Adjunct Advocate - CSU-AAUP

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Adjunct
Advocate
an online news magazine
January/February 2008
Read Adjunct Advocate in digital
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2
Adjunct Advocate
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Current Subscribers
If you are a current
subscriber, please visit this
webpage: AdjunctNation.
com/magazine/migration.
After you have visited
the page, and filled out the
short form, your subscription will be extended by
three issues!
If you have questions,
please contact us on 734930-6854 M-F 9 a.m.-4:30
p.m. EST. You may email
questions to mwlesko@
adjunctadvocate.com.
Adjunct Advocate
3
Letters
to the editor
Part-Time Thoughts
Dear Editor:
Thanks for your interview with Dr. Dan Jacoby. His study on
part-time teaching and graduation rates should be the source
of a lot of consideration. Thanks especially for making clear
that lower graduation rates may have nothing to do with the
part-time faculty, but with systemic problems caused by their
adjunct labor conditions. Still, having read the Jacoby study, I must point out that I think
there is a major flaw in it. It accounts for every sort of confounding
variable except for the most important and most obvious: parttime teachers tend to teach many more evening classes, whereas
full-time teachers tend to teach mostly day classes. Because there
is widespread anecdotal evidence that day students and evening
students differ in motivations and study habits, I think this oversight in Jacoby’s study could very well be a fatal flaw.
In my own state, Washington, part-time faculty in the colleges
taught 68% of all evening classes but only 39 percent of all daytime
classes, according to a state study from Fall 2006. When on-campus
classes are considered alone, the gap is substantially greater.
Because the Jacoby study is--quite improperly--being widely
used to attack the quality of teaching of part-timers themselves,
it is doubly troublesome to know that its conclusions may also
be simply unreliable.
Sincerely,
Doug Collins
PT instructor in the Seattle Community College District
Dear Editor:
“Part-Time Thoughts” is one of the best blogs about part-time
faculty on the Web! I never miss an installment. Lots of bloggers
post entries that just link to someone else’s blog, and call it a day.
Blogs written by part-timers can be nothing more than lines and
lines of complaints and vitriol. Not the “Part-Time Thoughts”
blog. The writing is original, and the research is very well done.
The topics are timely, and I may not always agree with what the
blogger writes, but the posts make me think. Thank you for this
great resource.
Kelly Liu, Lecturer in English Language and Literature
American University
Washington, DC
Dear Editor:
I want to say that I think the “Part-Time Thoughts” blog is the
most irritating, high-handed and smug writing I have read in quite
some time. No wonder the author wishes to remain anonymous!
Anonymous
Cleveland, OH
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Adjunct Advocate
Adjunct Advocate Print to Digital
Dear Editor:
I just switched from print to digital. It was a snap (thanks!). I
don’t think I’ll miss the print edition of the magazine, but only
time will tell. I appreciate the lower subscription price, as every
adjunct looks to save money whenever possible. I have subscribed
for the past four years, and in that time have switched schools
twice. That’s normal, I know, but when I went to graduate school,
I never envisioned a career where moving from employer to
employer would be the norm. In the midst of all my moves, I
can always rely on Adjunct Advocate to be there. It’s great to
know that.
Greg F. Crowell
San Diego, CA
Podcast Interviews
Dear Editor:
I just finished listening to the Podcast interview between P.D.
Lesko, Kip Lornell and Libby Smigel. What a wonderful addition to the website these interviews are! I enjoyed the interview
very much. There is not a union at the schools I teach at, and as
it is South Carolina, I am not sure there ever will be a union. Be
that as it may, I found the struggle between the part-time faculty
at George Washington University and the university administrators riveting. I can’t even begin to imagine how much money
the university spent over the years on lawyers fees, and other
expenses related to keeping the part-time faculty from organizing. I only hope that Lornell and Smigel are able to keep up the
amazing work they are doing on behalf of the part-timers. I am
not sure I would have the ability to do what they did, but I guess
you never know until you try.
Helen Sanderson
Charleston, SC
Send Us Your Letters
The Adjunct Advocate publishes letters from readers in each
issue of the magazine. Letters should be no longer than 200
words, and long letters may be edited. Shorter letters are
more likely to be published due to space considerations.
Mail letters to: Editor, Adjunct Advocate, P.O. Box 130117,
Ann Arbor, MI 48113-0117.
Letters may be e-mailed to: letters@adjunctadvocate.com.
All letters should include the writer’s name, address and
phone number. Unsigned letters will be printed at the
discretion of the publisher. Please indicate whether or not
we may publish your name along with the contents of your
letter.
The Part-Time Press
The Part-Time Press
P.O. Box 130117
Ann Arbor, MI 48113-0117
phone: 734-930-6854
fax: 734-665-9001
Web page: http://www.Part-TimePress.com
orders@part-timepress.com
Professional Development Books for College Faculty
A Handbook for Adjunct/Part-Time Faculty and Teachers of Adults, Fifth Edition, by
Donald Greive, Ed.D. The Part-Time Press,
2006, Sixth edition. Price $16.00. 128 pages.
Paperback. ISBN: 0-940017-28-8
Handbook II: Advanced Teaching Strategies
for Adjunct and Part-Time Faculty, by Donald
E. Greive, Editor. The Part-Time Press, 2006,
Revised Third edition. Price $17.00. 160 pages.
Paperback. ISBN: 0-940017-26-1
This is more than just a teacher’s manual! This
little powerhouse helps adjuncts tackle the
day-to-day problems associated with teaching
part-time. From course planning to teaching
adult students, this book offers practical suggestions, strategies and advice. With over 170,000 copies sold, A
Handbook provides adjuncts with the contents of a first-rate teaching
workshop for a fraction of the price. Order for orientations today.
Higher education expert Donald Greive takes
experienced and long-term adjunct faculty
beyond his best selling Handbook for Adjunct/
Part-Time Faculty and Teachers of Adults to
Handbook II: Advanced Teaching Strategies for Adjunct and PartTime Faculty. In this book, adjuncts and their managers offer their
own insights into a variety of topics, like... The Syllabus and the
Lesson Plan, 101 different strategies and tips to use the first week
of class, Preparing for a Distance Education Assignment, What is
Critical Thinking? Large class teaching tips, Testing and Grading.
A wonderful companion text to A Handbook for Adjunct/Part-Time
Faculty and Teachers of Adults.
Going the Distance: A Handbook for PartTime & Adjunct Faculty Who Teach Online
by Evelyn Beck and Dr. Donald Greive. The
Part-Time Press, 2005. Price: $13.00. 96
pages. Paperback. ISBN: 0-940017-92-4
This is an unique resource to help adjuncts
tackle the day-to-day challenges associated
with teaching online courses. From technological preparation to course design to planning
and virtual classroom techniques, this book offers model materials, practical suggestions and successful strategies.
Going the Distance: A Handbook for Part-Time & Adjunct Faculty
Who Teach Online provides adjuncts who teach in distance education
programs with the contents of a first-rate teaching workshop for a
fraction of the price. A wonderful companion text to A Handbook
for Adjunct/Part-Time Faculty and Teachers of Adults.
Managing Adjunct & Part-Time Faculty for
the New Millennium, by Donald E. Greive
& Catherine Worden, Editors. The PartTime Press, 2000. Softcover $25.00, Hardcover $35.00. 286 pages. ISBN: Softcover
0-940017024-5/ Hardcover 0-940017-25-5
Faculty managers will experience increased
challenges due to the continuing growth in
numbers of adjunct and part-time faculty.
In addition, the increase in activity of nontraditional educational delivery systems and entities will play a
greater role in higher education. These factors will not only impact
the training and utilization of adjunct faculty and their managers,
they will also lead to such related issues as legal issues, ethical
concerns and intellectual property rights. This book address these
and related issues. The text, written by practitioners, offers the very
best in proven management ideas and shares examples of successful
and exemplary programs.
Teaching Strategies & Techniques for Adjunct
Faculty, Revised Fourth edition, by Dr. Donald
Greive. The Part-Time Press, 2002. Price: $10.
43 pages. Paperback. ISBN: 0-940017-30-X
In its 4th Edition! This is an intentionally
brief and to the point book for busy part-time
faculty. It is a quick and straightforward
teaching reference full of tips, strategies and
proven techniques that address teaching in the
contemporary classroom. If you are new to
adjunct teaching, returning to the profession or have been teaching
for several years, Teaching Strategies will help make your teaching
experience more productive and enjoyable. Economically priced for
workshops and orientations.
Teaching and Learning in College--A Resource
for Educators, Fourth Edition, edited by
Gary Wheeler, Ed.D. Part-Time Press, 2002.
Price: $20.00. 231 pages. Paperback. ISBN:
0-940017-31-8
Higher education scholar Dr. Gary Wheeler of
Miami University asked six leading educators to
present what amounts to a master class in teaching aimed at graduate students and relatively
new higher education faculty. Each contributor
offers valuable insight into the state of teaching and learning. These
are authors who can speak authoritatively on the subject of education, but who have taken the time to personalize the information.
This book will help any educator come to terms with the day-to-day
issues involved in becoming an effective teacher in today’s diverse
higher education environment. Great for TA training!
Adjunct Advocate
5
From the Editor
Over at the American Association of University Professors, it’s
election season. The candidates
for the presidency are Dr. Cary
Nelson and Mr. Thomas E. Guild,
J.D.. According to the candidate
statement published by Guild on the AAUP web site, Mr. Guild
was a full-time tenure-line/tenured professor at the University of
Central Oklahoma between 1979 and 2006. In 2006, he became
Professor Emeritus. Dr. Nelson, who teaches at the University of
Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, advanced from Assistant Professor of English to Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences
between 1970 and the present.
On his candidate statement, Mr. Guild writes, “As a contingent faculty member I have a keen interest in protecting our
contingent faculty colleagues’ interests.” Mr. Guild is, of course,
a retired, tenured faculty member. At Oklahoma City University,
he is identified as a full-time faculty member (as opposed to an
adjunct) in the directory, a Visiting Professor of Business Law.
At the University of Central Oklahoma, he is not currently listed
as a faculty member on the university web site. A colleague forwarded an e-mail to me in which Dr. Nelson writes that “For what
it’s worth, I gave up tenure 7 years ago. I had argued that people
should do that to help open up positions for others.” Dr. Nelson,
in another e-mail message, said that he had worked as an adjunct
“for the past seven years.” On the very extensive web site entry
of the English Department in which Cary Nelson works, under
the Faculty list he is identified as the: • Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 1991- • Professor, Center for Writing, 1991- • Professor of English and Criticism and Interpretive Theory,
1982-present • Associate Professor of English, 1975-82 • Assistant Professor of English, 1970-75
He is nowhere identified as an adjunct faculty member. He is
not included among the instructors and lecturers in their separate
listing on the English Department’s web page.
My sleuthing is in no way meant to denigrate the professional
accomplishments of either candidate. Dr. Nelson has spoken
out on behalf of part-time faculty, written books examining the
working conditions of part-time faculty, and used his considerable
energies to stand up for and beside his part-time faculty colleagues
for over a decade. Thomas E. Guild has none of Nelson’s “contingent cred,” but according to his CV he has worked on behalf
of AAUP over a long period of time.
Be that as it may, Cary Nelson and Thomas Guild are not adjuncts any more than the whites, who marched beside Dr. Martin
Luther King and spoke out on behalf of Civil Rights, were black.
To claim to be an adjunct when one is clearly identified by one’s
employer as full-time faculty, after having enjoyed the benefits of
6
Adjunct Advocate
having held a tenured position for decades, is a form of identity
theft. Whether it’s done for the purpose of solidarity, or simply
out of the desire to be politic, it’s misguided.
I said pretty much the same thing in a letter to the Editor, when
AAUP’s magazine Academe published “Crossing Class Lines.”
In that piece by Anne Cassebaum, a full-time faculty member,
she “decided to try” life as an adjunct at the university where she
had taught full-time for 30 years, then wrote about it.
Part-time faculty make up about 10 percent of AAUP’s total
45,000 members. This number has remained steady over the past
decade or so, while the total number of temporary faculty has
increased substantially. As a result, it’s very interesting that both
of the candidates running for the presidency are self-identifying
“contingents.” Are they trying to give voice to a majority whom
they feel no one listens to? Are they trying to woo the press, the
professorate, or 10 percent of their organization’s membership?
Whatever the case may be, when a part-timer runs for the presidency of AAUP it will be big news. Until then, good luck to both
Dr. Nelson and Mr. Guild. May the better of the two full-time
faculty members running, win.
In this issue of the magazine, we have several excellent features.
Freelance writer and long-time colleague Marjorie Lynn tracked
down the president of Wayne State University’s new part-time
faculty union. Susan Titus is a whirlwind and an inspiration to
all of us who can’t seem to find enough time to do all the things
we’d like to do. When I do interviews, I try to ask questions that
will challenge my subjects to really think. Judging from the answers I received to the questions I asked the four members of the
Steering Committee of Oregon’s new COCAL group, they have
been doing a lot of thinking. The answers are thoughtful, spirited
and impassioned. Barry Edwards was kind enough to coordinate
with his colleagues, and thus made it much easier for me to catch
up with the group.
Finally, let me tell you about Terri Hughes-Lazzall, whose
piece about adjunct bloggers appears in this issue. She sent me
an e-mail one day asking if Adjunct Advocate needed freelance
writers. Then she quickly sent me her clips, and followed up with
a phone call–twice. This should give you a sense of Terri’s tenacity
and professionalism. I am delighted to have the opportunity to
work with her, and want to welcome her to the pages of Adjunct
Advocate. Readers will definitely enjoy more of Terri’s writing
in future issues of the magazine.
In the meantime, I want to encourage everyone to check out
some new features on AdjunctNation.com. First, have a listen to
the new AdjunctNation.com Podcast Interview Series. After
the Podcasts are posted online, subscribers have exclusive access
to the interviews for a week. Check out our “Part-Time Thoughts”
blog, as well. As always, thank you very much for subscribing
to Adjunct Advocate.–P.D. Lesko
Contributors
Greg Beatty is a freelance writer who writes
everything from poems about robots to children’s
books. He’s also an adjunct faculty member at
three colleges, where he teaches English and humanities courses. He lives in Bellingham, Washington with his wife. He has been writing features
and reviewing for the Adjunct Advocate since
2004. His last piece, published in 2007, was a
profile of Washington State adjunct activist Keith
Hoeller. Contact him at: gbeatty@earthlink.net.
Adjunct Advocate
Executive Editor
P.D. Lesko
Contributing
Editors
Evelyn Beck, Steven N. Pyser
(going the distance)
Silvia Foti, Greg Beatty
(reviews)
Matthew Henry Hall (cartoons)
Silvia Foti contributes reviews regularly to Adjunct Advocate. She team teaches Integrated Language Arts and Social Studies at Proviso Mathematics and Science Academy. She has a Master’s
in Journalism from Northwestern University and
is completing her Masters in Education at National Louis University. Contact her at: lotusink@
comcast.net.
Contributor
Greg Beatty, Peter Connor,
Silvia Foti, Matthew Henry
Hall, Keith Hoeller, Terri
Hughes-Lazzall, P.D. Lesko,
Marjorie Lynn, Steven N.
Pyser, J.D., Tina Trent
Matthew Henry Hall is a cartoonist who lives
and draws in Arizona. He contributes regularly to
the Adjunct Advocate. Contact him at: mhh@matthewhenryhall.com.
Circulation
Marjorie Winkelman
Webmaster
Ryan Sexton
Graphic Design
Juanita Dix
Cover Art
Marjorie Lynn
Advertising
Adjunct Advocate, Inc.:
734-930-6854
Peter Connor is an Editor at the Colorado State
University Institute for Learning and Teaching.
Contact him at: peter.connor@colostate.edu.
Keith Hoeller is a long-time adjunct activist,
and part-time faculty member living in Washington State. He contributes regularly to the Adjunct
Advocate. Contact him at: RKHoeller@aol.com.
Terri Hughes-Lazzall has been a journalist for
more than 20 years, writing for newspapers, magazines and publishing companies. Now working as
a freelance journalist, her work appears in numerous publications, both in print and electronically.
