School of the Art Institute of Chicago Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members Ratify Union Contract

May 23, 2025

CHICAGO—Non-tenure-track faculty members of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) have voted unanimously to approve their first union contract.

In an online ballot that closed Wednesday night, eligible faculty voted 342-0 to ratify the agreement.

SAIC non-tenure-track faculty voted to join the School and Museum’s existing staff union, Art Institute of Chicago Workers United/AFSCME, in December 2022. Negotiations for the faculty contract began in June 2023 and resulted in a tentative agreement at the end of this April.

“Non-tenure-track faculty are critical members of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago community, shaping the experiences and influencing the careers of our nearly 3,400 undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students,” said Martin Berger, SAIC’s provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. “We are gratified to have a contract with the union that offers significant improvements to the working conditions of our faculty and allows us to continue providing our students with a world-class art and design education.”

“Together in our union, SAIC non-tenure-track faculty have achieved significant gains that move them strongly forward in the struggle to better their working lives,” AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. “By improving compensation and protecting their rights, this historic agreement lays a rock-solid foundation on which adjuncts and lecturers can continue to build.”

The contract provides for annual increases ranging from 3 percent to 4.75 percent; compounded over the four-year term, it raises wages 16.14 percent for lecturers and 15 percent for adjuncts.

Among other provisions:

• Lecturers will receive a health care stipend to subsidize insurance costs and other relevant health care needs. Eligible adjunct-rank faculty who so choose will continue to participate in institutional healthcare plans on the same terms and conditions as other employees.
• SAIC will create a professional development fund dedicated to supporting non-tenure-track faculty’s continued education and ensuring their ability to remain at the forefront of new pedagogies and approaches to classroom instruction.
• To recognize non-tenure-track faculty members who demonstrate exceptional teaching practices, the merit-pay pool will increase, as will the number of available paid leave opportunities.
• Higher course caps, greater course guarantees, and longer contract lengths will help faculty to stabilize their employment and provide predictability in work and earnings.
• To ensure that the School better supports exceptional educators, SAIC will establish a full-time, non-tenured Teaching Professor position with a renewable five-year contract that guarantees six courses annually.

Contact: Bree Witt for SAIC at bwitt@saic.edu and Anders Lindall for AFSCME at alindall@afscme31.org

School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For nearly 160 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked number two in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world, and adults, teens, and kids in our Continuing Studies classes have the opportunity to explore their creative sides, build portfolios, and advance their skills. Notable alumni and faculty include Georgia O’Keeffe, Nick Cave, David Sedaris, Cynthia Rowley, Michelle Grabner, Richard Hunt, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Jeff Koons.