PrintFACE legislation introduced in Oregon
Faculty tell of the toll adjunct teaching takes
Part-time and adjunct faculty in Oregon who are trying to make a full-time living at teaching testified about the toll the lifestyle takes on them as professionals and on students, in a hearing before the Oregon House of Representatives Higher Education Committee on March 29.
The committee is considering H.B. 2578, the Faculty and College Excellence Act, a bill introduced Feb. 6 that would achieve two goals. It would ensure that all faculty members receive the financial and professional support they need to do their best work and it would establish a better balance between the number of full-time tenured faculty and the number of part- and full-time nontenure-track faculty. Oregon is one of 10 states that is considering such legislation.
Janice Bishop, an adjunct communications instructor from the Portland area, described the hoops she jumps through each term to generate a living wage. She teaches six to eight courses a term at numerous two- and four-year institutions with an average monthly pay per three-credit course of $600. “Between teaching, planning, grading and commuting,” she testified, “I regularly work seven days a week, often for more than 10 hours a day.” With no health benefits, last year her out-of-pocket medical and dental insurance and expenses exceeded $20,000.
Emily Plec, an associate professor of speech communication at Western Oregon University, told the committee that even full-time faculty like her have to take second jobs to make ends meet due to budget cuts and salary freezes.
Stephanie Blackman, an adjunct at four different institutions (this term), described her chagrin at being unable to counsel students, participate in governance, help with her course design and book selection, or engage with her colleagues. Further, she notes:
“Part-time work comes with a host of mundane and academic inconsistencies. I have a different e-mail address and password, voice mail access number, copy machine code and computer system log-in at each school. I press 7 to erase messages at one campus and to save them at another. I use different textbooks for the same course, have access to different videos, teach in classrooms with different equipment, and have a key ring that would compete with any security guard or janitor.”
AFT Oregon president Mark Schwebke put the academic staffing crisis in the broader context of years of underfunding of higher education in Oregon due to a 1990 tax revolt measure and reduced federal funds. At the same time, tuition hikes make community college three times as expensive as in California. Administrators turn to part-time faculty to cut costs.
But don’t expect administrators to craft a solution, warned Michael Dembrow, president of the Portland Community College Faculty Federation. Presaging the testimony that was to follow the adjuncts’, Dembrow predicted, “you can expect some vigorous opposition—if not outright stonewalling once again—from management at most of the colleges and universities. … The college presidents will tell you to just give them the money, and they will use it to do the right thing. Unfortunately, the record here is not
promising.”
For this reason, the FACE legislation would create a Faculty Restoration and Equity Fund to help pay for improvements. “It’s time to fix this problem,” he said.
Essex County College adjuncts sign on the dotted line
Adjuncts at Essex County College haven’t seen a pay raise in 10 years. They lack e-mail, voice mail, a place to meet with students, pay for holding office hours and many of the essential tools that make it easier to provide support to students. Some don’t even have access to a computer or copying services when they need them.But on March 5, under the state’s card-check law, the New Jersey Public Employee Relations Board recognized them as a union. The unit of close to 400 adjuncts is affiliated with the New Jersey Federation of Teachers/AFT. Its organizers collected 247 valid cards and turned them over to the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC). The law allows union recognition when a supermajority—50 percent plus one—of the potential bargaining unit demonstrates their wish to be represented by a union. In this case, 73 percent signed cards, says Lynne Cummins, an Essex activist and psychology adjunct teacher.
She and nine other activists tried to touch base with everyone in the unit since they started organizing in September 2006. “For the most part, people were so ready and receptive that it didn’t take a lot of convincing,” she says. “Adjuncts love the work they do and the impact they have on the community,” she adds, but they don’t love making an average of $500 per credit hour, among the lowest pay scales in the county. They also handle the bulk of teaching at a college where there are only about 150 full-time faculty.
The new union is now in the midst of surveying members and drafting bargaining goals, says Cummins.
