Barnard RA Union Records

Collection

Identifier: BC37-42

Staff View

Collection Scope and Content Summary

The collection covers the Barnard RA Union’s efforts in 2023 and 2024 to bargain with the Barnard Administration to arrive at a contract, as well as the union’s reactions to the administration’s efforts to quell the campus protests against the genocide in Gaza. The collection contains a variety of textual and visual materials, including photographs of rallies, flyers, petitions, summaries of bargaining sessions, and draft contracts. Some of the materials contain broken links to Spectator news articles. Some of these materials were also posted to the Barnard RA Union Instagram page (e.g. letter about repression of campus protests). The materials are entirely in English. The files are in Word, PDF, JPG, PNG, and HEIC format.

Dates

Creation: 2023 - 2024

Creator

Barnard RA Union (Organization)

Access

This collection has no restrictions

Publication Rights

Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Barnard Archives and Special Collections. The Barnard Archives and Special Collections approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Reproduction Restrictions

No materials (including short excerpts, images of materials, and longer quotations) may be reproduced in publication, made available online (including on social media) or displayed in exhibits without the express written permission of current Barnard RA Union Stewards. Copyright is retained by the union.

Historical Background

During the fall of 2022, the Barnard Resident Assistants Union began the process of unionizing, with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153 as a parent union; concurrently, members of the Columbia University Resident Advisers Collective (CURA) also began to unionize. On October 3, 2022, the RAs officially filed for union recognition, with 95% of the College’s 57 RAs signing the unionizing petition. Because Barnard declined to officially recognize the union, an election was held on November 18, 2022, which the RAs won, 47-2. The newly-formed union faced a protracted contract negotiation with the College, with the College using the anti-union law firm Jackson-Lewis. The union held rallies and circulated petitions to gain support among the student body. The union ratified its first contract with the College on December 13, 2023, after bargaining for almost a year, and became one of the first RA unions in the country. The contract guaranteed RAs a stipend, regardless of financial aid status, and did away with 24-hour “on duty” shifts in dorms, among other changes. Prior to the contract, RAs had had their room and board covered, and RAs on financial aid had their financial aid packages lowered to factor in their pay as RAs. Following contract ratification, the union has continued to mobilize, for instance condemning the repression of student protests against the genocide in Gaza during the spring of 2024.

Sources:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240227204012/https://bwog.com/2023/11/barnumbia-ra-unions-an-oral-history/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240529001839/https://www.opeiulocal153.org/news/barnard-ras-win-their-union-xx-yy https://web.archive.org/web/20240928203523/https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2023/12/14/barnard-ra-union-ratifies-first-contract-by-slim-majority/ https://web.archive.org/web/20241008184728/https://www.thebarnardbulletin.com/post/barnard-s-new-ra-contract-fights-for-financial-equity

Extent

0.049 Gigabytes (28 files) : (PDF, Docx, PNG, HEIC, JPEG)

Language

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection consists of visual and textual materials documenting the growth of the Barnard RA Union during 2023 and 2024, including the initial formation of the union and the ratification of the union's first contract with the College, and union activism after contract ratification.

Collection Arrangement

Arranged in two series:
Series 1: Visual materials, 2023-2024, grouped topically
Series 2: Administrative and bargaining materials, 2023-2024, grouped topically by subject, and then chronologically

Physical Location

This collection is located in the Barnard Archives and Special Collections, Barnard Library. To use this collection, please contact the Barnard Archives and Special Collections at 212.854.4079 or archives@barnard.edu.

Acquisition Information

Donated by the Barnard RA Union, transferred by Nina Goldshmid and Megan Mayerle in August 2024.

Accruals

Further accruals are expected.

Processing History

This collection was processed and the finding aid written by Maia Hirschler in October 2024. Descriptive Rules Used: Finding aid adheres to that prescribed by Describing Archives: A Content Standard. Finding aid written in English.

The archivist reformatted .HEIC files to .JPEG format so that they could be opened; .HEIC files were kept to maintain original metadata, and .JPEG files were labeled "for access" in the file name.

There was no clear arrangement of the materials other than a separation between visual and textual documents; this separation was used to create the series. The archivist separated visual documents into photographs of rallies in one folder and flyers/petitions in another, and separated textual documents into bargaining notes and contracts in one folder and news items and communications in another. Bargaining notes are arranged chronologically by year. Two items in the Bargaining Notes and Contracts folder that were marked as being digitally created in 2024 were placed in the 2023 folder because they were clearly from/about contract negotiations in 2023.