Connecticut Lawmakers Scrap Faculty-Reclassification Measure

Connecticut lawmakers have dropped controversial language in a budget bill that would have had the effect of stripping many faculty members at public colleges of their collective-bargaining rights. The abandoned provision would have reclassified faculty members as “managerial employees” not covered by collective bargaining if they served as chairs of academic departments or held certain other decision-making roles. Groups representing the affected faculty members strongly opposed the reclassification clause, and the state General Assembly’s joint Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee voted Thursday to remove it. Legislative staff members said the language initially had been proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat. The governor’s staff did not return calls from The Chronicle asking why he had put forth the reclassification measure.