Contact her at: thlazzell@comcast.net.
P.D. Lesko is the Executive Editor of Adjunct
Advocate. Contact her at: editor@adjunctadvocate.
com.
Marjorie Lynn has been working as a “gypsy
scholar” for twenty years, teaching as many as
nine classes of first-year writing and literature
on as many as four campuses. She has actively
worked to improve conditions for part-timers on
three of the campuses where she has taught, serving on the bargaining team for the last two contracts for all non-tenure track faculty on all three
campuses of the University of Michigan. Contact
her at: marlynn@umd.umich.edu.
Steven N. Pyser, J.D. is a writer, speaker, lawyer
and college faculty member with the University
of Phoenix (Greater Philadelphia Campuses). He
contributes regularly to Adjunct Advocate. Contact
him at: steve@thedialogue.net.
Tina Trent is a graduate of New College of USF
and the Emory Institute for Women’s Studies. She
is writing a book about rape law reform in Florida.
Contact her at: editor@adjunctadvocate.com
The Adjunct Advocate is published online bimonthly. Direct editorial, letters to the editor and
advertising correspondence to P.O. Box 130117,
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48113-0117. Telephone
(734) 930-6854. Unsolicited manuscripts are
welcome, but will not be returned without a SASE.
Subscription inquiries and change of address
should be directed to: The Adjunct Advocate, P.O.
Box 130117, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48113-0117.
Individual Subscriptions: 1 year $20.00; 2 years
$35.00. Library Subscriptions: 1 year $199.00;
2 years $350.00.
Adjunct Advocate
7
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Adjunct Advocate
the online news magazine for adjunct college faculty
4
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
6
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
January/February 2007 Volume 14 no. 3
It’s election season at AAUP, and the ballot for president is populated by two “contingents.”
10 DESK DRAWER
At Yale University lecturers are finally getting the vote. Officials at Boise State University,
in Idaho, are looking into ways to improve the working conditions for the university’s parttime faculty. Contract faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada have walked off the
job in a bid for higher pay and seniority. At Portland State University, the 900 members of
the part-time faculty union have a new two-year contract. In Israel will the junior lecturers
make good on their threat to walk off the job? At Concordia University in Canada, sessional
faculty have waited six years for a new contract. OPSEU has launched an unprecedented
drive to organize all of the 12,500 part-time faculty in Ontario.
20 GOING THE DISTANCE
Distance education faculty are living in interesting times. The right software can make life
even more interesting. Writer Steven J. Pyser has an armful of programs for you to sample.
23 ANALYSIS
It has been 30 years since part-time faculty at Portland State University formed a faculty union
affiliated with the AFT. What the group has gained (and what it hasn’t) over three decades
should serve as a lesson to us all.
24 SHOPTALK
In Florida, tenured faculty threaten to leave the state, and legislators oppose tuition increases.
Meanwhile, adjuncts continue to carry the teaching load.
27 IN THE CLASSROOM
Dealing with student complaints is never fun. These six tips may ease your pain.
PROFILE
“Susan Titus, The Grey-Haired Warrior”
28 At Detroit’s Wayne State University, part-time faculty member Susan Titus led the charge
to organize the school’s 900 part-time faculty. For Titus, a two-decade veteran of social activism in and around Detroit, it was business as usual.
THE TRENDS
“Adjunct Bloggers.”
32 For many part-time faculty, connecting with colleagues presents a major challenge.
Some adjuncts, however, rather than remain alone in their careers and isolated from others
in their profession, have taken up blogging. Our writer finds out what Michael Rubenstein
and Greg Zobel gain from their blogging, and what they offer to the many colleagues who
read their daily posts.
INTERVIEW
“Oregon’s COCAL Organizing Committee.”
36 According to the group’s web page, the Oregon Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor
(Oregon COCAL) is “a group of contingent higher education faculty in Oregon that seek
equity with their full-time faculty brothers and sisters in wage, benefits, working conditions,
and job security.” Can four part-timers bring equity to thousands?
42 PAGES
For administrators or department curriculum designers, Educating for Democracy offers a
solid theoretical underpinning, but adjuncts looking for examples of lesson plans they can
incorporate immediately, the book lacks specifics.
44 PAGES
Anyone who teaches at a college where fraternities and sororities are active should read it; anyone who wants to better understand how higher education really works will want to read it.
46 IVORY TOWER
It’s way past time for labor unions to come to the aid of part-time faculty. Can they do it?
Perhaps if leaders looked north of the border for an example of how it’s done.
Table of C ontents
Adjunct Advocate
48 FIRST PERSON
Can adjunct activists step forward to lead their own movement toward equality? Perhaps, if
union leaders stop throwing darts at them.
Adjunct Advocate
9
DESK DRAWER
Lectors and Lecturers Get
a Voting Voice
s
Starting next year, the crowd at the now scantly McBride and Director of Institutional Research John Goldin
attended monthly Yale College faculty meetings met last fall to look into expanding the number of instructors
may grow a bit bigger.
invited to faculty meetings. The committee made its report in
At its last meeting of the fall semester, Col- favor of bringing lectors and lecturers into the fold in spring
lege faculty members unanimously decided to 2007, but the motion was tabled until yesterday’s meeting,
extend voting rights at future faculty meetings Meeske and Bers said.
to full-time lectors and lecturers on multi-year
Bers said the faculty’s decision will benefit both lectors and
contracts, in addition to all junior and senior pro- lecturers, as well as the University as a whole.
fessors, Yale College Dean Peter Salovey said.
“The rule up to now was both a great professional discourPreviously, invitations to the faculty meetings tesy to our colleagues who are lecturers and lectors and a
— and voting rights at the meetings — were self-inflicted wound, since we were excluding from our delibextended only to permanent faculty members erations people who often have a much closer knowledge of
and residential-college deans.
undergraduate education than many
Following today’s decision,
of the ladder faculty.”
approximately 120 full-time lanAfter the change, only part-time
guage lectors and lecturers will
lectors and lecturers or those on a
be invited to future meetings,
one-year appointment will not be
Associate Dean of Administrainvited to faculty meetings.
tive Affairs John Meeske said.
Meeske and Bers said they hope
Meeske said the change was
the expanded number of eligible
inspired by a sense among
voters will bring liveliness to the
faculty that lectors and lecturmonthly meetings, which are usually
ers who spend a large amount
attended by just a fraction of the apof time with undergraduates
proximately 650 previously eligible
should have a voice in policies
faculty members, Meeske said.
that impact students.
“One thing that might happen is
“It was just based on a feeling
that the meetings will get more interthat the people who teach underesting if more people would come,”
graduates regularly should be …
Bers said. “It might in time become
able to attend faculty meetings
a place where important issues are
and decide academic issues that
often discussed and voted on.”
affect students,” he said. “People Fisld,rneitle slkent lwkent wlkenvlvis
Bers and Meeske said, at the
recognize that there was a sub- sldkvslkdjwnelkwnvlkwj elwkne vlkwn
meeting, that Salovey said he would
stantial group of people who
like the change to take effect next
have a similar commitment in Yale College.”
academic year, after administrators are able to make a list of
Meeske said approximately 50 faculty mem- those individuals who fit the criteria of multi-year, full-time lecbers and administrators were present at the meet- tors and lecturers.
ing, which was not open to students.
Language instructors and administrators had mixed feelings
A committee consisting of Meeske, clas- about voting at faculty meetings.
sics professor Victor Bers, English professor
Italian lector Michael Farina, who has taught at four other
Linda Peterson, Chemistry professor Michael schools, including Duke University and the University of Con-
10
Adjunct Advocate
“Certainly people who are in charge of responsibilities other
than just teaching a class probably should have a vote,”
necticut, said Yale’s language lectors are already treated comparatively well within their departments.
“Lectors are pretty lucky to be at Yale,” Farina said. “We’re
called ‘professor.’ We’re treated as colleagues and not as underlings just doing the grunt work. We’re treated as integral parts
to the department.”
Farina said he thinks lectors should not be allowed to vote at
meetings because, at least within the relatively small Italian Department, he feels his opinion is taken into account regularly.
But Germanic Languages and Literatures senior lector and
language coordinator Marion Gehlker said she thinks level of
responsibility — not title — should determine who gets a vote
at faculty meetings.
“Certainly people who are in charge of responsibilities other
than just teaching a class probably should have a vote,” Gehlker
said. “We [lectors] have been here sometimes longer than some
of the assistant professors.”
Bers said the recent move brings Yale up to par with Columbia, Princeton and Brown universities’ voting policies
regarding lectors and lecturers — and ahead of its counterpart
in Cambridge.
“I hope to see Harvard follow,” he said.
Boise State Looks to
Improve Conditions for
Part-time Teachers
o
Officials at Boise State University are considering ways to improve
pay and benefits for part-time, untenured teachers.
A commission of full-time faculty, staff and adjuncts at the school
came up with recommendations earlier this year on improving working conditions for adjuncts.
The suggestions include providing health insurance, creating a contract option of at least one year for
adjuncts, offering free tuition and other professional development opportunities, and allowing them to pay
the same rate for child care as other faculty at the Boise State University’s Children’s Center.
School officials say about 57 percent of the 1,031 teaching positions at the school are not tenured or
eligible for tenure.
That compares to a national rate of about 65 percent of all faculty appointments not being tenured or
tenure-track in higher education.
Adjunct Advocate
11
DESK DRAWER
366 Part-time Faculty at
Wilfrid Laurier University in
Canada Walk Off the Job
t
The Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association (WLUFA) executives made the decision for
contract academic staff (CAS) to go on strike.
The major issues still unresolved were a better
seniority system and higher salary.
While the pay for part-time faculty currently
stands at $6001, the WLUFA bargaining team
was offered $6211, an offer they rejected given
the salary at the University of Waterloo, which
stands at $6708.
“We want to get much closer to Waterloo,” said
WLUFA President Dr. Judy Bates. “It’s money
and seniority. We desperately wanted to get a better seniority system so that the part-time faculty
would have greater job security, and the university has completely rejected it,” she added.
Kevin Crowley, Associate Director of News
and Editorial Services at Laurier, explained that
the university will remain open and CAS members will be expected to continue working.
“The CAS is expected to show up for work
and fulfill their duties,” said Crowley. “We are
urging students to go to classes. It’s unclear
whether all CAS people will walk the strike
or whether some will come in and teach their
classes, so we’re urging all students to go to their
classes today and tomorrow,” he added.
The information for students provided on the
WLU homepage explains the protocol to be
followed until the strike is resolved.
Classes taught by full-time faculty will continue as usual, and if the class is taught by both
full-time and part-time faculty members (such
as in a tutorial), the full-time instructor’s portion of the
course will continue.
The university intends to announce at a later date exactly
which classes will be implicated by the strike.
Minutes after the striking decision came through,
WLUFA Grievance Coordinator Joyce Lorimer expressed
her disappointment with how the negotiations ended.
“I’m sorry that it’s come to this,” Lorimer said. “Nobody
ever wishes to have to strike at a university. It affects students, it affects their years, but we have been driven out by
the employer.”
“We want to get much closer to Waterloo,” said WLUFA President Dr. Judy
Bates. “It’s money and seniority. We desperately wanted to get a better
seniority system so that the part-time faculty would have greater job
security, and the university has completely rejected it,” she added.
12
Adjunct Advocate
The strike will affect 365 faculty members, and the picketing
was planned at four locations – Bricker Street, Albert Street, University Avenue and King Street – with part-time faculty assigned
to locations and times based on their regular teaching schedule.
Aside from the Laurier professors who will be picketing,
representatives from universities including Memorial, York and
Dalhousie are expected to arrive tomorrow in support.
Just yesterday, the mood of WLUFA members was one of immense frustration, which foreshadowed the impending strike.
Herbert Pimlott, WLUFA Media Relations Officer and Associate Professor of Communication Studies, explained “at this
stage it would appear that our members have no option open to
them. The university administration appears willing to push our
members into striking.”
Yet members of Laurier’s university administration, such as
VP: Academic Sue Horton, spoke in a different tone.
“As it stands, we have very few items left in bargaining from
what I understand,” Horton stated.
However, Pimlott noted that WLUFA members were growing
skeptical of the university’s genuine efforts.
“We are still trying to get a negotiated settlement,” Pimlott
said. “The university is being intransigent. We have an invis-
ible president who is determined to balance the budget of the
university on the backs of its most vulnerable and poorest-paid
academic staff.”
Pimlott also explained that yesterday the Canadian Association of
University Teachers (CAUT) advised WLUFA to move their strike
office to 255 King Street N., unit 6, off university property.
Horton, however, explained yesterday, that like other members
of university administration such as Max Blouw, current president, she refuses to speculate on what would happen to the rest of
students’ term and how the dynamic of picket lines would affect
the rest of the semester if a strike would happen.
“I think the most important thing is to bargain,” explains
Horton.
In his message on the Laurier homepage, Dr. Blouw assures the WLU community “that the university is willing to
return immediately to the bargaining table. We remain hopeful
that a concerted effort by both parties will lead to an early
settlement.”
However, WLUFA’s president seems less optimistic.
“I can’t imagine much will happen until after the weekend,”
said Bates. “It’s a long weekend so I suspect that … we have to
wait until we start negotiations again.”
Part-time Faculty
Settle Pay Dispute
p
Portland State University’s part-time faculty union reached an agreement with the university
Friday
F
riday regarding professor pay, after nine months of salary negotiations and almost a month
of mediation.
According to a university statement, the part-time faculty union agreed on a tentative salary
increase of five percent for the 2007-2008 academic year and another five percent increase for
2008-2009.
Disagreements over pay came to a head at the end of January when the Portland State
chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 3571, called the PSU Faculty
Association, announced they would seek mediation over what leaders said was a stressful and
negative collective bargaining process between AFT and PSU. Meditation is one of the steps
necessary before faculty can strike.
On February 14th part-time faculty and supporters picketed on campus in support of
higher wages.
PSU’s chief negotiator and Vice Provost for Academic Administration & Planning, Carol
Mack, was quoted in the university statement saying that the agreement is a “fair and equitable
settlement for part-time faculty and the university.” The statement also says that the “PSU
administration is happy to provide AFT members with an increased salary that compensates
them for their hard work and dedication.”
Adjunct Advocate
13
DESK DRAWER
What is the Plan for
Academe in Israel?
i
Israeli university students started their first semester in mid-January — after a senior lecturers’ strike of nearly
90 days — amidst new threats that the school year might again be jeopardized in just a few weeks.
As senior doctors and professors were signing their agreement with the Finance Ministry on Friday,
assistants and other “junior staff lecturers,” as the part-time and adjunct faculty are referred to in Israel,
assistants
announced a labor dispute of their own.
The junior staff lecturers, who taught throughout the semester and did not strike, claimed that they were
excluded from a previous agreement the senior lecturers’ signed and that they were employed by academic
institutions as “outside teachers,” therefore they have no rights.
In Israeli academia, junior staff lecturers with no tenure often face a policy whereby they are fired at
the end of each academic year and rehired for the following year.
This not only prevents the non-tenured staff from achieving employment continuity which would ensure their rights such as unemployment benefits in case they were fired “for good” (Israeli law mandates
continuity of at least 18 months; an academic year is approximately 7 months long), but also leaves the
junior staff in the dark regarding their prospects for the following year.
“I taught two one-semester courses over both semesters
last year and the year before. Now I’m back [and] they
tell me that because of cut-backs I can only teach one
semester. I need to find a source of income for the second
semester,” a teacher in the Mount Scopus campus of the
Hebrew University told The Jerusalem Post at the beginning of the academic year.
Dr. Eli Lahar, chairman of the junior staff lecturers,
told Army Radio that a strike by the junior staff will not
start in coming days, but was outraged by the treatment
he and his colleagues were receiving.
“We work eight months a year, with no pension plan
and without academic and social rights,” Lahar explained.
“Every summer we get fired, so that we do not accrue
seniority, heaven forbid.”
The junior staff’s demands, as Lahar told the station, were moving to a normative course of employment
of 12 months a year, including full social benefits. “The cost of our demands is far lower than the cost of
the senior lecturers’ demands, which were met last Friday.”
