General Provisions - Commemorative Months - Muslim American Heritage and Jewish American Heritage Months
HB0661 expands collective bargaining rights for faculty at Maryland’s public higher education institutions. It defines “faculty” to include full-time, part-time, and adjunct employees at University System of Maryland institutions, Morgan State University, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland whose work involves academic responsibilities, including teachers, researchers, and department heads, while excluding officers, supervisory employees, confidential employees, and student employees. The bill also clarifies that faculty at the Maryland School for the Deaf remain covered under existing law and makes conforming changes to the State Government and State Personnel and Pensions articles.
The bill requires each covered institution to maintain separate bargaining units, and it creates distinct units for eligible faculty and for contingent, contractual, or temporary faculty. Those two faculty units may choose to combine into a single bargaining unit. The bill also revises exclusions from collective bargaining coverage so that certain contingent, contractual, temporary, and out-of-state employees are excluded except where they are faculty, and it updates definitions tied to employee organizations and bargaining representation. The act takes effect July 1, 2025.
HB0661 would amend Maryland’s State Government and State Personnel and Pensions laws to expressly bring faculty at public higher education institutions within the state collective bargaining framework. It would create new bargaining-unit categories for faculty, including a separate unit for contingent, contractual, or temporary faculty, and would alter existing exclusions that currently limit faculty participation in labor organizations and bargaining units. The bill would affect the University System of Maryland, Morgan State University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and Baltimore City Community College through the collective bargaining structure, while leaving existing treatment of Maryland School for the Deaf faculty intact.
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the overall sentiment appears supportive or at least procedurally advancing, with the measure introduced by a large group of delegates and assigned to Appropriations. The bill’s framing suggests an effort to expand labor rights for higher education faculty, which is typically supported by faculty advocates and labor organizations. No opposing arguments are documented in the provided context.
The main points of contention likely concern whether faculty should be treated as a distinct bargaining category and whether contingent, contractual, and temporary faculty should be included in or separated from other faculty bargaining units. Institutions may also object to the administrative and labor-relations implications of expanding bargaining rights, while faculty and unions may favor the broader coverage and the option to combine units. Another potential issue is the bill’s carve-outs for supervisory, managerial, confidential, and student employees, which define who is excluded from the new bargaining rights.