A union rally.
Contract Faculty United – UAW
Nearly 1,500 college students and advocates said they are in full support of a faculty strike should NYU professors not reach a fair contract with the school’s administration by Monday.
New York University (NYU) students and other school community members, including alumni, said the administration should settle a contract with the educators to avert a faculty strike. Contract Faculty United — UAW (CFU-UAW), the union representing NYU’s full-time, non-tenure track faculty, said it will strike on March 23 if a fair contract is not settled in time.
“Contract faculty are half of NYU’s full-time professors. Like tenured and tenure-track faculty, contract faculty hold a wide range of teaching, research, and administrative roles,” the students said in a collective statement.
The group urged NYU president Linda Mills and provost Georgina Dopico to come to an agreement with the professors as soon as possible.
“Should a strike be necessary, we will stand in solidarity with contract faculty,” they said.
A strike would impact the school’s total enrollment, which was over 60,000 as of fall 2025; this includes 29,471 undergraduates; 27,804 graduate and professional school students; and 3,250 people enrolled in noncredit programs.
Around 1,000 full-time non-tenure faculty at NYU will strike at 9 a.m. on Monday if a contract is not settled. The union voted 90% in favor of a walkout on Feb. 23, after contract negotiations with school leadership reached a stalemate.
The union’s demands focus on compensation, job security, academic freedom, AI, and a workload that includes language courses requiring faculty to meet four times a week.
So far, the union said some progress was made with the administration on March 13, but talks on compensation, workload and shared governance remain stagnant.
Elisabeth Fay, a member of the bargaining committee, said the administration is refusing to discuss salary compression, a term used when there is little difference in pay between employees with different skill sets or levels of experience.
Despite significant student backing, clinical associate professor Sarah Ema Friedland claimed that NYU’s administration, through multiple emails, sought to undermine student and parent support for the faculty.
“It’s been amazing to know that so many students are proactively supporting our campaign and educating their classmates and families about why our contract matters to their education,” she said.
Friedland added that striking is a last resort; she said the staff feels that they have been pushed into a labor walkout.
“This isn’t just about us,” she said. “It’s about ensuring that all NYU faculty have the support they need to continue offering a world-class education and that job insecurity, lack of academic freedom protections, and the day-to-day financial stresses of their professors living in one of the world’s most expensive cities don’t negatively impact the classroom and mentoring experience of our students.”
NYU leaders explained that they have made a significant counterproposal to increase compensation to the union members; The latest package guarantees a new $90,000 base salary at the assistant rank for this coming academic year. Average salaries for unionized full-time contract faculty would be approximately $140,000 by the 2030-2031 academic year, an increase of nearly 20%, they said.
A spokesperson for NYU said that administrators are continuing to bargain in good faith but oppose a strike, arguing that their current offer alredy includes a significant salary increase.
“Why would the union choose to disrupt thousands of students’ education when they have a market-leading offer in hand–and when the University has been pressing to resolve this contract through an independent mediator for the past five months?” the spokesperson said. “The university recently offered CFU members the highest minimum salaries of any unionized full-time contract faculty in the country, alongside strong benefits, guaranteed raises and more.”
The spokesperson added that students are the school’s top priority.
“We cannot lose sight of our responsibility to our students, no matter what happens,” he said. “They are our top priority and we are prepared to continue their academic progress if the union goes on strike.”
It is unclear at this time what the school’s contingency plans are if the faculty walks out on Monday.