Education Minister Yuli Tamir, who is herself a professor of political philosophy, expressed her support
of the junior staff and said “there is no struggle more justified” than that of junior staff lecturers.
“In my opinion, this is the most overlooked group in the higher education system, and a real update of
their wages and employment conditions is needed. I am certain that the main ‘brain-drain’ emanates mostly
from this group,” she said in an interview with Army Radio.
“Junior staff lecturers will have the same conditions as senior staff. I hope this is resolved. Universities
cannot allow having people employed in unworthy conditions,” she added.
14
Adjunct Advocate
Part-time Concordia Faculty
Threaten to WALK OFF the Job
w
With only three weeks to go in the winter session, part-time faculty at Concordia University, in Quebec,
Canada, are threatening to cancel classes and walk off the job.
Without a contract or wage increase for six years, union president Maria Peluso said, the 900 members of the Concordia University Part-time Faculty Association have had it with “being treated like a
side order of french fries.”
Beginning Monday, lecturers - who teach 40 per cent of Concordia’s classes - will launch rotating
strikes. Disruptions are expected to escalate as the semester draws to a close and students head into
the crucial exam and marking period.
Chris Mota, director of media relations at Concordia, said that until the union spells out its strategy
tomorrow, it’s difficult to say what impact a walkout would have on students and day-to-day operations at the university.
“Our students are our priority and we will do everything in our power to limit the impact on them.”
Meanwhile, Mota said, negotiations continue between Concordia and CUPFA, with the next session
scheduled for tomorrow.
Part-time faculty at Concordia voted 97 per cent in favor of an unlimited strike, but postponed a
walkout until now in hope of reaching a settlement.
“We’re mild and well-behaved, like nurses and doctors. It’s not in our bones genetically to be disruptive,” Peluso said. But she said her members are tired of waiting for a settlement — and have the
support of student and faculty groups at Concordia and throughout the province.
Part-time professors at Concordia receive $5,400 to teach a three-credit, 13-week course. Peluso
said that not only compares badly with the roughly $7,000 that lecturers at Université du Québec à
Montréal and Université de Montréal receive, but with the $6,800 Concordia pays full-time faculty
who teach an extra course on top of their regular workload.
CUPFA challenged that imbalance and won its case before the Quebec Court of Appeal, but has yet
to receive extra compensation or retroactive pay.
But wages aren’t the only stumbling block. Part-time faculty complain that they have no job security
and few benefits, such as disability insurance, a medical plan, pensions, parental leave or dedicated
office space.
And while pay has been frozen since their contract expired April 14, 2002, workloads and class
sizes have increased.
In March, Concordia reached a settlement with 450 clerical workers and support staff, who had been
without a contract for 51/2 years. The union credits stepped-up pressure tactics, including a demonstration during the winter open house for potential students, with helping to push negotiations ahead.
Adjunct Advocate
15
DESK DRAWER
OPSEU Fights for Part-time
Employees at Durham College
t
Two hundred part-time teachers and support staff at Durham College are being included in one of the largest union
membership drives in Ontario history.
The Ontario Public Services Employees Union (OPSEU) has launched a massive drive to recruit more than
12,500 part-time faculty and support staff at colleges across the province.
OPSEU spokesman Roger Couvertte says part-timers have been struggling with a lack of job security, lower pay
and no benefits for years, as a result of legislation passed in the 1970s.
“When the Bill Davis government passed the Colleges Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCBA) in 1975, it
specifically excluded part-time
workers from the right to bargain collectively,” he explained
at a press conference in Whitby
Friday morning. “That was common at the time and it wasn’t a
big deal because there weren’t
many part-time people. Now,
that has changed.”
In June 2007, the Supreme
Court of Canada ruled that the
right to collective bargaining is
protected under the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
and in August the McGuinty
government announced its intention to recognize the bargaining rights of part-time college
workers.
Chris Bentley, minister of colleges and universities, said the Liberal government will introduce legislation
following a review of the CCBA by Kevin Whitaker, chairman of the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
He is expected to make recommendations by the end of February.
It’s a welcome process as far as John Bisset is concerned.
He’s been teaching at Durham College for 25 years and has seen first-hand the inequities that exist between
full-time faculty and support staff — who already belong to OPSEU — and their part-time counterparts.
“There’s no question the part-time and sessional faculty aren’t treated the same way we are,” he said. “The school
couldn’t function without the part-time faculty and they deserve for this to change.”
He said bringing part-time faculty into the union could benefit the college and its students by ensuring teachers
stay with the school, rather than hurrying off to their next part-time gig as a way of ensuring steady income.
Ken Robb, vice-president of human resources for Durham College, said it’s impossible to speculate how organizing part-time workers might impact the college financially, but he stressed officials are supportive of the process.
“We fully support the right of part-time employees to organize as they see fit. We’re just letting
the process take place.”
16
Adjunct Advocate
Adjunct Advocate
17
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Adjunct Advocate
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19
Going the distance
Eleven of the Hottest Software
Programs for Distance Learning:
Don’t Boot Your Computer without Them
d
by Steven N. Pyser, J.D.
Distance learning faculty are experiencing the Chinese proverb, “May you live in exciting
times.”
Computers are fully integrated into our lives. Technological advances with increased memory
capacity and processing speed available on today’s computers allow us to perform tasks not possible
at the close of the millennium. Would you like to increase course quality and efficiency with less
time and effort? The Windows® software discussed in this article can support your continuous
professional improvement whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned online learning veteran.
The New York Times reported on October 31, 2007 “nearly 3.5 million college or graduate
students, one of every five, took at least one online course last fall, double the figures of five
years earlier…” (Berger, 2007, para. 5). Adjunct faculty are direct beneficiaries of this influx of
students taking online courses supported by new computer improvements.
The ability to use competently the newest technologies and current versions of software positively builds your professional image. This may determine if you receive (or continue to receive)
regular teaching assignments. Administrators require proficiencies not only to use e-Learning
platforms but also to use software creatively to engage students in learning.
Have you chosen to ride the latest wave of technology innovation in a proactive or reactive
manner? Are you current with the latest in hi-tech developments? Have you been working harder
or smarter? Each of the software products selected for this article supports essential tasks of
online facilitation.
1. Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier
Application: Defragment Computer Hard Drive
Benefit: Files stored on your hard drive become fragmented when you create, delete, or change
them. A file originally saved in one place on the hard drive is no longer stored in a contiguous
location and now exists in scattered and noncontiguous places. Reliability and performance
degrade with fragmented files resulting in longer load times and persistent lags.
Diskeeper defragments your hard drive in real-time. System performance and fragmentation-based problems are corrected. It runs in the background removing the need for
maintenance operations. Downloading, accessing files and surfing the Web occur with more
ease and efficiency.
Multimedia Tour: http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/tour/index.html
Free Trial: http://www.diskeeper.com/downloads/menu.aspx
2. WhiteSmoke 2008
Application: Writing Improvement
Benefit: This writing tool allows you to write, fix, edit and enrich any text. The software replaces
your word processor’s grammar and spell checker. It provides English editing and proofreading tasks
20
Adjunct Advocate
within a single intuitive interface. The program offers advanced
and context-based grammar, spelling and punctua
punctuation checking, as well as text enrichment
with synonyms, adverbs and adjectives.
Multiple modules are available for differ
different writing needs. It requires Internet con
connection because the artificial intelligence
database is updated daily.
Multimedia Demo: http://www.
whitesmoke.com/demo.html
Free Trial: http://www.download.
com/3001-2369_4-10756220.html
3. Cantasia Studio 5.0
Application: Record anything viewable on your computer screen;
including software applications, web pages, PowerPoint presentations, and much more.
Benefit: Looking for a new way to bring your online class alive
and encourage student participation and learning? Use this software to create “screencasts” and multimedia educational materials
including short video tutorials, narrated PowerPoint presentations
with on-screen animations, study aids and interactive CD-ROM
tutorial. It provides all the tools for recording, editing, producing
and distributing your materials. Camtasia’s Higher Education Best
Practices web page http://www.techsmith.com/community/education/highedcasestudies.asp provides faculty success stories.
Free Trial: http://www.techsmith.com/download/camtasiatrialthx.asp
4. Infoselect 2007
Application: Personal Information Manager (PIM)
Benefit: Forget about using a word processor (spreadsheet, database or structured PIM) to store information. Enter information
randomly as either topics or notes and it is instantly available
through a search query. Prepare or update courses by capturing
images and text from various online sources for later retrieval.
Create separate topics for each student to store all their related
information including chats and discussion questions.
Free Trial: http://www.miclog.com/cgi-local/passw_lookup.
cgi?type=trial_request&prodmap_product_id=17
5. Omnipage
Professional 16
Application: Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Benefit: If you have a scanner, this
software is a superb tool to convert
paper and PDF files into files you can
edit with your favorite PC application, save or archive. The scanned
document retains original formatting. You can convert, proofread
and edit it in multiple formats. There is an option for creating
searchable PDF files. The Professional version is bundled with
PaperPort 11 (desktop management software that allows you to
print, organize and share all your documents) and PDF Create! 4
(change documents, drawings and images into industry-standard
PDF files). http://www.nuance.com/omnipage/
6. The Brain
Application: Visual Content Management
Benefit: Provides visual representations of connections and relationships within your information. Content usually exists “static”
within directory trees (directories and subdirectories) and saved as
files. The Brain creates associations between information -- files,
Web pages, people, and ideas or “thoughts”. You link information
in a flexible form in surrounding this information with related
“thoughts”. Clicking on a thought brings it to the center of the
screen with information displayed and navigation allows you to
flow from one related item to the next.
Product tour: http://www.thebrain.com/#-47
Free Trial: http://www.thebrain.com/#-53
7. SnagIt 8
Application: Screen Capture
Benefit: Versatile and easy to use utility
that allows you to take screen captures
of websites, desktop screen and software
and edit the results. You can share highquality screen captures in class posts,
presentations and documents.
Free Trial: http://www.techsmith.
com/download/snagittrial.asp
8. EndNote XI
Application: Research Tool - Bibliography and Citation
Benefit: Timesaving solution for
organizing references and search
over 1500 online bibliographic
databases and download from over
500+ online databases. Create multiple libraries and groups to view
and manage subsets of references
and search all fields of compiled
information. Instantly, formats
(and updates) text citations, figures,
tables, and bibliographies is in over 2,800 publishing styles. Fulltext articles and resources stored in PDF file or on the Internet are
linked to references.
Free Trial: http://www.endnote.com/endemo.asp
Adjunct Advocate
21
9. DR Paper 5
11. StudyMinder
10. Respondus 3.5
Endless possibilities exist for incorporating software as tools
for teaching, engaging students and building online learning communities. Use the identified “free trials” to explore professional
improvement and best position yourself for regular teaching
assignments.
Application: APA/MLA/Turabian Document and Reference
Benefit: Software creates a document consistent with all APA or
MLA requirements and automatically formats citations as you
are writing your paper, in perfect APA, MLA or Turabian Style.
CiteWrite is the program’s bibliography feature helps you cite
web pages, journal articles, books, reports — almost any source
work. http://thewritedirection.net/drpaper/
Application: Online Assessment
Benefit: Respondus 3.5 can save you hours
on building online tests. It is a powerful tool
for creating and managing exams that can
be printed to paper or published directly to
Blackboard, WebCT, eCollege, Angel and
other eLearning Systems. It supports up to 15 question types,
including calculated and algorithmic formats.
Respondus 3.5 demo movies: http://www.respondus.com/
products/demos.shtml
Free trial: http://www.respondus.com/register/regtrial.shtml
Application: Time Management
Benefit: System that assists students (and even faculty) develop
the skills they need to get their work done. Organizes and tracks
all deliverables, upcoming assignments, tests and projects. It
automatically records daily study time.
Demo video: http://www.studyminder.com/
Free Trial: http://www.studyminder.com/download.html
REFERENCES
Berger, J. (2007). “Classroom of the Future Is Virtually Anywhere.” Retrieved January 15, 2008, from NewYorkTimes.com Web site: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/
education/31education.html
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ANALYSIS
PSUFA CelebrAte
A S
Ate
30 YeArS—And
teACheS US
Some leSSonS...
by the AdjunctNation.com’s
Part-Time Thoughts Blogger
i
In Portland, Oregon, the Portland State University Faculty
Association is 30 years old. I came across an article about the
recent salary negotiations conducted by the union on behalf
of the school’s part-time faculty. Interestingly, the union only
represents part-time faculty who teach .50 FTE or less. (Those
with appointments above .50 FTE are represented by the AAUP.)
So, from the article about the somewhat fraught negotiations,
which ended with union officials accepting five percent pay
increases over the next two years, I jumped to the PSUFA web
site. On the front page is a simply brilliant time-line that shows
what the union has gained for its membership over the past 30
years of representation.
When the union was organized in 1978, per credit hour
salaries stood at $210. Somewhat confusingly, this is translated
into a “salary” of $9,450 for part-time faculty. According to the
union’s contract, the “salary” translates into 45 credit hours per
academic year. Thus, a part-time faculty member would have to
teach 45 credit hours in a single year to earn the full salary. This
is, of course, a ridiculously high number of hours.
By 1996, the part-time faculty per credit hour salary had been
negotiated to $479 per hour, and the salary to $21,555. By 2001,
the salary for a part-time faculty member had risen to $26,295
and per credit hour pay to $571. So, between 1996 and 2001,
part-timers saw their per contact hour pay rise 19 percent. Out
of curiosity, I looked up salary rates for full-time faculty at the
college for the years 1996 and 2001.
According to information from the college’s Office of Institutional Research, “average 1996-97 AAUP instructional faculty
salaries were $55,790 for full professors and $39,810 for all
ranks (after 12-month salaries were converted to nine-month
equivalents).” By 2000-2001 “average AAUP instructional
faculty salaries were $67,717 for full professors and $53,818 for
all ranks (after 12-month salaries were converted to nine-month
equivalents).” Between 1996 and 2001, salaries for all ranks rose
$14,008, or about 36 percent, almost exactly double the pay gains
of the part-time faculty during the same period.
By 2006, the part-time faculty salary reached $28,350, or $630
per contact hour. Again, according to data from the college, “in
2005-2007 average...AAUP instructional faculty salaries were
$76,857 for full professors and $58,760 for all ranks (after 12month salaries were converted to nine-month equivalents).”
In 1996, the part-time faculty salary was 51 percent of what a
full-time faculty member (all ranks) earned at the university. A
decade later, the part-time faculty salary was still almost exactly
51 percent of what a full-time faculty member earned. A visit to
the PSU AAUP website, and one sees that the full-time faculty
represented by the group are asking for an eight percent raise in
their new contract. If the full-time faculty get it, the part-time faculty salary, as a percentage of full-time faculty pay, will actually
fall to 47 percent of what a full-time faculty member earns.
Over 30 years, the PSUFA has negotiated pay raises (though
not as an overall percentage of full-time faculty pay), negotiated
a health care fund (not health care coverage), tuition remission,
a professional development fund and is working toward job
security. I suspect most of the original part-time faculty who
saw the union formed in 1978 have since retired. I wonder if the
part-time faculty salary, as a percentage of the full-time salary,
will go up, down or stay the same for the next 30 years. For
what I can see, the union made significant salary gains in the
beginning of its representation, and then gains stagnated while
the union went after non-monetary gains.
I think PSUFA should stand as an excellent example of what
part-time faculty may expect, on average, from union representation, and over what period of time. In any case, check out the
union’s web site and time-line. How does your union compare?
Write to me c/o editor@adjunctadvocate.com.
I wonder if the part-time faculty salary, as a percentage of the full-time salary,
will go up, down or stay the same for the next 30 years. For what I can see,
the union made significant salary gains in the beginning of its representation,
and then gains stagnated while the union went after non-monetary gains.
Adjunct Advocate
23
SHOPTALK
College temPS CArrY
the loAd In FlorIdA
a
by Tina Trent
As the legislative session begins, so begins
two annual, highly publicized tantrums:
Tenured faculty at Florida research
universities, who earn an average
of $98,907 a year, threaten to depart
for other states because they feel inadequately appreciated and reimbursed
(the dreaded brain drain).
