Positions of cut lecturers restored after adjunct union fights back

Positions of adjunct faculty members who received non-reappointment notices from the School of Arts and Sciences early March were restored following pushback from the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union and Department Chairs.

A total of 37 lecturers who taught 99 courses in the Fall 2025 semester were rehired, with a majority being teaching faculty with more than ten years of service to the University. The School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) lecturers received the letters of non-reappointment, effectively cutting their positions, on March 6. One lecturer received two letters from different departments within SAS.

In a letter of non-reappointment obtained by WRSU, letters of non-reappointment stated that positions “would not be renewed upon [their] termination date of June 30, 2026 due to no continuing need of this position.” The letter further says “on behalf of the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences, please accept our appreciation for your contributions” to both the department of the lecturer and to the University. The letter is signed by Juli Wade, the Executive Dean of SAS.

The cuts to SAS courses ultimately impacted the release of the Fall 2026 schedule of classes, which were delayed by one week due to the “need to ensure accuracy” in an email from the Provost. The cuts were reversed and the rehirings were verified by the union after it fought back following the distribution of the letters.

WRSU spoke to Rutgers Adjunct Union President Heather Pierce, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, about how the cuts would have affected students’ education. She said that “99 classes that wouldn’t be available to students, whether it be the three languages that were cut, or core classes that are required for others.”

Pierce also said that before the rehirings, “fewer sections would be offered, offering less flexibility to the students, and all of that to save about $1.2 million in a $5.9 billion a year budget.”

Pierce added that the cuts were passed down to the departments by the University administration. “By the time those demands for cuts get down to the department level, the departments don’t have much discretion in their budgets. The only discretionary item that was large enough to cover the cuts that were being demanded were teaching faculty.”

As the union heads in to contract negotiations, Pierce emphasized the need for job security for lecturers in order to safeguard the University’s educational objectives. “We have a system that is supposed to be an educational system. Our core mission is comprised of teaching, research, and service, but the people that are actually serving that core mission – the educators – because of contingency, because of a lack of job security, are considered discretionary,” she said.

She added that “chairs did not have a choice whether to cut something else. We need a system that gives job security to our teaching faculty, including the 1800 lecturers at Rutgers, that prevents this from happening in the future.”

Rahil Chatterjee contributed to this report.