An email was sent to all Tufts students on Oct. 31 about disagreements with the professors of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, as negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement enter their 18th month.
The email, attributed to Bárbara Brizuela, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and SMFA Dean Scheri Fultineer, raised concerns within the SEIU Local 509, the union which represents the PoPs, over their demands and the unexpectedly slow progress of talks.
“Collective bargaining between Tufts and the PoPs began in April 2024, and the university has put forward a proposal that is both financially and structurally sound,” Brizuela and Fultineer wrote in a statement to the Daily.
In response to Tufts’ financial proposal and explanation for why bargaining has stalled, an SEIU Local 509 spokesperson with direct knowledge of negotiations described a sentiment of consistent disrespect for their demands for wage increases.
“The university is refusing to make fair offers. We know Tufts can afford our proposals,” the spokesperson said. “We know that Tufts has chosen to make discretionary payments in all sorts of situations, not only to hire administrators, some of whom make over a million dollars a year but also to support tenure track faculty, to support students.”
SMFA students expressed frustration with the slow progress and hoped for more frequent communication from the administration.
“18 months is just way too long to not have direct communication and give answers [to students and faculty],” Julia Wilkinson, a second-year in the combined degree program, said.
“The lack of communication is probably also not helping with [bargaining] between the staff and the administration,” Maya Ventura, another second-year in the combined degree program, said.
In their email, Brizuela and Fultineer asserted that Tufts’ proposal for wage increases balances competitive pay and fiscal security, while also raising concerns about the long-term feasibility of the proposal offered by the SEIU Local 509.
“Our recently revised five-year compensation proposal includes an average 6% salary increase in the first year … followed by guaranteed compounding increases over the following four years,” they wrote. “The union’s latest financial proposal includes a roughly 30% wage increase over three years, with some faculty receiving up to an 18% raise in the first year.”
They added that, in justifying their proposal by comparing it to peer institutions, the union failed to differentiate between tenured and non-tenured faculty, potentially inflating average salaries.
“A more appropriate comparison, such as with recent job postings from peer institutions, indicates that the university’s proposal is in line with the market for these positions,” Brizuela and Fultineer wrote.
In response, the SEIU Local 509 spokesperson said the union’s comparison was based on Tufts’ own selection of peer institutions through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Therefore, they argue, the university should either raise salaries to match its peers or compare itself to different institutions.
“At the end of the day, if they really aren’t pleased with [the peer comparisons], they could change those at any point simply by paying their faculty something much closer to the actual cost of living in Boston,” they said.
Responding to allegations that the union’s proposal may not be financially sustainable, the spokesperson noted other areas in which Tufts spends significant amounts of money on salaries.
“Faculty at SMFA, compared to Tufts’ peer institutions, make the worst salaries across the board when adjusted for cost of living,” the spokesperson said. “Therefore we’re hoping that Tufts, as a very wealthy institution, would choose to prioritize the faculty who are keeping its doors open.”
According to Patrick Collins, the executive director of media relations at Tufts, PoPs still receive annual merit-based pay raises even without potential wage increases.
“PoPs received a 2.5% wage increase on September 1, 2025,” Collins wrote. “Merit pay is directly connected to an employee’s performance of job responsibilities and achievement of goals for the year and reflects Tufts’ pay for performance philosophy. It is not tied to inflation.”
Despite the impasse on wage bargaining, Collins explained that the union and Tufts have reached some agreements.
“The university has reached tentative agreements on over 20 proposals. These agreements typically involved concessions from both the university and the union, drafts that we passed back and forth with edits and redlines, reflecting a collaborative effort to resolve key issues,” he wrote.
Beyond bargaining around wages, several non-financial issues remain disputed, namely the restructuring of SMFA departments, the use of mediators and support for international faculty. The spokesperson said the university did little to help international faculty with visa and green card applications until sweeping federal changes were enacted.
“Tufts supports international faculty in many ways, including through visa sponsorship and other services provided by the Tufts International Center … [as well as] covering visa expedition fees on a case-by-case basis.” Collins wrote.
The spokesperson also shared concerns around a lack of consultation and feedback in the consolidation of studio departments.
“The restructuring of departments really speaks to the lack of space for faculty, staff and student voice at the SMFA,” the spokesperson said.
In the school-wide email, Brizuela and Fultineer also requested that the union engage in mediation to forge “a constructive path forward.”
