Harvard, HAW-UAW Reach Deal on Intellectual Property but Clash on Time Caps, Immigration

Harvard reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday to enshrine intellectual property protections for non-tenure-track faculty in its first union contract with academic workers, but the University rejected renewed pushes to codify immigration safeguards and eliminate the preceptor classification.

Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers, which represents roughly 3,600 non-tenure-track faculty and postdoctoral researchers, has been bargaining with the University for its first contract since September 2024. The two sides have now surpassed 30 bargaining sessions.

The accepted article enshrines rights concerning authorship, inventions, and instructional materials for non-tenure-track faculty in the developing contract, codifying protections that already largely exist under University policy.

At the same session, Harvard introduced a revised article on academic promotions that includes procedures for time caps — term limits that restrict lecturers and preceptors to maximum appointments of two, three, or eight years, depending on their position. The University doubled down on its push to replace time caps with a system of tiered promotions, rejecting the union’s proposal to eliminate the classification of “preceptor.”

Removing the preceptor classification would absorb those positions within the lecturer title, abolishing a distinction the union argues is arbitrary.

Sara M. Feldman, a HAW-UAW bargaining committee member and preceptor in Yiddish in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, said that preceptors are generally considered to teach skills-based courses, whereas lecturers are expected to fulfill teaching roles similar to those of professors.

But Feldman argued the distinction often has little bearing on the qualifications demanded for either position.

“They claim that doesn’t require as much credentials,” Feldman said. “But actually, if you look at the ads, it kind of does.”

HAW-UAW also presented a counterproposal on non-citizen worker rights, which has been a consistent point of contention between the union and the University throughout negotiations. Harvard first countered the union’s proposal on immigration protections in March 2025, retaining language on withholding faculty information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement but rejecting several of the union’s broader provisions.

The union’s latest counterproposal would require immigration enforcement authorities to have a judicial warrant to enter private University spaces and would prohibit Harvard from disclosing any employee’s location to immigration enforcement.

Harvard has previously rejected the provisions.

Feldman said the union hopes to codify Harvard’s existing immigration policies in the contract — similar to how the tentative agreement on intellectual property formalized current University policy.

“If you expect that this is a longstanding policy, then it shouldn’t be a problem to put it into the contract,” she said.

A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Other longstanding issues also remain unresolved. Time caps for non-tenure-track faculty — which the University offered to remove in February of last year — still have not been settled. According to Feldman, the union would need to reach agreements on the Workloads and Titles and Classifications articles to fully resolve the issue.

In January, Harvard agreed to remove time caps for lecturers and preceptors but proposed requiring them to increase their courseload maximum by at least one additional class section per year under the Workloads article.

With more than 30 bargaining sessions behind them, Feldman said she wants the University to collaborate with the union on major outstanding articles — particularly non-citizen worker rights — in the same spirit as the tentative agreement on intellectual property.

“We hope that the Corporation will want to work together with us to mitigate the problems that come with visa issues and immigration enforcement so that people can do their work,” she said.

—Staff writer Taylor M. Bierwerth can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @tmbierwerth.

—Staff writer Noah A. Ferris can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @noahaferris.