Meanwhile, state legislators hysterically oppose any effort to raise Florida’s tuition
rate–the lowest in the nation–declaring even the
tiniest hike an inconceivable cruelty they will oppose to the death.
Rarely does either side mention the subject
of classroom teaching. And why should they?
Neither elite professors nor elected officials
spend very much time in the classroom.
The majority of people who actually
teach in our universities and colleges are
not tenure-track, or even full-time professors, but grossly underpaid temp workers. In the universities,
many of these temp workers are graduate students. However,
in the community colleges, which now enroll three-quarters of
all Florida college students, approximately three-quarters of the
teachers are mere temps, also called adjuncts, who labor with no
health insurance, no job security from semester to semester and
a pittance for wages.
There was a time when these adjunct positions were themselves
temporary: stepping stones to full-time employment, the occasional
course picked up by a retiree or specialized teaching in technological fields. But with the vast majority of teachers at many state colleges now relegated to permanent adjunct status, nobody is fooling
him- or herself that we will return to those days.
24
Adjunct Advocate
The community college adjuncts
I’ve met harbor few realistic hopes
that they will ever be promoted
into full-time positions no
matter how many years
they have been teaching.
Many have worked as temps
for more than a decade and
have given up applying for the
dwindling number of full-time positions. “They want younger people,”
they tell me, or, “I’ve just given up. It’s too
painful to keep trying.”
These people, who rank among the most experienced and committed teachers I’ve ever met, scramble each semester to (hopefully) secure positions at
one or, at best, two campuses, to reduce the amount
of gasoline they must buy from their ridiculously
small paychecks, not to mention the unpaid time
they spend commuting between campuses. Adjuncts
who work in the community colleges work with a student body
that is unusually challenging because it is very diverse in age,
ability and familiarity with English, and, in some cases, in matters
of basic literacy and reading comprehension.
Without these temporary and underpaid instructors, the higher
education system in Florida would simply collapse. The existence of this massive (and growing) temporary work force is a
primary reason tuition rates remain artificially low for students
at all schools.
Yet adjuncts are entirely ignored in the debates about higher
education that rage at the Capitol and on the editorial pages
of newspapers.
Why?
I believe we are ignored because the truly grim facts of adjunct the large percentage of students at Florida’s community colleges
employment, and the degree to which everyone in the current who need special skills training in literacy and writing.
The classroom is supposed to be the heart of higher education,
system — from legislators to administrators to full-time faculty to
taxpayers — benefits from exploiting us, is simply too embarrass- but it is actually the afterthought, the one place where expertise
doesn’t matter, experience doesn’t matter, commitment doesn’t
ing to acknowledge.
After all, say you’re a full-time faculty member at a public matter and none of these things get rewarded.
According to its Web site, Hillsborough Community College
research university earning $100,000 a year, with generous health
and retirement benefits, a mere two classes a semester to teach, has 272 full-time professors and 1,490 adjuncts. The adjuncts,
summers off and teaching assistants to carry even that reduced the Web site states, “help ensure a broad academic program. They
load. If still feel entitled to demand that the taxpayers support know how to make class work (sic) interesting because teaching
the research you want to do for your second or fifth academic takes priority over research.”
“Teaching over research?”
publication on some obscure
Spare me. I have at least 124
topic, the last thing you want
students enrolled in my classes.
to acknowledge is that there
I have no campus phone number,
are thousands of equally expewe are ignored
and the adjunct office, which I
rienced instructors earning less
because the truly grim facts
share with an indeterminate numthan $7,000 a semester to teach
ber of other adjuncts, contains
twice as many classes as you
of adjunct employment, and
four desks and one computer, so
do, while receiving none of the
between classes, I work in my
perks of your job. No help in the
the degree to which everycar. My students use my home
classroom, no benefits, no retireone in the current system —
phone to contact me, and I have
ment, no summer paycheck, no
no place on campus to meet pri“time off” for research and not
from legislators to adminisvately with them.
even job security from semester
Students lose out when we
to semester.
trators to full-time faculty to
starve education this way; turnLikewise, if you’re a legislator
taxpayers — benefits from
ing the majority of instructors
trying to claim that you’re creatinto temporary laborers disrupts
ing viable jobs in the state, while
exploiting us,
campuses. Community colleges
simultaneously trying to whip
tout the personalized instrucup a tempest in a teapot over
tion students receive in smaller
tuition increases by pointing
classes. Many of my students
out the excesses of the tenured
certainly need extra help, and all
elite, the last thing you want to
of them need and deserve career
acknowledge is that the typical
counseling and letters of recomFlorida college instructor is a
permanent temp worker with no benefits and no job security mendation and other things that are supposed to be provided by
who earns barely more than minimum wage, even if she has been their professors.
But I wasn’t on campus last semester; I won’t be there next
teaching for 30 years.
Exactly how bad is the pay for Florida adjuncts? At Hillsborough semester, and in the meantime, I’m not really there: I’m in the
Community College, where I temporarily teach, the pay is $1,650 parking lot grading papers in my car.
Floridians need to decide if this is what they want from higher
for teaching a three-credit course that begins in January and ends
in May. If you hang in for eight semesters of temping, you receive education.
Last year, the community college system absorbed 54,000 more
an additional $60 per course.
So if you teach four classes in the fall and four in the spring students with no increase in funding. Legislators need to bravely
(the maximum adjuncts are “allowed” to teach, lest we qualify stop whining about miniscule tuition increases and start explainas full-timers), and if you are lucky enough to grab two classes ing to their constituents (and admitting to themselves) that the vast
over the shortened summer term, a teaching load that is, believe majority of college professors aren’t latte-sipping post-structuralists
me, more than full-time work, you earn, before taxes and with jetting off to posh conferences on the public dime.
And those professors at public universities who are sipping lattes
no benefits, $16,500 a year.
That is $16,500 a year for full-time work as a college professor. and jetting off to posh conferences while complaining that their
No distinctions are made for possessing a master’s degree or a Ph.D. peers in South Carolina earn 5 percent more than they do need to
No distinctions are made if you have been teaching high school take a hard look at their own culpability in creating an unstable
students for 20 years and are providing your specialized skills to temp workforce out of their own peers.
I believe
is simply
too embarrassing
to acknowledge.
Adjunct Advocate
25
If you are one of the many professors who
philosophically opposes the
“Wal-Martification” of the American
workforce, chew on this: Wal Mart actually offers
more job stability, more access
comparable or
better wages than your own
profession offers to most of its members.
to health insurance and
If you are one of the many professors who philosophically opposes the “Wal-Martification” of the American workforce, chew
on this: Wal-Mart actually offers more job stability, more access
to health insurance and comparable or better wages than your own
profession offers to most of its members.
Meanwhile, I’m not allowed to join the chapter of the United
Faculty of Florida union at my school because I am a temp. Both
the administration and staff at Hillsborough Community College
have been personally gracious and kind, but it is frankly difficult
to walk into a workplace knowing that you are working hard for
pennies compared to the dollars earned by people around you.
It’s also difficult to express how demoralizing it is to be asked to
lecture expertly on the entire expanse of Western civilization while
being paid like someone who just got picked up off the streets to
work an overflow shift for Manpower.
This semester, I am teaching, among other subjects, Homer,
Socrates, Sophocles, the Justinian Code, the Old and New Testaments, St. Augustine, the Koran, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare,
Martin Luther, Machiavelli, Blackstone’s Commentaries, Hobbes,
Locke, Adam Smith, Wollstonecraft, Rousseau, Shelley, Marx,
Engels, Dickens, Nietzsche, Freud, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Hurston,
Hemingway, Joyce, Sartre, DeBeauvoir, Tillich, Weisel, John
Hersey and (Thomas) Wolfe.
Every week, usually on about Sunday night, I try to convince
myself again that it is worth going through with this seemingly
insane exercise in fiscal self-denial (St. Augustine helps with this).
After meeting with students, grading papers, preparing readings,
designing lectures and classroom activities and actually teaching
them, I earn approximately $8 an hour.
It has been recommended to me that I could earn more by
the hour (though still nothing that resembles a living wage) if I
26
Adjunct Advocate
didn’t even lecture, but instead simply read ahead a few chapters in the (expensive and inane and historically inaccurate)
anthology and talked with the students about what they had
read. But that’s not teaching.
No wonder it’s so easy for the politicians and tenure-track faculty to forget that teachers like me exist: I forget I exist. In a banal
metaphor for my current status, the magnetic nameplate keeps
slipping off the mailbox I’ve been assigned temporarily.
Despite all of this, teaching at a community college is more
exciting, interesting and challenging than university teaching; it’s
too bad the pay scale reflects the opposite. I have students who
ought to be on scholarship at four-year institutions. I have students
who struggle with the English language, yet have still managed
to get through “Oedipus Rex” with the rest of us.
I have military veterans who were separated from their families for long periods, and some who saw combat, which makes
teaching classical stories of war like the “Iliad” more challenging
and more relevant and more heartbreaking than I ever imagined
it could be.
I have students my own age, or older, who, after working for
decades for the same company, or in the same industry, suddenly
found themselves laid off as their job went overseas, or were
simply replaced with cheaper, younger employees who have even
fewer expectations about being rewarded for things like being
skilled, doing a good job, and showing corporate loyalty.
In other words, my students and I are in the same boat. We all
show up at that campus for the same, modest reason: We want a
job that won’t go away, with some healthcare benefits, a little hope
for advancement, and a wage we can live on.
But the prospect for all of this just seems to be slipping away.
First published in the The Tampa Tribune on March 23, 2008.
IN THE cLASSROOm
Six Tips for Handling
Grade Complaints
i
by Peter Connor
It’s a given—students are going to complain about the grades they receive. Also
given, is your responsibility to handle
such complaints. Generally speaking, this
will go far better if you pre-establish your
classroom protocols, put them in writing
and discuss them on the first day of class.
Include a page in your syllabus providing
a clear picture of your grading policy, the
criteria by which grades will be earned,
and any attendance and class participation
requirements that play into the formula.
In addition, spell out the circumstances
by which a grade might be reviewed and
changed. You’ve put a lot of effort into
creating a level playing field, one on which
each student has an equal opportunity to
make their mark. Inform your students of
this. Explain that any request to review an
exam, paper, or project in order to have its grade changed puts you
in a very difficult position. In fact, requesting extra consideration
is requesting an unfair advantage over other students. Explain
that tilting the playing field that way will require an extremely
sound argument.
Here are some grading policy suggestions for your syllabus:
■ Establish a 24-hour buffer following all class sessions in which
exams, papers and projects are returned that absolutely no grade
discussions will be allowed. Apply the same 24-hour rule to the
time period after which grades have been posted on an electronic
bulletin board. In addition, clearly explain that grade disagreements
will only be discussed in a scheduled appointment.
■ In the 24 hours after receiving their grades, suggest that
students who are disappointed reexamine their assignment or
syllabus instructions carefully. Did they follow them correctly?
An essay, for instance, must tackle the relevant points in the question. A paper or project must satisfy the scope or fulfill the goals
laid out in the instructions. If the requirements are not satisfied,
there is no basis for a complaint.
■ In addition, suggest that students take advantage of the 24hour rule to examine your margin-comments. If the reason for
+
C
d-
the grade they received remains unclear,
or they feel that credit was withheld or
points were unreasonably deducted, they
may then make an appointment. During
that time you will be happy to explain
that
your reasoning, go over their work, and
your
discuss those areas which need improvediscuss
ment.
m
ent. Hint: Post your office hours and
t ry to confine these appointments to
those hours.
■ Ask your students to come to the
appointment prepared. Require that their
complaint be in writing, and that they
explain their disagreement in specific
detail. Instruct them to bring relevant
lecture notes, reading assignments and
other supporting evidence with which to
illustrate their reasoning—and then to be
open to discussing how, when, why, or
where they went wrong, as well.
■ Ask your students to highlight specific sections of a paper,
or questions on an exam, so that you can focus on their main
areas of concern. Explain that if a mistake on your part is clearly
evident, it will be rectified. Also explain that if it seems that a
contradiction exists between the evidence they present and the
course material provided, you will make every effort to clarify,
explain and/or demonstrate otherwise. Whichever the case may
be, promise a rich and rewarding discussion.
■ Lastly, inform your students that if they are absolutely convinced that they have been wronged, and that their final grade or
GPA is adversely affected, there are departmental and/or university
grievance procedures through which they have every right to lodge
a complaint and register an appeal.
One final note: if a test has been given and graded by a teaching
assistant, she or he is the one positioned to provide the most help.
Instruct your students to make an appointment with that person.
Going over the head of a teaching assistant is an unnecessary slight
and is not likely to move the student’s agenda forward. If a grading
issue remains unresolved after meeting with a teaching assistant,
students may then request a meeting with you directly.
Adjunct Advocate
27
PROFILE:
SuSAN TITuS
H
by Marjorie Lynn
Susan Titus at a Fall 2006 rally on behalf of Wayne State
University’s part-time faculty union.
28
Adjunct Advocate
olding the door open to the Paris
Café in Detroit, Susan Titus, a
wide-smiling, grey-haired woman
in jeans and a hot pink sweater,
greeted me warmly as she realized
we had known each other in the past.
In fact, Susan shared that I had been
the first person years ago, in the early 90s, to make her aware
of “freeway flyers” and “road scholars” when I belonged
to the lecturers’ organizing committee at Eastern Michigan
University. Now, this self-proclaimed “Grey-Haired Warrior”
has helped organize a new union at Wayne State University,
the Union of Part-Time Faculty (UPTF), and serves on the
bargaining team for their first contract. Almost all other faculty and staff on Wayne State’s campus are unionized, but the
nearly 900 part-timers who teach half-time appointments or
less had never been organized.
“I love organizing people and at this point in my life (early60s), I have time to give to the efforts,” says Titus.
Susan was married, but had no children. She has an adopted
a greyhound and has a couple of cats. Born in California and
raised in a military family, Titus credits her mother with instilling in her a concern for injustice and inequity beginning
as far back as elementary school. Titus’s family relocated
frequently, and Susan graduated from the American High
School in France. She came to Detroit for graduate school in
1968 and never left.
Organizing efforts at Wayne State, a large, public research
university in downtown Detroit, began in earnest in 2005,
(soon after neighboring University of Michigan settled its first
contract with lecturers in 2004 and whose contract UPTF is
using as a model.) Titus didn’t feel particularly mistreated;
she thought she was reasonably well paid, and she loved her
teaching, but when the two staff AFT organizers came to her
after a class to “do the script,” she asked, “Are you talking
about unions?” And said “Yes!” right away.
On its campus and extensions, Wayne State University
offers about 350-degree programs, plus 32 special certification programs through 11 colleges and schools. This urban
university commits itself to enhancing life in Detroit, and to
training students in urban issues. The School of Social Work,
in which Susan Titus teaches, has the stated mission of training Time Faculty (UPTF) was formed. Members held a victory party
social workers at the BSW, MSW, and Ph.D. levels to practice in in July, adopted by-laws to establish terms and duties of officers
urban environments and research urban issues. Of course the city and set dues. Officers were elected. Then came the next difficult
of Detroit itself has a long history with labor movements, which task of contract negotiations, which began November 16, 2007.
“You’re taking on another unpaid job, Susan?” asked her
may partly explain why most of the college’s administration and
the Board of Governors have not stood in the way of the union’s sister when Susan announced she’d been elected president of
efforts. Some of the department heads even spoke up saying they the UPTF.
“It’s just for one year, to get us through contract negotiations,”
thought organizing was a good idea. But still, organizing part-timers
at this large city university has been so tremendously difficult and says Susan. Articulate, self-confident, passionate about causes and
time consuming that AFT assigned two full-time staff people to knowledgeable about issues, Titus has had the chance to lead half
a dozen organizations, and to serve on the boards of many more.
work on organizing during late 2005 and most of 2006.
