Why should colleagues work for less pay, fewer benefits and scant respect?

By Virginia Myers Kelly

Just how scary is it to be an adjunct?

Faculty in Vermont are among those who know best. Dressed as ghosts, hobos and other “scary people,” members of the unions representing full- and part-time faculty affiliated with the United Professions of Vermont, in cooperation with the University of Vermont (UVM) Student Labor Action Project, held a press conference on Halloween Day, the first day of Campus Equity Week (CEW), and distributed literature throughout the week to illustrate the “scary” point that adjuncts work for less, with fewer benefits, little or no job security and scant respect.

In Vermont, this is a particularly fearsome combination: Every faculty member at the Community College of Vermont works “part-time,” and they are in the midst of organizing a union. At UVM, the part-timers are represented by the United Academics/AFT/AAUP and have come to an impasse with the administration on their second contract over job security, among other things. Some faculty have worked for 30 years with no job security, and others work full-time but are paid for part-time hours because the administration does not count continuing education classes toward a full load. Also participating in CEW events is the Vermont State Colleges Faculty Federation/AFT.

The situation is spooky enough to inspire anyone to action. In addition to dressing up in Halloween costumes illustrating their point, UVM faculty distributed hot apple cider—small cups for part-time faculty and large ones for administrators. A screening of the documentary “Degrees of Shame” was arranged on campus, with a subsequent panel discussion; the film also was aired on public access television, along with an interview with United Academics president David Shiman and chief negotiator Michele Patenaude. As at campuses across the country, everyone displayed buttons and stickers all week to spread the word that the part-timers deserve respect and decent pay.

The UA also joined other locals who placed faux want ads in newspapers for college faculty who would be happy to teach full-time with no healthcare or pension and for 40 percent less than full-time pay. “In some cases,” read the ad, “such appointments at one campus may be combined with appointments at other campuses so that one can buy food.”

On the other side of the country in Washington state, members of the Green River Community College Federation of Teachers illustrated inequities with a bake sale. Purchasers drew a card from a deck stacked with more part-time cards than full-time. For a part-time card, the price was a dollar per cookie; for full-time, it became a bargain at two for a dollar. Phil Jack, president of the Green River local, explained: “With the same investment and time to prepare yourself to teach, the odds are against you getting a full-time position because there are so many more part-time positions available.”

Oregon Gov. Theodore Kulongoski understood that message, and at the urging of the Oregon Federation of Teachers/AFT issued a proclamation recognizing Campus Equity Week statewide. CEW also was discussed at the Oregon State Board of Education meeting in October. 

In New York, United University Professions/AFT was busy tabling and picketing and distributing pounds of peanuts in front of signs that compared faculty to elephants: They both work for peanuts. At the State University of New York-New Paltz, local UUP president Glenn McNitt wore his birdbrain mask along with his union button on Halloween, poking fun at the professoriate but still drawing attention to part-timers’ inequities. UUP has secured full health benefits for part-timers, and a 20 percent salary increase on top of the standard 2.75 percent bargained this year—and hanging onto that momentum is crucial.

The Professional Staff Congress at the City University of New York (CUNY) was also busy getting the word out. Members unfurled a seniority scroll with hundreds of names and the numbers of years long-serving part-time faculty have worked at CUNY. They sponsored a forum on the Future of Academic Labor; a Soapbox Speakout in which adjuncts lectured outdoors to the public to showcase their value and expertise; and a book party for Joe Berry’s Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: Organizing Adjuncts to Change Higher Education. Berry also spoke for six Philadelphia-area AFT unions: Bucks County Community College Federation of Teachers, the Faculty and Staff Federation of the Community College of Philadelphia, Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania, Montgomery County Community College Faculty Federation, Temple Adjuncts Organizing Committee, and Temple Association of University Professionals.

In New Jersey, the Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT chapters, the part-time chapter and the TA/GA steering committee held a hearing for state assembly members to get their message out. Similar meetings took place across the country, as AFT members leafleted, published editorials, erected signs and spread the word about contingent faculty inequities. “These are hard-working academics who are paid a fraction of the wages that others are paid for teaching the very same classes,” says AFT vice president William Scheuerman.