faculty, including the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, the NYU Adjuncts Union, the Union of Clerical, Administrative, and Technical Staff at NYU and Student Workers at NYU.

But as everyday students, we are the largest body on campus that can show up in support of our professors. The teaching, working and living conditions of our professors directly correlate to our experiences in the classroom. We rely on the contract faculty for one of the greatest responsibilities to us as young people — providing a thorough education in our chosen passions and the workings of the world, preparing us for life beyond college and supporting us in our journeys even as we stumble. Given how much of the world is built on teachers, they too deserve a strong foundation to rest on.

To all students reading this, please sign on to CFU’s student solidarity pledge here.

To all contract faculty reading this: The students are on your side, today and every day.

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