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Harvard negotiators offered to remove limits on lecturer and preceptor appointments in a contract proposal to the University’s non-tenure-track faculty union on Monday, a major victory for the union.

The changes, included in a contract negotiation counterproposal, would replace the time cap system — which currently limits non-tenure-track faculty appointments to two, three, or eight years — with a tiered promotion ladder for lecturers and preceptors ending in a position with unlimited renewals. They would represent a significant change to the structure of academic employment at Harvard if the proposal is finalized.

Harvard Academic Workers-United Auto Workers does not plan on accepting the University’s counterproposal, citing other restrictions in the University’s language in an email to unit members on Thursday.

The new University proposal expands upon a February offer to remove preceptor time caps by setting up Lecturer I, II, and III positions alongside previously proposed Preceptor I, II, and III positions. While the Lecturer III and Preceptor III appointments can be renewed indefinitely, a worker not promoted to those positions would still have to leave at the end of their appointment.

But the counterproposal included several stipulations — including workloads of four to six courses or sections per year and a minimum course enrollment of 50 students per year for lecturers, as well as continued caps on Teaching Assistant positions — that make the University’s offer “unacceptable,” according to the union.

Under the counterproposal, lecturers and preceptors with I or II appointments would still be subject to nonrenewable limited appointments by default, unless they applied for a promotion to the next tier. They would only be eligible for a promotion if there is curricular need and budgetary approval.

The changes would also be tied to an earlier counterproposal from the University that strikes out language classifying non-reappointments as a form of discipline. The union has objected to the change because they say employees who are not reappointed should generally have access to the same grievance process as employees who are fired.

“So, while there is a big crack in the foundation — something we’ve accomplished by building our own power — we still have to push much harder to win the security and stability we deserve,” Thomas A. Dichter ’08, a lecturer in History & Literature and bargaining committee member, wrote in the email to members.

The Monday offer comes after a monthslong campaign by HAW-UAW since the union formed last year to end the time cap policy in negotiations for its first contract. The union represents 3,700 non-tenure-track faculty at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Divinity School, and Harvard Medical School. A separate unit represents a small group of Harvard Law School faculty.

Harvard negotiators had previously rejected the union’s proposal for a moratorium on time caps for the duration of bargaining.

Alongside changes to lecturer positions, the University counterproposal expanded the time frame for College fellowships from one- to two-year appointments to three- to five-year roles.

At the session on Monday, University officials also rejected HAW-UAW’s proposed union security article’s language, which would require all employees in the bargaining unit to pay agency fees to the union regardless of membership.

According to the union, University officials rebuffed a proposal on academic freedom that would enshrine employees’ rights to “teach, research, and conduct creative pursuits” without restraint, as well as one on “disciplinary vitality” that would prevent Harvard from unilaterally downsizing departments without consulting the union.

“On all of these fronts, we will not take ‘no’ for an answer,” Dichter wrote in the bargaining update.

A University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at hugo.chiasson@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at amann.mahajan@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.