Rutgers AAUP-AFT file lawsuit against University over Course Atlas dispute

The Rutgers American Association of University Professors and American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) held a meeting repudiating the University’s proposed Course Atlas software on Friday, passing a unanimous resolution to delay the implementation of the program until faculty is guaranteed an agreement with the University.  

The software is also referred to as Infosilem.

“There is overwhelming opposition to the use of Infosilem," said David Hughes, chief negotiator of the AAUP-AFT and professor in the Department of Anthropology in response to the unanimous support of the resolution. "I have actually never seen in the School of Arts and Sciences this level of unanimity among the faculty and this level of disgust and resistance at actions by the central administration."

The implementation of Course Atlas, which promises to automate the scheduling system at Rutgers, has been a point of contention among faculty and administration for the past month. The Friday meeting, which consisted only of School of Arts and Sciences faculty, had some expressing their grievances and frustrations with administration.

“(Management was) already asking faculty to submit information into the robot system before the last schedule meetings or negotiations had taken place,” said Robert Scott, undergraduate program director and associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, of the negotiations with administration. “That's an example of not negotiating in good faith. If you have a meeting scheduled on one day and tell everyone we're implementing the system and these are the rules under which it's being implemented in advance of that, that's bad faith.”

Hughes announced that the union is filing an unfair labor practice lawsuit against the University, citing its unwillingness to negotiate the implementation of Course Atlas. Under New Jersey labor laws, scheduling is a mandatory subject that unions can bargain on.

Hughes also stated that the University refused to put an agreement into writing, making faculty skeptical as to whether administration would walk back on their agreements.

Faculty also voiced their concerns over decisions made by the software, accusing it of making arbitrary decisions. Some claimed that software simulations moved all Black literature classes to Fridays, while 3-hour lectures, typically held in the afternoon, were moved to 9 a.m.

“There’s a history at Rutgers where we rush headlong into adopting a system, a fancy system, into a contract with some software provider,” Scott said. “It’s not well thought out, we pay a bunch of money for it and it causes everyone to have an ulcer.”

Others saw the software as a threat to some faculty teaching at Rutgers. 

"Many part-time lecturers (PTLs) may no longer be able to teach at Rutgers if they are required to give almost a year out their potential availability this fall semester for another one," said Bryan Sacks, a PTL in the Department of Philosophy. 

Sacks explained that PTLs teach at multiple universities and depend on scheduling for their livelihood, and the software could cause last-minute cancellations of their classes or conflicts with other full-time faculty courses.

Faculty also worried about the software disrupting other responsibilities of academia, including scholarship, research and attending academic conferences. Professors conducting research or writing scholarly articles could be disrupted in the middle of their work, Hughes said.

“Our hours are not like checkerboard pieces you can move around at your convenience or in order to maximize the use of physical space,” Hughes said. “Then we can’t do the fullness of our job.”

Course Atlas will reduce commute time for students and help them graduate on time, according to the University — such claims are baseless, according to the union. The Daily Targum previously reported that the University also stated the software will reduce the number of Friday classes, while the union disagreed. 

In a statement, the University noted that the number of faculty present at the meeting was only a sliver of the overall School of Arts and Sciences.

“Approximately 100 out of more than 1,000 faculty members from the School of Arts and Sciences attended today's meeting,” said University spokesperson John Cramer in a statement. “Rutgers supports our faculty’s right to voice their opinions and to advance important campus conversations.” 

No other Big Ten Conference schools currently use Course Atlas for class scheduling, although Pennsylvania State University uses it for exam scheduling. 

The University had no comment on the pending lawsuit, but University President Robert L. Barchi, in an interview with the Targum last month, said he did not expect negotiations with the University to reach the level they did during the Spring 2019 semester. 

“Let me be very clear, we have finished our negotiations. We finished our contract negotiations with our faculty union in New Brunswick, and with 95% or more unionized faculty. That’s done. They have a contract lasting four years starting a year ago last July. In a year or so we will be beginning preliminary contract negotiations. But there will be no contract negotiations with these groups this year because the contract is done, set and finished,” Barchi said.