Inside Higher Ed: 21 Years as Adjunct and Out
Margaret West has taught part-time for 21 years at Edmonds Community College, in Washington State, gaining good reviews and annual contract renewals. The FACE blog — part of the Faculty and College Excellence Campaign to get more tenure-track faculty slots and improve the treatment of adjuncts — reported that West was told recently that her services would no longer be needed and that a dean, asked why, told her “because I can.” This came shortly after West started running, unopposed, to serve as president of the faculty union — where she would be the first part-timer to lead the American Federation of Teachers unit at her college. “There is no excuse for what happened to Margaret. The administration at Edmonds Community College should be ashamed of themselves,” said the blog. A spokeswoman for the college, asked about the blog posting, released a statement that did not name West. The statement said: “Edmonds Community College values its longstanding relationship with part-time faculty…. Faculty assignments are determined through the appropriate deans in accordance with the negotiated faculty contract. We resolve all contract related disagreements through established processes.”
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