Audrey Williams June

Will you have to pay a subsidy to the publisher of your academic book? University presses are not pay-to-publish businesses. That said, as nonprofits, they may ask you to try to secure financial support for your scholarly book. That money is called a “subvention.” If you don’t know what that term means, you’re not alone. Most academics don’t fully understand how subventions work, who pays them, and what they’re for. A subvention is money paid to a press to help offset the costs of publishing a book.

A new report by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions provides a data-driven snapshot of higher-education unions across the country. The report, released on Thursday, revealed that about one in four faculty members were represented by unions as of January 1, 2024. The 402,217 unionized faculty spanned 600-plus colleges in 30 states and the District of Columbia, an increase of 7 percent from 2012.

The Chronicle’s newly released annual data-driven portrait of higher education — also known as the Almanac — is a one-stop shop of sorts for answers and insights on a wide variety of issues related to colleges and universities. It includes snapshots of who makes up the academic work force and how much they earn, institutional finances, student aid and debt, and student characteristics.