Stewards Council

These faculty members volunteer their time and experience to assist faculty members with union-related issues and concerns, and to act as conduits of information between the URI/AAUP Executive Board and faculty and vice versa. URI/AAUP members can contact any steward they wish with questions or with information that they see as a potentially important union issue. Non-members may contact them for information about membership. If you are interested in learning more about our Steward Council, please contact the Membership Committee Chairperson, Brian Gallagher at [email protected] or our URI/AAUP Executive Director Jay Walsh at [email protected].

Professor Manbir Singh Sodhi, Mechanical, Industrial, and Systems Engineering

230 Pastore Hall
401-874-5189
[email protected]

Rebecca Romanow, Film/Media

102 Davis Hall
401-874-2110
[email protected]

Assoc Professor Melanie Brasher, Sociology & Human Development and Family Studies

514 Chafee Social Science Center
401-874-2597
[email protected]

Read More About Melanie

"I try not take the union for granted. Recently I found myself chatting with a friend who works at another university and she wasn’t sure what her university’s policy was for maternity leave. I said to her – why don’t you speak to someone from the union? But she didn’t have one, so I realized that she was on her own to navigate a plan and work with her chair and dean. Which is not an easy prospect, especially for a junior faculty member.

The union is important to me as a resource – to help explain the contract, and direct me towards existing university policies, office, and services that could be of use. Especially for junior faculty, we aren’t always sure what we are entitled to, and we might be reluctant to speak up. It’s great know that the union is there for information or if something ever goes wrong.

On a separate note, I also strongly agree with the AAUP national organization’s commitment to protect democratic access to higher education, especially in this era of diminishing public support for higher education."