Professors and instructional staff at Anne Arundel Community College have unionized.

The union, called Riverhawk Educators United, has been recognized by the Maryland Public Employee Relations Board. The group is affiliated with the Maryland State Education Association.

Maryland’s community college instructors gained the right to collectively bargain in 2021 after years of organizing. Employees at community colleges could, starting in September 2022, file for recognition of their union by showing that a majority of employees in their bargaining unit support forming a union.

Adjunct faculty at Anne Arundel Community College unionized in 2023.

Full-time faculty union organizers said 62% of professors and instructional staff supported the efforts to form Riverhawk Educators United.

“It’s been very grassroots,” said Zoe Farquhar, an assistant professor in communications at the community college. “We’ve really been focused on what we want to get across to administration and our community.”

Farquhar said she joined the unionization effort after having her first child, Olivia, in 2024. She got the federally required minimum time for maternity leave and had to use all of her paid time off that she had accrued over two years of teaching at the community college.

“That was really my motivating factor to join the union,” she said. “That experience encouraged me to start to organize for my own future if I plan to have more children while I work here, and for other people’s futures as well.”

Dan Baum, the executive director of strategic communications for the community college, said “the administration will work with and develop a relationship with union representatives through good faith negotiations and continue the collaborative relationship with our full-time faculty as we have with our unionized part-time faculty.”

Next steps in the push, once the union is formally recognized by the Public Employee Relations Board, will be to bargain for the union’s first contract. Farquhar said that working with the Maryland State Education Association has given the group confidence that it is taking the right steps.

“They support our work, and they support our organizing,” Farquhar said. “It’s been a really positive experience so far, and we’re excited to take the next steps.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.