“The first time I laid eyes on Susan, we jived because our energy Titus’s resume lists 27 professional and community activities,
levels are above the norm,” said Lynn Marie Smith, one of the AFT from the Veterans’ Administration and FEMA, to the Consumer
staff organizers assigned to the Wayne State effort. “She’s a natu- Coalition for Health Care and almost 40 years on both local and
ral!” She went on to call Susan brave, and to credit her with being state boards with the ACLU. She helped organize WE (Women
dedicated and outspoken, for exuding leadership, and using skills Executives), and is currently working with Michigan Consumer
Voice, a new organization for consumer rights.
developed from past experience with community organizing.
Although Susan studied English as an undergraduate, it has
First, just getting the names of the almost 900 part-timers from
the bureaucracy of the university was difficult. Then, the organiz- been social work, particularly consumer advocacy within the
ers, both staff and volunteer, some from neighboring AFT locals, health care system, and advocacy on behalf of the elderly and
had to find these people to get them to sign the membership cards chronically ill, that has filled her personal and professional life.
required to petition the Michigan Employment Relations Commis- She earned an MSW with a specialty in Social Group Work from
sion to call an election. Susan and others spent hours on the phone, Wayne State in 1968, and has earned specialized social worker
making office visits and house calls, “stalking” people by waiting certification and licenses from the State of Michigan.
She doesn’t see clients; she organizes people, her social work
outside classrooms for a class to end. And sometimes, especially
specialty. From developing programs for chroniwith night classes, the organizing volunteer might get there to find
cally mentally ill adults, administering
that the class had been dismissed earlier.
camping for the Girl Scouts of
“It’s hard, hard work!” Susan sighed, but without complaint. “Personal contact is a hugely
just getting the names of the
important part of the union work.”
“The organizing committee is
almost 900 part-timers from the busmall, always in flux, and usually
shrinking,” Titus laments. “Findreaucracy of the university was difficult.
ing people, twisting their arms
Then, the organizers, both staff and volunteer,
to move into leadership roles
is one hard problem” as is
some from neighboring AFT locals, had to find
getting people together for
meetings. For some, it
these people to get them to sign the membership
takes a lot of personal
cards required to petition the Michigan Employment
contact to get them involved in any way. Says Relations Commission to call an election.
Lynn Marie Smith: “I
could always count on
Susan to help with the
making office visits and house calls,
difficult decisions that
needed to be made during “stalking” people by waiting outside classour organizing meeting
rooms for a class to end. And sometimes,
dilemmas.”
Eventually, the huge investespecially with night classes, the orgament of time and energy paid
off: enough people had signed the
nizing volunteer might get there to
cards to certify the union to file for
find that the class had been
a collective bargaining election, which
was held in April 2007. The Union of Partdismissed earlier.
First,
Susan
and others spent hours on the
phone,
Adjunct Advocate
29
Metropolitan Detroit, to consumer concerns about transportation.
Susan Titus spent 22 years as the Executive Director of Citizens
for Better Care. From there, she moved to Michigan Parkinson’s
Foundation, and later to Transportation Riders United, an advocacy group to improve transportation in Detroit. She has been a
consultant to the Detroit Area Agency on Aging.
In 2002, Phyllis Ivory Vroom, Dean of Wayne State University’s
School of Social Work, invited Susan to join her staff to help plan
for the 26th annual International Symposium of the Association
for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups. “I thought of
asking Susan to help because our paths had been crossing for
years” in a variety of shared activities and interests. “We were
strong acquaintances” and she was well aware of Susan’s high
energy and passion and her many roles and skills. Dean Vroom
describes Susan Titus using a long string of positive adjectives,
among them “informed,” and ending with, “She’s terrific!”
In 2003, Titus became a part-time faculty member at Wayne State
once again (she’d taught introductory courses at the institution in
Susan is on the bargaining team as the only representative from
a professional school–the School of Social Work.
The union’s negotiations have received local publicity: Susan
joined a panel of involved participants in a local public radio talk
show. UPTF members, joined by colleagues from other AFT locals,
rallied before Thanksgiving last year to raise awareness, and to kick
off the bargaining. In an article published the day before November
negotiations began, The Detroit News reported “both sides declare
optimism about completing a contract quickly, perhaps by the end
of this winter term, 2008.” The article quoted John Oliver, the lead
negotiator for the University as saying that the administration understands the position of the part-timers. Titus hopes so. However,
she is clear that a key organizing principle during this time has been
to create a clear sense of the possibilities, even though, right now
“our reputations may be bigger than our capabilities.”
As Bryan Pfeifer, the current AFT staff person whose job it is to
help UPTF maintain momentum, outlines plans for the upcoming
Winter semester--a rally on MLK Day, presentations to the Board
“ I believe profoundly in unions,”
explains Titus. “Historically, unions have been demonized, but they
give people a real chance to be involved in their own work life. So
many part-timers creep in to the building, have no office, little to no
contact with others, and so feel pretty much like [non-entities]. The
union can change that. It’s a great cause.”
1978-80, before the time of adjunct activism). She was hired to teach
both graduate and under graduate courses in community organizing
and administration, analysis of social policy, and issues in social
welfare in the School of Social Work.
For a time, Susan was both staff and teacher; her workload put
her over the 50 percent limit that, at Wayne State, qualifies one for
benefits. Titus says she waived her rights to these, not because she
didn’t need or want them. It was, at the time, a forced choice: it was
either waive rights to benefits, or lose her job. At Wayne State, all
part-time faculty are hired to teach on less than half-time appointments (49 percent of a full-time appointment, or 8 contact hours or
less). Titus hopes this situation will be discussed at the bargaining
table when the new union hammers out its first contract.
Interestingly, however, before beginning negotiations, the
Union conducted a survey of their members and found that desire
for benefits came in third place, after a desire for increased pay and
job security. Titus posits that benefits may not be a prime concern
because about 52 percent of Wayne State’s part-time faculty teach
at other colleges, and even more may have other jobs or spouses
that provide benefits. Also up for negotiations will be improved
working conditions.
“A hidden agenda in these contract negotiations is to give
people a better sense of themselves,” Susan explains. “So many
part-timers just feel a lack of respect from and connection with
the University.”
30
Adjunct Advocate
of Governors, membership meetings, more calls and visits--he
tells me how impressed he is with Susan’s self-sacrifice, her efforts
to make sure the union is progressing as it should. “She’s always
active and does what she says she’s gonna do,” he says.
“I have a great deal of respect for Susan, and think of her as a
friend, even though I only met her in August,” wrote the UPTF’s
chief negotiator, Tom Anderson, in answer to my email query
about Susan.
This whole process has enriched and invigorated Wayne State’s
Grey-Haired Warrior: she has added even more to her special set
of community organizing skills. Her organizing work has given
her stories to share with her students. She has met many new
people in departments across her own campus.
“ I believe profoundly in unions,” explains Titus. “Historically,
unions have been demonized, but they give people a real chance
to be involved in their own work life. So many part-timers creep
in to the building, have no office, little to no contact with others,
and so feel pretty much like [non-entities]. The union can change
that. It’s a great cause. ”
And, as Susan Titus and I discovered over coffee at the Paris
Cafe, we have much in common as union organizers. Unionists
call it solidarity.
Titus calls her work a joy: “This opportunity [has given] me
a chance to live out a long time dream of mine–to organize
[a group] from the ground up.”
Adjunct Advocate
31
Adjunct Instructors use
theirblogsto
B
Reach Out
by Terri Hughes-Lazzell
Being an adjunct college instructor has its own unique set of
hurdles and road blocks—many times including living in limbo
between the college campus where you teach and the office you
call your own. Many adjuncts aren’t given any office space or
use common office space, can’t find a place to meet with stustu
dents outside of the classroom, or find it tough to balance the
part-time teaching position with other jobs. All of this leaves
little opportunity to network. So, it’s the few who extend the
hand of camaraderie to others—even if that hand is thousands
of miles away and via the Internet—who interest us. One way
to extend a hand is to create and write a weblog (blog).
Two blogs produced by adjunct college professors stand out as
leading in the efforts to reach out to others with helpful information, either for adjuncts in general or for specific groups of instructors with specific teaching issues and related subjects. These two
adjunct professor bloggers also go the extra mile to reach students
through their Internet blogs. And if all else fails, they at the very
least leave an impression of life from their perspective.
Mitchell H. Rubinstein, an adjunct law professor who is editor
of “Adjunct Law Professors” blog uses his space as an educational
tool, as well as for research. In addition, he strives to reach out
to other adjuncts. And all this because he wasn’t finding what
he needed elsewhere.
It all began a few years ago for the graduate of Hofstra
University School of Law and Cornell University School of
Industrial Labor Relations, as a result of the beginning of his
adjunct teaching career. Most of the classes he teaches focus on
employment and educational law, since in his other world he is
a labor and education attorney working as senior counsel with
32
Adjunct Advocate
the New York State United Teachers, representing individuals
and the organization. The need for a centralized point for his
research for class became apparent almost from the beginning,
when he started as an adjunct professor at St. Johns Law School
in 2004, and became more necessary after he began his second
adjunct professorship at the New York Law School the following year. It was during research for his class that Rubinstein
discovered there was no central source for information, and
one was definitely needed. So, he took it upon himself to create that source.
Putting information on current legal issues into one location
for his students, as well as other researchers, was his first motivation. However, once he got started, he found more than just
legal citations and current news on legal issues were needed in
his life as an adjunct. He also wanted to help others with issues
he had experienced as a part-time professor, and wanted to get
information back from them.
He tried to dedicate a blog entirely to adjuncts in general, but
he discovered that there wasn’t enough contact to only do this.
So, he tried to focus on law school adjuncts and their issues—
low pay as compensation for the time consuming work. But
again he found that most of the law school adjuncts weren’t as
interested as he expected.
“I found that most of them were really not doing their adjunct
positions as stepping stones to a full-time professor position, but
were doing it because it was good for business and was a good
selling point for their practice,” Rubinstein said. “I speculate
the reason I didn’t get more comments is that they are busy,
successful lawyers with no time.”
However, that doesn’t stop his site from getting visitors. In
the six months he’s been active, he’s had 32,000 hits, he said.
“I love to try to be the resource for all their needs.”
And while he may not be meeting all needs, at least his subject matter is making the news. In a recent blog, the professor
talked about requiring students to post comments on a blog
and whether it should be done.
Simple Justice, a criminal defense blog, criticizing him for
raising the questions, accused Rubinstein of “misblawgary”.
He was also criticized on the web sites; Build a Solo Practice
and Legal Satyricon.
Rubinstein replied on his blog, “I do not mind being
criticized. In fact, I think a healthy debate in blogosphere
is a good thing. However, I would wish that people would
read what I wrote before they criticize. I meant what I said.
Requiring a student to post comments on a blog raises issues.
Is the Prof doing this to get more hits? Many Prof bloggers
get paid from advertising. What about students who cannot
afford Internet access, do not have computers or have difficulty reading on line. I have had students who fall into each
of these categories.”
While the issues are still being debated, Rubinstein continues
to update his blog and hopes for a full-time professor position
in the future. While he said many lawyers teach on an adjunct
basis to help their law practice, he indeed wants to become a
full-time professor at either of the two universities at which he
currently teaches. However, like many colleges and universities
the full-time professor positions don’t open often.
That’s the same reality that Gregory Zobel lives with.
The adjunct professor, who writes Adjunct Advice a blog
by Gregory Zobel that is housed on the Bedford/St. Martins
Adjunct Central site, would love to be a full-time professor.
However, in his current part-time teaching role, he said he is
adjunct by both circumstance and by choice.
An English composition adjunct professor at the College of
the Redwoods, Zobel earned his BA in English in 1995 and
went to work in the business world. He later returned to grad
school and earned his MA from Humboldt State University.
He “tested out teaching” and found that he loved it.
“It was an adrenaline rush,” he said.
The next step was to find a teaching position. That was
easier said than done—at least on a full-time basis. So, he
discovered the world of adjunct teaching. However, he said,
he has had positive experiences during his adjunct tenure, even
economically. As an English major in the business world, his
compensation was never earth shattering.
In fact, he earns about 30 percent more as an adjunct professor than any other job he’s ever had. So, adjuncting makes
sense to him to fill his need to teach and his economic needs.
And, because he doesn’t want to relocate from the northwest
Pacific region, he said he’s an adjunct by both choice and
circumstance.
As a northern California native who lives in Humboldt
County, there are only two higher education opportunities—
Humboldt University and the College of the Redwoods, so
his dreams of a full-time professor position may be a long
time coming.
“I do want a full-time gig,” he said. “But being an adjunct
serves as a bridge to that. I enjoy teaching and I love living
here, so I’m an adjunct by choice.”
And his blogging is another outlet for his professional and
personal needs. Zobel’s blog is 100 percent focused on issues
affecting adjunct teachers, but like Rubinstein, he’s found that
few other adjuncts comment on the issues, even if his site is
getting many hits. In fact, he’s had 37,000 hits in the last six
months, but few comments.
“I haven’t figured out the way to get them to comment,”
he said.
One way he does try to get other adjuncts to get involved is
using his blog to directly ask other adjuncts to do something
more than just read his comments and information. In a blog
posted Jan. 25, he asked adjuncts who teach at a community
college, like himself, to consider participating in a survey
being conducted by Jeffrey Klausman at Whatcom Community College.
“This is your chance to speak up and have your opinion
influence research and findings,” he wrote on his blog. “Unfortunately, many adjuncts do not take their opinion or their
“I do want a full-time gig,” he said. “But being an
adjunct serves as a bridge to that. I enjoy teaching and
I love living here, so I’m an adjunct by choice.”
Adjunct Advocate
33
“If I can help prevent damage or save one career by someone
not making a stupid decision, then my blog is doing it’s job.”
voices seriously. Or, they think that their opinion does not matter.
Here is an opportunity to participate. Only if we participate can
we generate change.”
That is the key for Adjunct Advice and Zobel’s outreach to
other adjuncts. He uses his blog as a way to help others find
answers to questions they either can’t ask or are afraid to ask.
He also can offer advice to his peers who may not know that
certain topics could be political land mines for their future at a
college, he said.
“If I can help prevent damage or save one career by someone
not making a stupid decision, then my blog is doing it’s job,”
he said.
He also said that adjuncts need to be more assertive and protect
their own interests. He hopes that his blog helps them feel like
they have power and aren’t alone. Part of that community means
just extending the hand of friendship. In his Dec. 27 blog, Zobel
discussed socializing.
“As adjuncts, we often have little time or contact with other
folks in our department. While it is more likely that we will see
our tenured colleagues – after all, they are paid to be there most
of the time – some of the most useful and meaningful relationships we can cultivate are with other adjuncts.”
However, because adjuncts are there part time and their
schedules vary, it isn’t likely you’ll get to know many of
them. He suggests finding ways to create situations in which
to socialize. However, he does give the word of caution.
“As adjuncts, we have no job security and that means we
work at the whim of the department,” he wrote. “Letting our
lips flap a bit too much runs us the risk of losing work. As
such, socializing with adjunct colleagues is a great way to
learn who is and who is not discreet.
“Socializing with part-time peers is a great way to get a
sense of the lay of the departmental land and who the personalities are in the department. This is a job, after all, and
these are our co-workers. “
And in the effort to eventually gain a full-time professor
position, understanding your colleagues, peers, and the college or university’s political layout could assist in that pursuit.
During that quest, bloggers like Rubinstein and Zobel also
can offer assistance along the way.
Blogs Related to Adjuncts
http://www.lawprofessors.typead.com/
http://www.adjunctcentral.com
http://www.adjunctprofessoronline.com
http://www.adjunctait.blogsot.com
http://www.adjunctnation.com/blog/extras/rss
http://www.adjunctprofessoronline.com/?feed=atom
http://www.professingnarratives.com/feeds/posts/default
http://burntoutadjunct.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
http://www.cheekyprof.com/atom.xml
http://adjunctkait.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
http://aftblog.blogs.com/face/atom.xml
http://kaitatcatz.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
http://www.crankyprofessor.com/atom.xml
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Adjunct Advocate
Adjunct Advocate
35
interview:
Interviewed by P.D. Lesko
T
OREGON’S COCAL COMMITTEE
he Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) sprang
forth from the National Congress of Adjunct, Part-time, Graduate Teaching Assistants and Non-Tenure Track Faculty. The
National Congress met in Washington, D.C. in 1996. That same
year, graduate student members of the Modern Language Association held a caucus and a panel discussion titled, “Making
the MLA More Proactive” in part-time faculty issues. In 1998,
the National Congress held its second meeting at CUNY, in
New York, and renamed the group “The Coalition of Contingent
Academic Labor.” It was at that meeting the first real leadership was elected. The next year,
in Boston, COCAL members from area colleges met and, for a time, COCAL was based
in that city.
