Columbia Postdoctoral Workers along with the Columbia chapter of American Association of University Professors (AAUP-CU) are launching an online petition requesting Columbia to refund the retirement contributions of officers that were curtailed during the pandemic.
You can read and sign the petition here.
When adding your name, please fill in the TITLE, ORGANIZATION and DEPARTMENT fields in order to show support from across the university.
Background:
By the end of 2020, we were informed that in anticipation of a financial cataclysm, officers (research, instruction and administration) would see their retirement contributions “moderated” to a minimum, after a year when we all went the extra mile to maintain the university open.
In September 2021 we learned that not only did these revenue losses never materialize, but Columbia earned $150M in profit and the endowment grew from $11.3B to $14.35B. Notably, similar measures at Johns Hopkins University were reversed upon a faculty-driven audit that proved no losses.
This measure particularly hurts the future income of young researchers and early career faculty during a stage of our careers where we are starting to build for our future: a punishment rather than recognition for being ESSENTIAL during these unprecedented times.
On February 25 the Executive Boards of our union and AAUP-CU sent a letter to the administration making this request but we have not heard any response yet. Therefore, we are requesting signatures of support to the letter demanding that Columbia University retroactively refunds lost retirement contributions to all officers of the university as a gesture of solidarity with essential workers.
In solidarity,
CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board
P.S. – To stay informed about our union, make sure to check our website columbiapostdocunion.org, and follow us on Slack, Twitter and Facebook!