Jaclyn Kurash

​I’m from Pittsburgh and come from a union family. My family was conscious of the rights of others, of disparities in how people are treated along lines of gender, class, and race, and the role unions can play in equalizing those relationships. Because I'm both a contingent faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh and a new parent, concerns for the stability of my job are always on my mind. When I was preparing for the birth of our first child, I found that it was very challenging to decipher the policy for family leave for NTS faculty. The documents outlining this policy were very opaque. And although in the end I received a very generous leave, I know that other NTS faculty in the same condition may not have because of the arbitrariness with which Pitt administers its policies. I believe that having a union there to support you allows for greater clarity and more fairness across the board. I support the Union of Pitt Faculty and I hope that we can move quickly to an election that will secure greater equality for all of us who work here.
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--Jaclyn Kurash, Lecturer, German