KU faculty union rallies for fair contract after months of negotiations

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Liz Berghout, an associate professor in the KU School of Music, had to fight to retain her job a few years ago. The experience taught her about a seat at the table and encouraged her to brave the cold to support KU’s faculty and staff union at a rally Tuesday afternoon. 

Members of KU’s faculty and academic staff union urged administrators to sign a fair contract before the end of the year at the rally outside the Kansas Union on KU’s campus. Around 40 people gathered to chant, sing, hand out flyers and hold signs as part of the rally. The United Academics of KU, or UAKU, won its election in April with 86% of academics voting in favor. 

Berghout plays the bells of the KU Campanile. As those same bells rang out behind her, she shared with rallygoers that she felt she can’t always trust administrators to advocate for her best interests. 

A former KU student, Berghout said she loves the university but believes giving academic staff a seat at the table is crucial for securing its future. 

Cuyler Dunn/Lawrence Times Liz Berghout, an associate professor in KU’s School of Music, speaks during a faculty union rally on Feb. 4, 2025 at the Kansas Union with the Campanile tower in the background.

“I love the community we’re building, but there are things that need to be taken care of,” she said. “We want to work with the administration in making KU the flagship university that we’re meant to be. And it’s working together that is going to help us rise to that.”

The union represents full-time and part-time tenured and non-tenured faculty — as well as teaching, research, clinical and online professors, lecturers, curators, librarians, scientists who conduct grant-funded research and other categories of faculty and academic staff. It’s affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors.

In September, union members filed authorization cards with the labor board asking for an election. The union then held a rally in February to push for the chancellor’s office to set a date for the election before finally voting in April to form the union. 

Multiple speakers addressed the group. Michelle Hayes, a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, shared updates on the negotiations process so far. The union has been in contract negotiations with KU for about seven months, Hayes said. 

Cuyler Dunn/Lawrence Times Michelle Hayes speaks at the rally.

She said the union had reached a tentative agreement with administrators on its academic freedom proposal. She said it was crucial to ensure academic freedom was a protected right regardless of a staff member’s rank, title or position. 

“Our goal is to enshrine shared governance in our union contract,” Hayes said. “We believe that shared governance should provide faculty and academic staff with meaningful participation in decision-making about academic policies in the spirit of collaboration. Right now, we have a top-down, exclusionary governance structure that limits our expertise to an advisory role.”

Daniel Mercado, a freshman at KU, said he stopped by the rally because he believes a contract for academic staff would mean a better university for everyone.

“The point is, if we help our professors in their fight to get a good, fair contract, it will help us students,” he said. “Because happy professors means happy students.”

Mercado also expressed support for the union’s facilities campaign, where faculty are demanding well-maintained campus buildings and infrastructure. 

Ben Chappell, a professor in the Department of American Studies, led the group in chants and a rendition of the famous union anthem “Solidarity Forever.”

He said the union is trying to keep its moment in negotiations despite a long process. The union intends to stay at the bargaining table until they have a fair contract to sign, he said. 

“It’s very clear that one of the most important things we do is create relationships with students,” he said. But faculty can’t do that if they constantly fear for their job security or are overloaded with too many classes, Chappell said. 

“These are the kinds of things that we’re trying to change to make the whole institution better,” he said. “And really just to make it possible for us to do the work that we all want to do.”

Union members were already preparing for the next bargaining session, which was scheduled to begin just hours after the rally ended. 

“So far, I’m optimistic,” Chappell said. “And I’m just hoping that we can move things along so that we can sign this thing.”

A university spokesperson had not responded to a request for comment as of time of publication.

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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.

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