Faculty and Trades Tell Regents Heavy Workloads, Term‑Faculty Insecurity Harm Students and Research

Christina Gallup, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth and president of the campus’s University Education Association, told the Board of Regents’ Special Committee on University Workforce that faculty are “the core of the university” and that uneven workloads are harming students and scholarship. Gallup cited a 2023 campus climate figure that 36.7% of UMD faculty said teaching workload is fairly and equitably distributed in their college.

Gallup outlined three priorities: balanced workload systems, improvements to conditions for term faculty and better communication during negotiations. She said the union and administration have co‑chaired a joint workload work group since October that aims to design a new workload system by December 2025, and urged multi‑year or rolling contracts for many term faculty who currently receive year‑to‑year appointments.

“The university is its faculty,” Gallup said. She told Regents that term faculty make up about 37% of eligible union members on her campus and that 26 term faculty were promoted to teaching associate professor or senior instructor this year — evidence, she said, of long‑term contributions despite short contract cycles.

Eddie Walker, who identified himself as the Crookston campus UEA president, described a heavy Crookston teaching load of 24 credits a year and a high demand for research release. He said research release requests for the 2025 academic year totaled 58 credits and that only 36 could be granted because of budget and coverage constraints. That gap, he said, limits faculty ability to pursue publications, grant activity and supervised undergraduate research.

Katie LaPlante, general foreman for campus carpenters on the Twin Cities campus, described the in‑house U Construction unit’s role maintaining labs, dorms and emergency repairs. She said U Construction handles most projects under a baseline threshold (about $1,000,000) and that keeping work in‑house speeds emergency response — citing a recent Middlebrook Hall water event that damaged 10 dorm rooms.

“We build, we keep safe, and we respond to the emergencies in the spaces where students are learning,” LaPlante said, adding that the program’s biggest hurdles are trucks and specialized equipment needed for larger or demolition projects.

Regents pressed the panel on whether the university could raise the in‑house project threshold to capture more work. Panelists said doing so would let the university buy more equipment and respond faster, but that larger projects sometimes require specialized machinery that the in‑house team does not have. Gallup and Walker said workload relief also requires reducing administrative burdens that currently fall to faculty — for example, time spent on expense reporting and travel forms can eat into research and mentoring time.

Regents also asked about employee tuition benefits for contingent faculty. A university presenter said the Regents tuition benefit applies to employees who are benefits‑eligible; eligibility depends on appointment percentage and other rules, not solely on job title.

The hearing did not include formal bargaining proposals; Chair Gully reminded participants that wage and term proposals are typically addressed in collective‑bargaining sessions. The special committee will use the panel’s testimony, leaders said, to inform workload work group deliberations and budget discussions ahead of the December 2025 workload system target.

Upcoming steps: the joint workload work group will continue work this summer, and recommendations from the university’s Workforce Reinvestment Governance Committee will move to the president and then into the annual budget process.