Inside Higher Ed: New Push for Full-Time Faculty Jobs
The steady growth of professorial jobs off the tenure track has posed a dilemma for faculty unions. Adjuncts have in some ways been ideal candidates for organizing drives because they generally feel that their pay, benefits and job security are all lacking. But to the extent that faculty unions want the tenure track to be the norm, institutionalizing the adjunct career path hasn’t always made sense to full-time professors. Unions have responded by increasingly organizing part timers — with a lot of discussion about how reliance on adjuncts has eroded the clout of all professors.
The American Federation of Teachers is in the coming months planning to start a major state-by-state legislative effort to create more full-time faculty positions — while also striving to improve the work life of adjuncts and helping more of them win full-time jobs. While the campaign will not be formally announced until next year, efforts have already started in California, Oregon and Washington State. The legislation is expected to vary from state to state, with general principles that bills would require public colleges to:
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