Then, in 2001, COCAL moved west, and leaders of the California Part-Time Faculty
Association, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, hosted COCAL IV, in
San Jose. COCAL V saw the group cross the border and into Canada. The meeting, at
Concordia University, in Montreal, was the first held outside of the United States. In 2002,
COCAL-California was founded. By the time of COCAL VII, in Vancouver, British Columbia, presenters included representatives of the major education unions in the United States
and Canada: AFT, NEA, and AAUP and CAUT. Representatives from four universities in
Mexico attended, as well.
There was discussion of holding COCAL VIII in Mexico City. However, the 2008 meeting is scheduled to be held in San Diego, California, instead. There are now COCAL state
groups in Massachusetts, California, Illinois and Oregon.
According to the group’s web page, the Oregon Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor
(Oregon COCAL) is “a group of contingent higher education faculty in Oregon that seek
equity with their full-time faculty brothers and sisters in wage, benefits, working conditions,
and job security.” The group was founded by four part-time faculty, Barry Edwards, Teri
Pastore, David Rives and Rosemary Teetor, who have formed the group’s Steering Committee. All teach part-time, and all got involved to create a coalition of part-time faculty
who can work together state-wide to advocate for better working conditions, pay and job
security. Adjunct Advocate talks with Oregon COCAL’s Barry Edwards, David Rives, Teri
Pastore and Rosemary Teetor.
1. Tell us a little about yourself and how you became involved with COCAL in Oregon.
Barry Edwards: I have been a contingent faculty member in Oregon since 1992, starting as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for Portland State University’s Mathematical Sciences
Department. I have also taught at Mt. Hood Community College, Portland Community College, Marylhurst University, and one term at the Walla Walla College School of Nursing as
a Statistics Instructor. I currently teach at Mt. Hood and Portland Community Colleges.
I started working in contingent faculty advocacy in 1996 by becoming an officer in the
Mt. Hood Community College Part-time Faculty and Tutor Association, an affiliate of the
National Education Association. Over the next several years, I held all of the offices of that
local’s Executive Committee except President….As a labor leader in Oregon, I evolved in
understanding of community college issues and contingent faculty issues in particular. The
group of four labor leaders that is now the Steering Committee of Oregon COCAL begun to
meet and discuss the plight of contingent community college faculty late in 2006. Oregon
COCAL is one of the results.
David Rives: I’ve been teaching English as a second language for over 15 years, mostly
as an adjunct. I have been active in AFT Local 2277, where I’m currently a Vice-President
for Contract Administration, and I wanted to have a network for contingent faculty in the
state where we could discuss issues and coordinate actions.
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Adjunct Advocate
experience was the proverbial straw that launched my desire to
advocate on behalf of Oregon’s contingent faculty.
Rosemary Teetor: After wandering through half a dozen
occupational fields….I got my Masters in Adult & Continuing
Education and set about to “build capacity” at Clackamas Community College, where I’ve been teaching for seven years. I teach
pre-college reading, Adult Basic Ed, GED and study skills. I got
involved in the Part-Time Faculty Association after receiving
help for a problem I encountered, and have been very heavily
involved ever since (President for 3 years, bargaining team for
just-completed contract). I started going to statewide meetings,
which led to meeting Barry, David and Teri. Our conversations
led to the formation of Oregon COCAL with David Rives of PortPort
land Community College, and they led to the official formation
and recognition of the Oregon Education Association Contingent
Faculty Caucus. The caucus’ mission is to organize, educate and
advocate on behalf of OEA contingent faculty members. Oregon
COCAL is aimed at all part-time, adjunct, non-tenure track faculty
in Oregon, whether affiliated with a union or no
Barry Edwards
Teri Pastore: I am a writer and have an MFA in creative
writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles In December of
2000 I was awarded an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship for a
novel-in-progress.
For the last ten plus years I have taught writing in Portland
Oregon’s metro area community colleges. I also sometimes teach
at Portland State University.
Barry Edwards, a co-founder of COCAL and I both teach at
MHCC and became involved with the contingent faculty, local
serving on its executive team, albeit at different times. We had
occasion to talk, attend OEA Community College UniServ meetings and generally kvetch about the state of contingent faculty
locally and nationally.
At one point in my teaching career, enrollment fell considerably, and the availability of summer courses was scarce. As a
result of this last minute income shortfall, I applied for unemployment and was denied due to two Oregon statues, which
restrict “educational employees” from collecting unemployment.
The reasoning behind the origin of the statues was to prohibit
double dipping, in other words, prohibiting full-time instructors
from collecting unemployment during the summer as well as
collecting a full-time salary. Unfortunately, contingent faculty,
janitors, bus drivers, cafeteria workers also fall into the category
of “educational employees. Furthermore, these statutes are not
germane to Oregon but are endemic nationally.
The consequence of this experience, had it not been for the support of my parents, was I could have lost my house. Meanwhile,
that same summer my next door neighbor had lost her job as a
manager at a local Starbucks, but she made it through the summer and then some due to the unemployment benefits she had
earned and had no difficulty accessing in her time of need. This
2. On your web site, it says that: “The
Oregon Coalition of Contingent Academic
Labor (Oregon COCAL) is a group of
contingent higher education faculty in
Oregon that seek equity with their full-time
faculty brothers and sisters in wage, benefits, working conditions, and job security.”
Though this may seem a bit simplistic, why
should temporary faculty, who have not
gone through the same rigorous hiring
procedures, gone through the processes
of evaluation/tenure and, in the case of
those who do not have a terminal degree,
be compensated equally with faculty who
have done those things?
Rosemary: In most cases, part-timers have at least a master’s
degrees. We are hired and evaluated every term, regardless of
how many years we have been teaching for the same college,
and at the end of each term, our contracts end and we are, effectively, terminated. I have a “formal evaluation” every three
years. I am, frankly, somewhat puzzled that this does not seem
rigorous enough. At my school, full-time faculty are evaluated
every three years, not every term….
David: ….If an institution already pays according to qualifications, then those principles should apply equally to tenured
and non-tenured, full-time and adjunct. Hiring and evaluation
procedures should be equally rigorous, regardless if you’re
teaching just one class or six classes….Your question points out
Adjunct Advocate
37
3. In the United Kingdom, all part-time
employees are paid a pro-rata salary and
benefits. This came about through national
legislation. Wouldn’t a drive to change the
way all part-time workers are compensated
have more success than working within
your own industry (higher education), one
state, one college, at a time?
Rosemary Teetor
that it has become accepted that colleges don’t have to bother
with proper interviews or regular evaluations for the majority
of instructors….
Barry: A little farther down on that same page of our website
it says, “We are building a network of contingent community
college faculty in the State of Oregon.” So let’s first note that
the focus of Oregon COCAL is contingent community college
faculty. There are the same degree requirements in the hiring of
all community college faculty, regardless of employment status.
Also, most contingent faculty are not “temporary….” Long-term
contingent labor in Oregon’s community colleges…has become
the norm.
Both faculty groups are evaluated, in many cases just as rigorously. So the real issue is not how faculty are hired, it is how
they are treated after hire. If a faculty member is doing the same
work, on a per class basis, shouldn’t s/he get the same compensation? Admittedly, full-time faculty have “non-instructional
duties” that many contingent faculty do not….Note, however,
that contingent faculty are beginning to take on some of those
“non-instructional duties” as part of the obligation of employment. So…I ask, “What, then, is really the difference between
full-time tenure-track faculty and contingent faculty?”
Teri: While contingent faculty do not always go “through the
same rigorous hiring procedures” as their full-time colleagues,
we are still charged with the same responsibilities of providing a
quality education for our students in our respective fields….
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Adjunct Advocate
Teri: No doubt….This issue is not even in the margins of
America’s to-do list, and yet its negative consequences are widespread….Before there can be national legislation, there has to be
public awareness. Politicians, parents, business and community
leaders, colleges, both affiliated and unaffiliated, and full-time
colleagues first need to be made to care about this issue.
David: That’s a great idea. It’s something we could pursue
through the North American Alliance for Fair Employment.
Contingent employment issues are something we share, as professionals, with many in the high-tech profession….
Rosemary: ….To try to take on all part-time workers everywhere would be to dilute our efforts beyond the point of usefulness to the depths of futility. Perhaps, over time, other groups
of part-time workers will see that what we did, first, was to get
organized within the labor union movement.
Barry: This approach might make a lot of sense, if all community colleges were funded and run the same….I would love
to have such a panacea to fix the problem of abusing contingent
labor for all industries. It would be nice to enjoy such a fix before
I retire. But the likelihood is nil. Remember, this is the United
States….Nationally, little is going to get done until our national
leaders have the political will to do the job.
4. Why did your group decide not to affiliate with any particular education union
or group?
Barry: The group that became the Steering Committee discussed many ways of working to improve conditions for contingent
faculty….We decided that to be true to the COCAL movement, we
need to be something more than another affiliate of a union.
David: I see COCAL as a way for people from different
unions and associations to come together and share information
and resources.
Teri: We wanted to create a resource center for contingent
faculty that was inclusive and had a presence. We wanted to
create a place dedicated to assisting contingent faculty without
limitations.
Rosemary: We decided not to affiliate Oregon COCAL with
a specific union for two reasons: 1) internationally, COCAL units
are not so affiliated, and 2) we wanted to get information out to
all contingent higher education workers, and felt that affiliation
with a specific union would preclude that inclusiveness.
5. How did you decide to focus on community college faculty, as opposed to all
part-time, adjunct and full-time temporary
faculty at four-year colleges, as well?
Rosemary: To be effective, we needed to start where we
work: community colleges….We’re new – by the time these
responses go to press, the organization will be about one year
old. We have a very small budget (in-kind contributions so far,
and a small grant).
Barry: Simply put, we didn’t want to “bite off more than we
could chew….” If our work was too global, we knew the results
would be “burnout” for us all.
6. Barry Edwards has been quoted as
saying, “Sometimes in this society, we do
David Rives
things because it is right, even though it
costs more money. Equitable pay for contingent faculty ought to be one of those oversight with a modest increase to the minimum. If the political
things.” Obviously, in higher education, will is there. Many see this as the most likely funding source.
state funding cuts are a reality. Where
7. Do you think your full-time faculty col
colwould the money come from to pay partleagues support equal pay for contingent
time faculty at the community colleges in
faculty?
Oregon pro-rata pay and benefits? Should
David: I think many do, particularly if they themselves have
full-time faculty earn less? Should tuition
experience
as adjuncts. Others realize how much their adminisbe increased? I suppose I am asking if
trative workload has grown, if they are responsible for assignyou have done your Econ. homework and ments and evaluations of adjuncts. I don’t think many full-time
faculty oppose equity for their contingent colleagues….
whether you can walk us through it.
Teri: Barry’s response says it all….
Barry: In Oregon, you don’t need a business degree to know
where the likely funding sources are … or are not. Some say
that a sales tax would be the best and easiest funding source. In
Oregon, we do not have a sales tax….
Since the Republicans took over control of the state capitol
nearly 20 years ago, Oregonians have seen a plethora of tax and
fee exemptions, almost all for the rich and advantaged. One hope
is that if the Democrats, who took control of the Legislature
in 2006, can gain more seats this election cycle, then they can
eliminate some or all of these exemptions. That may take some
time and a lot of work.
Since the 1930’s, the state Corporate Minimum Tax has been
$10. Yes, that is not a typo. Last year, we almost had a bill to
increase that tax, but failed due to efforts on the part of some
Republicans. Next year’s Legislature may be able to correct that
Teri: Those that are aware of the inequities are very supportive. However, there are some FT faculty who feel the inequities
are justified….
Rosemary: …I believe they support us. My recent experience has been that full-time faculty at my college were more
interested in arguing about the method we used to arrive at equity
comparisons than in understanding that the inequity exists and
is pervasive….
In some cases, full-time faculty feel threatened by contingent
faculty activism. This is unfortunate….
Barry: Many do support equal compensation for equal work.
More are apathetic or offer lip service to the idea….In fairness, I
must say that there are a few…labor leaders in Oregon that really
do…fight for contingent issues….Michael Dembrow, currently
President of the Portland Community College Faculty Federation
(a “merged” unit of both FT and Contingent faculty) has been a
solid advocate for his contingent faculty….
Adjunct Advocate
39
8. Your stance that contingent faculty
simply deserve equal pay flies in the face
of a system under which the majority of
Americans work, the system of pay tied to
performance. Why not make use of the cur
current research in management, and suggest
that contingent pay be tied to performance
then push for pro-rata compensation?
Barry: …One problem with a merit pay system is that “merit”
is based on a number of factors, including the quality of students
in the class. Such factors the instructor has little or no control
over….Your plan of tying pay to performance, then fighting for
pro-rata compensation is like asking the fox into the henhouse,
then asking him to leave the chickens alone. The most likely
outcome [would be] that administration would use the contingent’s “pay tied to performance” to beat the full-time tenure-track
faculty into using the same plan. Contingents would not get prorata pay and full-time faculty would be stuck in the same trap
as K-12 teachers vis-à-vis No Child Left Behind…Schools and
colleges are not businesses. They are training grounds for the
future of our nation and our world…..A profit model is totally
inappropriate to education at all levels.
Teri: The model of performance pay in education is flawed for
a whole host of reasons, and serves primarily to aid management.
One only need look at the difficulties inherent in the No Child
Left Behind Act, a pay/performance model plaguing K-12….
Rosemary: If you want to use the system of pay tied to
performance, then contingent faculty insistence on equal pay for
equal work is simply an insistence that we get paid for the work
we do….It is both disingenuous and insulting to the day-in and
day-out hard work of contingent faculty nationally to suggest
that we expect to be paid more than what we work for. We want
equal pay for equal work. No more. No less.
parity in wages. As you may know, in California at some community colleges where equity pay was won and is distributed,
AFT locals accepted parity as defined at significantly less than
100 percent. Equity pay became, at one community college in
California, less than 70 percent of what a full-time faculty member was paid per course. So, Oregon AFT’s agenda supports a
reduction in part-time faculty at community colleges, wants to
establish equity pay for part-time faculty, and ensure the use of
parity in calculating equity pay. Any comments?
David: Oregon House Bill 2578, the Faculty and College
Excellence (FACE) legislation, covered a lot of area. I don’t think
anyone was happy with every single provision in it. I have found
that many full-time faculty see the creation of more full-time
positions as a viable solution. On the other hand, many adjuncts,
including myself, see parity as the ultimate solution. So I think
both these schools of thought were reflected in the FACE bill.
These solutions are something we’ll have to work out amongst
faculty. I think the importance of FACE was to get this issue into
the state legislature. We can continue to refine our proposals in
future legislative sessions.
As far as defining parity, I am familiar with formulas that give
part-time faculty a percentage of the full-time workload. 70 percent appears to be on the low side for a community college, but I
don’t know who bargained that or what their rationale was. My
understanding is that these percentages reflect the teaching load
of a full-time faculty, minus the other duties spent on committee
work, meetings, advising, testing, and/or research. I think that
contingent faculty should be equally involved in these faculty
duties, rather than relegated to classroom teaching only. I am
impressed by the union at Vancouver Community College in
British Columbia (VCC Faculty Association) and how they have
achieved a process of regularization of their faculty, where, once
9. The Oregon AFT’s 2008 legislative
agenda includes these two items:
“Support the Faculty and College Excellent Act to address the
shift at our community colleges and universities away from hiring
full-time faculty to part-time faculty (also known as contingent
or adjunct faculty). Establish equity for salaries and benefits for
part-time faculty, including access to adequate and affordable
health insurance. “
“Ensure parity in wages, benefits and compensation between
part-time and full-time educational employees; and establish
competitive salary and benefits for community college and university faculty, to recruit and retain skilled faculty.”
