A nontenure-track faculty group at the University of Michigan has filed a petition with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, seeking to hold a collective bargaining election. The Lecturers' Employee Organization (LEO), affiliated with the Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel/AFT, seeks to represent 1,300 full- and part-time nontenure-track faculty who teach at the three UM campuses in Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint.

The lecturers teach nearly half of all undergraduate courses at the university, LEO estimates. They work on a semester-to-semester basis and receive pay that is way below that of tenured and tenure-track faculty.

"Job security is a major issue for nontenure-track instructors," says Bonnie Halloran, an adjunct anthropology lecturer who has taught on the Dearborn campus for 12 years. "We commit ourselves 100 percent to our students, but the university won't commit to us beyond a single semester."

Halloran earns $820 per credit hour, which is the equivalent of a full-time rate of $19,000 per year. She receives no health insurance or retirement benefits. Like many of her fellow instructors, Halloran makes a living by teaching at several institutions. Last semester, she taught a total of seven classes at Michigan, Henry Ford Community College, Central Michigan University and Schoolcraft College. [Barbara McKenna]

January 8, 2003