Howard County Executive Calvin Ball recently called for the faculty, staff and administration to “come together for the greater good” of Howard Community College (Letters: Calvin Ball wants people to come together to support Howard Community College, Dec. 5, 2024).

We, the United Academics of Maryland at Howard Community College, strongly agree with him, and hope that our college administration embraces this call by working with the faculty union of the college to reach a historic first contract agreement.

In 2021, the Maryland legislature passed groundbreaking legislation empowering community college faculty and staff across the state to collectively bargain their working conditions. The vast majority of Howard County delegates and senators supported this legislation. Ball himself supported the bill, testifying that “an empowered community college staff will help keep our higher education institutions and students strong and successful.”

Between January and May of this year, our faculty union bargaining team presented many proposals, which cumulatively constituted an entire contract at the bargaining table. Our administration has failed to meaningfully respond to large portions of that contract despite having it, in full, for more than six months. In the past few weeks, the administrative team has failed to respond to emails from the union’s negotiator in a timely manner, and it has not accommodated our requests to meet more frequently in 2025. This failure to meet faculty and staff where we dream, whether intentional or unintentional, obstructs our county leadership’s desire to see collective bargaining rights implemented.

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It’s time that the college’s administration became an agent of change in the Maryland higher education landscape by working collaboratively with the faculty union in reaching a historic first labor contract. Only then can we work collectively to address the many challenges facing the college and the students we serve as recently highlighted by The Baltimore Banner.

Rachel Adams and Philip Vilardo, on behalf of the United Academics of Maryland at Howard Community College