The first agenda item calls for a reduction in the hiring of
contingent faculty, and equity for salaries. The second calls for
40
Adjunct Advocate
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part-time faculty become “regular,” they share the same duties
as well as pay scale as their full-time counterparts.
Rosemary: First, non-teaching pay must be factored out
before a reasonably accurate comparison can be made. If
contingent instructors in California got their pay raised to
70 percent of full-time instructors, the pay is probably pretty
close to parity.
Regarding FACE legislation calling for fewer contingent instructors, yes, it does. It also calls for a higher number of full-time
instructors who would, presumably, be hired from the ranks of
contingent instructors. If the loss of contingent positions occurs
because many of them get hired full-time, this is a good thing
and we support it wholeheartedly.
Barry: My main concern about FACE legislation is the
process in which it would be implemented. I am concerned
about current contingent faculty and how it would affect their
continuing employment. There are many types of people who
are contingent. Some just want to teach a class or two to supplement their retirement salary or to “give something back” to the
community. Others are working their way through an advanced
degree and will end employment after it is completed. Still
others piece together a modest living…teaching at a number of
institutions as a career.
FACE, at least the Oregon version, doesn’t deal with these
differences. One concern is that the career contingents should
be somehow grandfathered into full-time tenure-track positions.
Other types should have some protections also. The process
of change needs to be sensitive to the contingents that are
doing so much of the good work in our community colleges.
Otherwise, FACE may be just another way to abuse contingent
faculty … by putting many out on the streets in the name of
parity and a 75 percent to 25 percent (full-time tenure-track
to contingent) ratio.
10. On your website, you have a quote that
says, “Contingency is a threat to quality....”
If contingency is a threat to quality, it is a
bold statement, then, to say that higher pay
and better benefits are the answer. Even
with higher pay and benefits, you would
still be a contingent faculty member and, as
such, a threat to quality. It is an argument
for the eradication of the use of part-time
faculty, a stance the AAUP leadership argued for in past. Of course, colleges will
never stop hiring contingent faculty. Is the
answer to pay equity, then, to have significantly fewer part-time faculty?
David: This is why I see regularization as a solution. I don’t
think the quality of teaching, per se, suffers from being a contingent, but students don’t get proper access to their teachers
when they are freeway flying at multiple campuses, nor does
the department and college get the full participation and input of
those teachers. Paying fair and equitable wages would ensure that
someone working half-time would get by on a normal teaching
load, for instance, by only having to work two half-time positions,
instead of cobbling together teaching loads at multiple colleges
that amount to well over a regular full-time load.
Rosemary: Better pay and benefits will reduce the necessity
of the high amount of traveling required of contingent faculty
currently. Better pay and benefits will mean that, for many, the
number of institutions at which they must teach to earn a living
can be reduced, and a reduction from four to two is substantial;
a reduction to one is ideal. The threat to quality goes away when
the contingent faculty member can focus all his/her energy in one
location and can be available to meet with students one-on-one,
can hold office hours and participate in the campus community
simply by virtue of presence there.
12. What advice would you give to parttime faculty who want to improve their
working conditions and pay?
Barry: You talk of “bold statements” and actions in your
questions. You are spot on. As hard as it is for contingent faculty
to do just a little bit more, that is what needs to be done. For all
that we contingents do, that collectively would be “bold.”
Contingents need to band together at their local colleges and
start educating themselves about their issues. They need to seek
out others that have had success in improving their pay, benefits,
and working conditions. Those people can be unions, COCAL
chapters, or other groups that fight for workers such as Jobs For
Justice. In short, they need to act.
No one will come in to their college and give them their rights.
They have to do the work to fight for them. Others will help, but
if there is any lesson I have learned in my work as an advocate
for contingent faculty, you have to do the work. Otherwise, you
will continue to be an abused class, much like the migrant farm
workers of the 1960s, until they rose up and formed the United
Farm Workers.
Teri: Get involved with local leadership. Make a phone call
to local legislative representatives. Write a letter to the local
newspaper. Build alliances with fellow contingent faculty. …
Help raise awareness of the profession on campus and in the
community.
Rosemary: We too easily forget that such things as 8-hour
work days, 5-day work weeks, holidays off with pay, health care
benefits and more were all bought and paid for by union members
who organized and advocated. Even non-union members have
benefited from these gains…..Get organized!
Adjunct Advocate
41
PAGES
Educating for
Democracy:
Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible
Political Engagement
by Anne Colby, Elizabeth Beaumont,
Thomas Ehrlich, and Josh Corngold.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007
reviewed by Silvia Foti
In my
case, the book
had me at “hello,” as
my own commitment to engaging students in the political process
is high, although I still felt at a loss as to
how to go about and do it. My impatience with
the promises of the book grew as chapter
after chapter extolled the virtues of the need for
engaging students in the political process, yet
failed to delineate exactly how to go
about and do this.
c
Creating citizens engaged in maintaining democracy entails intentionally increasing the people’s knowledge of the democratic
process, their skills, and their motivation. This falls under the
purview of America’s colleges and universities, according to the
authors of Educating for Democracy, yet for a variety of reasons,
is a mission that is failing.
Written with a sense of urgency of how important it is for
the academy to educate its students on democracy, the authors
suggest that America is headed for troubling times and that if
citizens are not more engaged in the democratic process, doom
awaits. While civic education is on the rise on American campuses with 600 programs already established, “only 1 percent
of service learning programs included a focus on specifically
political concerns and solutions.”
The authors acknowledge several factors for the disconnect
between civic education and political engagement, including the
“sensitivities of many political issues and the concerns many
educators have about being able to teach effectively topics that
often engender strong reactions or disagreements,” as well as
“the risk of political indoctrination.”
Their definition of good citizenship is this: “It is important
for pluralist democracy and for citizens themselves that as many
42
Adjunct Advocate
people as
possible possess a
set of capacities that are intrinsically valuable and also support responsible
citizenship by helping them thoughtfully evaluate political choices and effectively contribute to political outcomes.”
The book offers several thought-provoking chapters with
compelling arguments and data on the need for faculty to
include more political projects in their curriculum that would
educate students on the democratic process and get them
involved in a political cause. For anyone who is unsure of
whether or not to incorporate a political agenda into their
curriculum, Educating for Democracy offers strong ammunition by way of interviews with faculty and students, as well
as case studies on how political programs have been successfully integrated.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
assembled a group of faculty to design the Political Engagement Project (PEP) to address the lack of attention to education
for political engagement. The goal of the authors was to share
specific strategies for use in courses, in the curriculum, and in
other campus activities. Senior scholar Anne Colby is a devel-
opmental psychologist who has devoted much of her career to
the study of moral development across the lifespan and spent
nearly twenty years as director of the Henry Murray Research
Center at Radcliff College, Harvard University.
The group identified twenty-one interventions among
faculty across the nation that they felt were successful, and
from these they determined three developmental dimensions essential to political engagement: understanding or
knowledge, skills, and motivation. They cited a recent study
of American young people which revealed that 56 percent
of youths did not know that only U.S. citizens can vote in
federal elections. Political skills include registering to vote,
lobbying elected officials, analyzing political advertising,
writing press releases, working with a group, or running
meetings. Political motivation could be strengthened by
helping students develop constructive approaches to negative emotions such as cynicism.
The book is organized into four sections:
• The foundational theoretical and conceptual issues
surrounding college-level education for political
learning;
• Central goals in political development that higher
education should address;
• Key pedagogical strategies of teaching for political
learning; and
• Concluding thoughts and recommendations.
In my case, the book had me at “hello,” as my own commitment to engaging students in the political process is high,
although I still felt at a loss as to how to go about and do it.
My impatience with the promises of the book grew as chapter
after chapter extolled the virtues of the need for engaging
students in the political process, yet failed to delineate exactly how to go about and do this. I felt that this theoretical
foundation, while valuable, was not what I needed as a new
teacher. The chapters that promised strategies on how to
incorporate such programs were somewhat lacking in the
details. Perhaps my expectations were too high in hoping
for detailed lessons that would outline from the beginning
of the class to the end with examples of objectives, examples
of worksheets, examples of what the teacher might say
to introduce the subject, examples of how students might
respond, and step-by-step instructions of how to build the
lesson, along with detailed assessments with the answers.
As an adjunct, this has always been my fantasy, but it often
became deflated with books that promised proven strategies
to incorporate into the classroom. I am back to interpreting,
trying it out in my own class, figuring it out myself, and
developing my own exams. Where is that silver platter?
One great idea, for example, is the National Model United
Nations courses offered at Dutchess Community College and
Vassar College. Students are assigned to represent a particular country, and they develop agendas, position papers,
resolutions from the country’s perspective. By the end of the
semester, the students simulate a United Nations General Assembly. This was nearly the extent of the entire description
and explanation, and while fascinating, I am still at a
loss of how to go about and implement this in my
own classroom. It is back to the research table
on the United Nations for me.
The book also promised the PEP
Document Supplement,
a set of documents
from the twenty-one
PEP courses and pro-grams that would “make imple-mentation easier as well as convey as
concrete sense of how the recommended teaching
strategies work in practice.” The documents supposedly are
available by following the website address listed in the book,
but once I tried to reach them, I could not find them, another
disappointment.
For administrators or department curriculum designers,
Educating for Democracy offers a solid theoretical underpinning
to the benefits of offering more political learning opportunities
for undergraduate students, but for new teachers, or adjuncts
looking for concrete examples of lesson plans they can incor-porate immediately, the book offers general ideas that lack
specifics and will require interpretation, as well as extensive
research and preparation.
Adjunct Advocate
43
PAGES
Inside Greek U.:
Fraternities, Soroities, and the Pursuit of
Pleasure, Power, and Prestige
by Alan D. DeSantis, 2007
i
reviewed by Greg Beatty
In Inside Greek U. Alan D. DeSantis provides readers with a
valuable guidebook to an often alien and confusing reality: the
Greek system. Anyone who teaches at a college where fraternities and sororities are active should read it; anyone who wants to
better understand how higher education really works will want
to read it.
Inside Greek U. is not perfect—more on that below—but it is
extremely useful. Much of that utility comes from the author’s
particular identity and position in relation to the Greek system.
As DeSantis notes repeatedly, frats know it isn’t cool to study too
much, or to pay too much attention to grades. However, DeSantis
is not just an academic, and not just a professor who serves as
advisor to fraternities; he is a former fraternity brother himself, and
is thus “bilingual,” speaking both fratspeak and academese. Given
the high-minded and humane concerns he articulates throughout
the text and especially in the conclusion, one might suggest that
the dominant language spoken throughout is a third dialect: that
of the responsible adult citizen.
This combination positions DeSantis perfectly to be trusted by
the hundreds of fraternity and sorority members he interviewed
for the raw material of this study. What’s more, DeSantis lets his
honest and at times startled reactions to their accounts to emerge
at times. Sometimes he does this directly, as when he compares
the fraternity code of honor during violent combat to the one he’d
learned growing up; sometimes he does this indirectly, as when
he records how sorority girls laugh at his expressions or play off
something he’s asked. This seems both valuable in itself, providing accuracy rather than a faux objectivity, and useful as a kind of
anthropological marker. If a former frat boy is startled by some
of what he hears, an instructor who has never set foot on Greek
row may well be stunned.
On the other hand, much of what DeSantis does is map territory that is probably somewhat familiar to the outside observer,
namely the gender identity and dynamics of fraternities, sororities,
44
Adjunct Advocate
and their interaction. DeSantis opens his investigation into the
Greek system by discussing gender broadly, putting the topic in
theoretical context. He discusses the gender ideals of the Greek
system, then moves smoothly into discussing how these ideals
play out in practice. He’s careful to identify where the fraternities
and sororities operate independently from one another, as well
as where and how their practices align. DeSantis describes the
dating codes, expectations for behavior (sexual, social, academic,
and conflict-related in particular), the expectations this system
establishes in its members for the future, and how these expectations do or don’t play out. Along the way, DeSantis occasionally
sketches out some ways in which the Greek system interacts with
the larger non-Greek elements of the college, but these are quite
brief (and one of the book’s minor failings).
You can’t have taught at a school with a Greek system and
not glimpsed some of this. Shoot, you can’t have driven through
a town with such a school at the start of fall semester without
seeing some of the rush activities, or read a newspaper from
such a town without seeing reports of injuries or even deaths
from drinking (or even from the now banned but still practiced
hazing rituals).
What DeSantis does to this semi-known territory is document
and contextualize it. He provides composite studies and extensive quotations from his interviewees that show in detail what
sorority girls want in a man, from life, and in a new sorority
sister, and what fraternity brothers want in a job, a woman, and
a bro. Those he talked to were just as clear about what they did
not want, but some of the most touching sections of the book
address a dilemma. Many in the Greek system, and especially
in sororities, can articulate its painful flaws…but they seem to
accept these flaws as just the way things are, or even their own
faults. This accounts move into the area of social tragedy when
the young women talk about being raped by men in the Greek
system—then blame themselves for what happened. Almost
As noted earlier, Inside Greek U. is not perfect. I will
as sad are the sections on body image and eating disorders,
when the women report the incredible emphasis on being thin, address the three main ones here. First, while DeSantis
how frequent anorexia and bulimia are in their system—and notes how many presidents and corporate leaders moved
how they’d be willing to use cocaine and heroin to stay thin through the Greek system, he does not really explain why
without hunger…if the drugs didn’t carry legal penalty and this is. Does the Greek system gives its members increased
social stigma. At these points, many readers will recognize that skills in interviewing, leadership, and handling people, as
they didn’t know the Greek territory at all, and may wonder various members claim throughout the book? Or is it an
old boys’ network combined
that such pain could exist in
with entrenched sexism?
their own classrooms.
Second, DeSantis closes the
Almost as startling as
book with a call for reforms
these personal voices are
in the Greek system, makthe quantitative frameWhat De
ing
specific suggestions for
works DeSantis provides.
Santis d
oes to th
administrators, professors,
It provides a useful persemi-kn
is
ow
parents, and present and
spective to know that the
docume n territory is
nt and c
former Greek members. His
average fraternity brother
ontextu
ize it. He
dedication to the system is
spends more time each
a
l
provide
s compo
evident, and his concerns
week lifting weights (16
ite studi
ses and e
clearly heart-felt. However,
hours) and partying (15
x
tensive
quotatio
ns from
his suggestions seem deshours) than in other activihis inter
viewees
tined to fail. The bonding
ties. Homework gets only
that sho
w in det
experience he describes is
12 hours, and attending
what so
ail
rority gi
clearly so intense that these
class only 14…the same
rls want
man, fro
in a
m life, a
well-meaning suggestions
as television (pp. 139nd in a n
sorority
must fall on deaf ears; they
140). Since these boys lift
ew
sister, a
nd what
fraternit
offer intellectual responses
weights with their “bros,”
y brothe
to a transformative experiand also have formal meetr
s
a job, a
want in
woman,
ence. To be more specific,
ings and informal bull
and a br
Those h
his descriptions of hazing
sessions, it should be clear
o.
e talked
to were
just as c
make it clear that it functions
that they are continually
lear abo
ritually, as a liminal stage
being educated in their
ut what
they did
not wan
during which the pledges’
identity through fraternity
t, but so
o
f
t
h
e
identities are reshaped and
activities, and in a far more
most to
me
uching s
tions of
reoriented. In a society bereft
intense and immediately
e
c
the boo
of meaningful ritual, asking
rewarding fashion than
k addres
dilemma
sa
.
