Campus Equity Week (CEW) is a national week of action to call attention to the unfair working conditions of part-time/adjunct faculty and other contingent faculty. CEW is a collection of local events locally conceived and is loosely coordinated by a national steering committee made up of activists and organizations including the AFT.   For information about the national coalition, visit the Campus Equity Week home page.

AFT’s 2005 CEW campaign theme is “Telling It Like It Is.”  Our goal is to shift the public perception of college faculty as highly paid, very secure professionals enjoying a wide range of benefits to show that almost half the professoriate work for low wages and almost no benefits or security. 

For CEW 2005, AFT is asking: "How would people react if they read a want ad for a part-time/adjunct faculty position that told it like it really is?"

Below is a set of materials that you can use to launch a “Telling It Like It Is” campaign on your campus.  If you are and AFT member and need more materials or assistance, please contact us at highered@aft.org.

Tell It Like It Is: Campaign Overview
This document provides an overview of the full campaign—what to do, when to do it, and where to go to get more resources and assistance. It is the roadmap to the rest of the materials on this page.

Sample Want Ad
Get started on your campaign by customizing this sample ad to place in your local paper’s classified ad section. Take out what doesn’t apply on your campus and add anything we missed—just make sure to "tell it like it is."

Finished and Customizable Campaign Posters

Successful events require a certain amount of "buzz." As you plan your CEW activities, you’ll want to generate interest among students, other faculty members and the public as a whole. To help get people thinking about CEW issues, place the poster that fits your campaign on bulletin boards, doors, walls--wherever LOTS of people will see them. This will help your audience become better informed and create opportunities for part-time/adjunct faculty advocates to discuss their concerns before, during and after your CEW event(s). You should also consider running these posters (or resized versions) as ads in local/campus papers.

Download "finished" posters by clicking on your selection. Or by using the Working Families Toolkit, AFT members have the ability to customize any of these posters to include event dates and times, your own union logo, or additional text. Registration is required.

Campaign Stickers

Campaign stickers can be worn around campus, at rallies or pasted on envelopes and fliers. When your members wear these, they help put a face on the campaign. Ideally people will be aware of the campaign and when they see a person with a sticker on, they can ask what the campaign is all about. Click on sticker images and get stickers already formatted for printing out on sticker stock (use Avery Label #6464 or any label brand with dimensions 3.333" H x 4" W).

Sample Media Advisory
Use this as a guide for announcing your event to the press. Remember that an advisory should be short and clear and free from jargon that may be unfamiliar to members of the press/general public.

Sample Media Tips
Information on how to develop contacts with the media and how to time your campaign to maximize press coverage. Remember that just because a story matters to you doesn’t mean that the media will see it that way, too—you need to make sure they know about your story, why it is important, and how they can go about covering it.

Sample Op-Ed
A great way to generate "buzz" on an issue is by submitting op-eds to your campus/local/state newspapers. Consider modifying this piece as needed (contact the paper for length restrictions, etc.) and submit it for publication.

Part-time/Adjunct & Other Nontenure-Track Faculty (National Data Sheet)
Use this data to give your event a national context. Add information from your own institution and use it as part of your background packets for media.