Greeks to surrender this is
through studying. Studyasking for collective psychic
ing will only get them a
suicide. Third, and related
grade. Studying too much
to both of the points above,
will get them teased. Liftwhile DeSantis explores how
ing weights will get them
praised…and laid. Another startling number was that serious fraternities and sororities function as systems, he largely
sorority competitors may spend 50 to 100 hours rehearsing overlooks a simpler explanation of their power: these may
for a Greek Sing competition (p. 108). Compare that to be the most coherent communities to which these students
the 3 days a week, 1 hour per day that students spend in a may ever belong. Flawed as fraternities and sororities are,
semester long class, which yields 48 hours total class time they provide round the clock community identity that is
(a generous tally that assumes classes last an entire hour, found few other places in American life.
start on time, lose no days to holidays, etc.), and you’ll see
Most of those objections, however, are me asking Alan D.
that these young women too are bathed in a communal, DeSantis to write a different book than he did, and a much
multi-sensory identity reinforcement far more extensive longer and probably less focused one. It might still do that,
than their formal education. If teachers want to reach these some other time. For now, in Inside Greek U., DeSantis has
students, they need to acknowledge the challenging terrain given readers an exceptionally useful guide to a powerful
upon which their educational forays take place.
and often mysterious community.
Adjunct Advocate
45
IVORY TOWER
$5,000 Executive
t
Committee Meetings, or
Why It’s
Past
Time?
Way
They’re at it again. Yes. Again. Our part-time faculty colleagues in Canada are on strike. The Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association (WLUFA), which represents
365 contract faculty, announced at the beginning of Masrch
that part-timers are striking in response to the latest pay
offer from the college. WLU officials offered a 3.5 percent
pay increase. The raise would have bumped up salaries for
part-time faculty at the school to $6,211 per course. No,
that is not a typo. WLU’s 365 part-time faculty earn over
$6,000 per course. Union leaders called the strike because
at the nearby University of Waterloo, part-timers are paid
$6,708 per course. Wilfrid Laurier University union leaders
want the university to match that. Leaders are also miffed
because WLU officials refused to negotiate a better system
of seniority.
Who says people in Canada are more polite? Piss off the
part-timers’ union by offering $6,200 per course instead of
$6,700 and they’ll close you down, eh? (Read about the
strike here.)
I recently travelled the Loyalist Highway. It runs through
the Province of Ontario and into Quebec, near the border
crossing with upstate New York. The Loyalist Highway:
Think about that for a moment. The people who traveled
that road were the colonists who wanted nothing to do with
the American Revolution. They didn’t want to break with
England. They were lovers, not fighters. They tramped loyally into British held Ontario/Quebec and started working
on their Canadian accents.
Here we sit, 700,000 of us, south of the border, preternaturally proud of having revolted against and of having defeated
Britain, the literal 800 pound gorilla of the 18th century.
Forward-thinking colonists, freedom-loving Americans.
Don’t tread on me. Blah. Blah. Blah.
46
Adjunct Advocate
While the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association
and American Association of University Professors officials are
currently singing their “More
Full-time Faculty, Baby” blues
to anyone who’ll listen (in
the case of the AFT, to state
legislators--accompanied by
hefty campaign contributions for those legislators
who introduce FACE bills for
consideration), the OPSEU
and its leaders are currently
campaigning to organize every single one of the contract
faculty in Ontario, Canada so
that they get better pay, benefits
and job security. AFT/NEA have
FACE; OPSEU has “It’s Time.”
At Pace University, after four years, it’s
still not time for NYSUT leaders and local
union officials. Perhaps you’ve read about the
part-timers at Pace already. The 1,000 part-timers
at the college have zilch to show after four years of
NYSUT representation. The part-timers aren’t paying dues
to NYSUT, but some models show that unions recoup organizing costs after just one or two years of collecting dues.
Meanwhile, NYSUT reps. wring their hands, and whisper
that NYSUT leaders might shy away from spending money
to organize part-timers in future if Pace officials succeed in
stonewalling the part-timers out of a first contract.
Kiss my bullhorn.
On December 13, 2007, Pace part-time faculty union leaders let
themselves be talked into allowing NYSUT officials to send a guy
in a Santa suit to Pace University to help part-timers “push” the
university officials into bargaining a first contract. On December
14, 2007, NYSUT officials spent $307,517 on lobbying expenses,
$57,798 on stipends, $5,381 on a single meeting of their Executive
Committee, $2,020 on meeting minutes, and $3,882 on food for a
meeting of their Political Action Committee members.
Part-timers at Pace earn, on average $2,000 per course and have
no health care benefits.
Here in the U.S., part-time faculty are now the 800 pound gorilla of 21st century higher education. What’s say we look north
and get some inspiration from our unionist colleagues along the
Loyalist Highway? We may have to drag our union leaders away
from their $5,000 meetings and $3,882 buffet tables, but I know
we can do it. It’s way past time.
We’re Ready
ANYTIME You Are!
Read Online: $20
PDF Delivery: Free
Visit us online at
www.AdjunctNation.com/shop
to subscribe today!
Part-Time Thoughts
Are You Having Them Again?
Our “Part-Time Thoughts” blog covers Academe
with a dollop of intelligence, a dash of cynicism, and
a splash of hot sauce. It makes for some of the tastiest
reading online anywhere for and about part-time faculty, higher education, teaching, and much more.
April 13, 2008: “Anti-Union”
(Translation: “Bitch”)
In a piece recently written for Inside
Higher Ed, the writer calls Washington
State part-timer and long-time national
adjunct activist Keith Hoeller’s writing “anti-union.” I read and read and
re-read the IHE posting. The writer
calls Hoeller’s writing “anti-union
rhetoric”again in the comment section.
Something bugged me about the comment. Then it hit me. The guy was calling
Keith Holler a bitch for daring to ask the
hard questions he did in the Seattle Post
Intelligencer.
Alright, before the language police
come to my house and bitch-slap me, let
me explain. Bitch is one of those words.
You know, code words. Women I know
feel perfectly comfortable referring to
other women as bitches. That’s not code;
that’s straight-talking. Women get to use
the word bitch same as men get to call
each other pricks. It’s understood. It’s
when men call women bitches, and women call men pricks that the gloves come
right off. I know you are sitting there,
shaking your head, and muttering: “Shut
up!”.....
To read the rest of the post, click here.
Adjunct Advocate
47
FIRST PERSON
Thowing Darts at
Adjunct Activists
For nearly twenty years, I have devoted my life to achieving equality for adjunct
faculty throughout the nation. I have published twenty opinion articles in newspapers around the country; I have been quoted in scores of newspaper articles;
I have drafted two dozen bills for the Washington state legislature, including
one which gave all adjuncts in our community colleges pro-rated sick leave for
the very first time; I have initiated two successful class action lawsuits, which
resulted in $25 million in payments to thousands of adjuncts and helped thousands
more qualify for health and retirement benefits for the very first time; I have
organized three different adjunct organizations; I have served on the AAUP’s
national Committee on Contingent Faculty and the Profession; and I was the
first adjunct to ever win the AAUP’s Georgina Smith award “in recognition of
Exceptional Leadership in Improving the Status of Women and in Advancing
Academic Collective Bargaining.”
Given my accomplishments, you would think that union leaders–who all
claim to share my goals of adjunct equality–would be supportive of my activism,
eager to hear my views, and willing to work with me to dismantle our nation’s
separate but unequal academic labor system. Unfortunately, the leaders of the
American Federation of Teachers Washington, and the Washington Education
Association, who represent adjuncts in the community colleges where I teach,
long ago declared me to be “Public Enemy No. 1.”
Falsely labeling me and my writing as “anti-union,” leaders have practiced a
divide-and-conquer strategy by disputing my editorials and refusing to support
my legislative efforts. As my success has increased, so has the hostility from
the union leaders.
In recent months, the American Federation of Teachers officials have used
their in-house web site as a forum to criticize my efforts. Craig Smith, Associate Director of Field Services and Communications for AFT’s Higher Education
Division, in a blog entry in February, claims to be “setting the record straight”
about the situation in Washington. Union loyalists have also taken to a national
adjunct listserv to bash me.
The AFT attacks appear to be a well-orchestrated campaign to dismiss its adjunct critics rather than to deal with the inadequacy of its so-called Faculty and
College Excellence (FACE) legislative plan, which has met with little success
in legislatures around the country. When its FACE legislation failed in Washington last year, the Seattle Community College AFT filled its campus e-mail
listserv with messages blaming me for the legislation’s failure. Yet legislators
told WFT officials the FACE legislation was fatally flawed, and had no realistic
chance of passing.
As its FACE legislation appeared to fail again this year, I published an article
called “Legislators Can Help Adjunct Professors” (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/
opinion/350878_adjunct12.html) in an attempt to build support for Senate Bill
48
Adjunct Advocate
Falsely labeling me
and my writing as
“anti-union,” leaders
have practiced
a
divide-andconquer
strategy
by disputing my
editorials and
refusing to support
my legislative efforts.
As my success has
increased, so has
the hostility from the
union leaders.
6888 (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=6888),
which would have provided annual, renewable contracts for adjunct professors who have taught for three or more years. The
bill would have given senior adjuncts the right to appeal their
dismissal and allowed them to work up to full-time–without taking any courses away from other adjuncts.
While AFT and NEA leaders knew about this bill, most union
members have never heard of it. After union leaders testified in
support of their FACE bill in the Senate Higher Education Committee, they left the room and did not testify on SB 6888. This
is the fourth year in a row the unions have failed to throw their
support behind similar job security bills that we adjuncts have
supported.
In the last fifty years, the AFT and the NEA have failed to
bargain the kind of meaningful job security for adjuncts that SB
6888 would provide, yet they refuse to support our legislation
to create job security.
The centerpiece of the AFT FACE plan is to return the
minority of full-time faculty to the majority once again. The
AFT’s path to “college excellence” is to staff 75 percent of
college courses with full-time, tenure-stream faculty. Their
method for accomplishing this is to create tens of thousands
of new full-time positions, which simply cannot be achieved
solely through full-time attrition. The only way to create
these new positions is to take courses away from current
part-timers.
While a few adjuncts, particularly young ones who have
not taught part-time for long, may win national searches for
the full-time jobs created, many will undoubtedly lose their
jobs, despite the public relations language the AFT has added
to their recent FACE bills. In addition, other adjuncts may
lose their jobs too, since the new full-timers will have the
right to teach overload courses, thereby taking work away
from other adjuncts.
The FACE legislation does not call for truly equal pay
(sometimes called 100 percent pro-rata pay) for adjunct faculty. The model FACE legislation states that contingent faculty
“shall receive pay that is equal, on a pro-rata basis, with that
of tenured or tenure-track faculty of comparable qualifications
doing comparable work.” For years, college administrators
and union leaders in Washington have claimed that an adjunct
who teaches a full-time load should receive only 76 percent
of a full-time salary, since adjuncts do not engage in the same
non-teaching duties as their full-time counterparts.
The FACE legislation does not call for equal raises for
adjunct faculty. In Washington, the unions have bargained
substantial incremental raises for all full-time faculty, but not
for most part-time faculty; and the dollar disparity between
full- and part-time salaries has continued to widen. Though
for years we have run bills to give equal raises to adjunct faculty, the unions, having failed to bargain them, have repeatedly
failed to support legislation to achieve this goal. (See also my
“Equal Pay Means Equal Raises, Too.) http://chronicle.com/jobs/
news/2005/08/2005081601c/careers.html
The problem has been and remains that the AFT is not trying to
dismantle the two-tiered system. Instead, the organization seeks
to strengthen it by bargaining small incremental changes for
adjuncts while protecting the hegemony of the full-time faculty
who dominate the AFT state-wide union leadership.
The FACE legislation is great for the AFT. If successful, it will
bring in thousands of new dues-paying full-time members. These
new tenure-track faculty are likely to be favorably disposed to
the union because the union has bargained substantial salaries,
benefits, and working conditions for them, including tenure. Such
faculty are unlikely to complain about the union leadership the
way that adjuncts are likely to do.
The FACE legislation is also good for full-time faculty as well.
More full-time faculty will help spread the burden of non-teaching
duties, including supervising and evaluating adjunct faculty. It
will also help the unions make a better case for higher pay for
full-time faculty.
But the FACE legislation is terrible for adjunct faculty. It
jeopardizes our jobs; it does not attempt to achieve equal pay or
Adjunct Advocate
49
raises; it does not legislate anything for adjuncts. It only sets a
goal to spend six years attempting to collectively bargain its very
minimal aims for adjuncts.
Not only will this result in different results from campus-tocampus, it may result in nothing at all–after six years. After all,
the unions have still not figured out how to deal with recalcitrant
administrations, as evidenced by AFT’s inability to secure a
contract, after four years, for its 1000-member affiliate at PACE
University.
In addition to looking for someone to blame for the repeated
failures of their FACE legislation, the AFT has attacked me
for raising the issue of the lack of union democracy. In mixed
unions, full-time faculty often represent part-time faculty at the
bargaining table.
In “Legislators Can Help Adjunct Professors,” I charged the
AFT and the NEA with failing to provide “fair representation”
to adjunct faculty in Washington. I believe this charge is selfevident; it is well-documented in each and every contract in our
community colleges, where the interests of full-timers are favored
over those of part-timers. The faculty unions have not been innocent bystanders in the creation of a two-tiered labor system within
higher education; they have bargained—and re-bargained—these
unequal contracts for decades.
Lack of job security keeps adjuncts dependent on their tenured
colleagues, and unable and unwilling to speak out for fear of
losing their jobs. Many adjuncts have witnessed what happens
to other adjuncts who complain about the situation. With an
unblemished teaching record of seventeen years, my colleague
Terry Knudsen lost her adjunct position soon after publishing
an op-ed in the Spokane newspaper called “Colleges Exploit-
ing Part-Time Professors” (http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issues/
contingent/hoellerknudsenexploit.htm).
Or take the case of Doug Collins, another courageous adjunct
in Washington state. In 2003, Doug was the elected Secretary of
the Seattle AFT local at a time when the union supported legislation to fund the current system of incremental raises – a system
which leaves out thousands of part-timers. Instead, Doug chose
to support a bill that would have given the unions everything they
wanted, but contained an extra section extending increments to
all part-time faculty. He was promptly subjected to a recall vote,
and removed from union office.
If state and national union leaders really wanted adjuncts to
become involved in their unions, they would not bash those who
become active and critical of the behavior of leaders who oppose
equality. What Kenneth Ryesky said of administrators applies to
union leaders as well: “Moreover, administrators, and Department chairs who condone adjunct-bashing (let alone participate
in it) cannot then expect enthusiastic cooperation in any initiative or effort, IT or otherwise, from the adjuncts in their charge”
(“Bringing Adjunct Faculty into the Fold of Information and
Instructional Technology,” Gypsy Scholars, Migrant Teachers,
and the Global Academic Proletariat, ed. Rudolphus Treeuwen
and Steffen Handtke, 2007, p. 112).
But perhaps union leaders who engage in adjunct-bashing do
not really want true adjunct activists in leadership positions after
all. Perhaps the goal is precisely to make a negative example of
activists who criticize the unions, so that others, who have no job
security, will be fearful of doing so, as well. The result has been
the undermining of real adjunct activists who are fighting for real
equality—both on campus and within their unions.
CHECK OUT THE ADJUNCTNATION.COM
PODCAST INTERVIEW SERIES
"Dr Brown's Revolt" – an interview with full-time faculty member Dr. Peter Brown, who has worked
tirelessly on behalf of the 8000 part-time faculty employed in the SUNY system.
"SEIU Local 500: Eight Years in the Making" – an interview with Kip Lornell and Libby Smigel,
both part-time faculty members at George Washington University. They talk about the long road
to the organization and recognition of the 1,200 member part-time faculty union.
"Walking the Picket Line Along the Loyalist Highway" – Dr. Judy Bates, President of the Wilfrid
Laurier University Faculty Association, in Ontario, Canada, discusses the circumstances surrounding the first-ever strike of WLU's 366 contract faculty.
"AAUP at a Crossroads: An Interview With AAUP President Cary Nelson, Part 1 of 2" – The
first order of business for Dr. Cary Nelson is to get himself re-elected. After that, he intends to lead
AAUP straight into the skirmish to organize and represent the nation's 700,000 part-time faculty-one campus at a time.
50
Adjunct Advocate
Adjunct Advocate
51

Adjunct Advocate - CSU-AAUP

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