Category Archives: Contingent labor

San Antonio Express: SAC to halt waivers that sliced profs’ pay

No one teaches for the money, but even part-time professors have their limits.

Administrators at San Antonio College have asked some adjuncts there to teach more than 12 hours, but to sign a waiver accepting pay for only 11 hours, forgoing their right to a higher pay rate and benefits that kick in at the 12-hour mark.

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Inside Higher Ed: Will Adjuncts Pay to Be Certified?

Led by a long-time adjunct and former University of Phoenix administrator, a new business announced plans Wednesday to offer certification to adjuncts. The idea is to provide training on teaching and then to test adjuncts on that training before providing a certificate that could be used to impress would-be employers. One more thing: The program costs $395, and renewals cost $75 a year.

Whether the business will take off remains to be seen. But the Society of Certified Adjunct Faculty Educators says that participants in beta testing said that they found the program helpful, and that officials at several colleges have already expressed interest in using the certificates — even perhaps paying for adjuncts to participate or indicating that they prefer candidates with certification.

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Inside Higher Ed: Revolt in the Adjunct Ranks

When the current leaders of the faculty union at the City University of New York were elected in 2000, they ousted their predecessors with a vow to be more activist and to deliver more for faculty members, including part timers. Since then, the union leaders have indeed been activist and politically vocal, drawing regular criticism from professors who would prefer to see the Professional Staff Congress take a more moderate stance.

But in an unusual reversal that points to some of the tensions in academic labor over how to balance the needs of full-time and part-time professors, the union (affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers) is facing intense criticism from those whom it pledged to help: the part timers who lack the pay or job security of those on the tenure track. Some part-time professors are organizing to urge the entire union membership to reject a contract recently negotiated by the union.

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The Chronicle: Gas Prices Afford Adjuncts Tough Choices

The cost of gasoline has made the art of juggling two or more teaching jobs at different institutions all the more difficult for many adjunct faculty members, as extreme price increases at the pumps cut into salaries that often don’t cover living expenses to begin with.

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Hot off the Presses from Chicago COCAL

A practical manual from Joe Berry, Beverly Stewart and Helena Worthen

Published with generous assistance from the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association.

“In an essential new tract for the majority of faculty who serve contingently, [the authors explain] how sleazeball administrations game the social-service system to vacuum every last dime from your pocket.” — Marc Bousquet, Author of How the University Works

Single copies available NOW for $5 each (plus $2 shipping) from http://chicagococal.org/.
For bulk orders and discounts on shipping, contact Joe Berry at info@chicagococal.org or call 217-378-4763.

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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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The Chronicle: A Philosopher Stirs Up the World of Adjuncts

Gadfly takes on colleges, lawmakers, and unions

Keith Hoeller is an adjunct professor. He teaches philosophy for a living at Green River Community College, just outside Seattle. He has also spent much of the last two decades ruminating about the bigger picture for those at his level of the professorial pecking order.

Why can colleges and universities pay part-time faculty members so much less money than full-time professors for the same course load? On what basis are adjuncts largely denied benefits? How can academic freedom exist for those who lack job security? And what impact will the explosion in the use of part-time lecturers, paid by the course, have on higher education as a whole?

But Mr. Hoeller, 59, does not merely think big thoughts about adjuncts. He has put his ideas into action as an activist on behalf of about 10,000 part-time lecturers in Washington State’s community colleges. He is also a voice for adjuncts on the national level, where nearly 70 percent of professors at colleges and universities hold positions off the tenure track.

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Inside Higher Ed: Liberation (of Adjuncts) Theology

Adjunct faculty members and their advocates put forth lots of arguments for improving the benefits paid to those off the tenure track. But Marquette University’s theology faculty has come up with an unusual argument that involves a power higher than a college president.

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Inside Higher Ed: The University of California at Davis last week announced a new approach to the outsourcing of its food service operations — a source of controversy and protests on the campus. Under the new policy, Sodexo will continue manage the food operations. But about 175 to 200 non-managerial employees and several hundred student employees will over time become University of California employees, rather than Sodexo employees. Critics at Davis and elsewhere have said that outsourcing has the impact of denying those who work on campus the benefits and job protections offered to campus employees.

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Inside Higher Ed: ‘Collective Sidestep’ on Adjuncts

Accreditors have many detailed rules that they expect colleges to meet — requirements that relate to courses, faculties, facilities, money and more. But what about the use of adjunct faculty members — an issue that is the subject of increasing debate in higher education? What have the accreditors said or done?

“One might expect them to be in the vanguard of the debate over part-time faculty. They are not,” says a report, “Looking the Other Way? Accreditation Standards and Part-Time Faculty,” being issued today by the American Association of University Professors. The report says that accreditors generally say little about the use of adjuncts, are vague when they address the topic, and have rarely taken actions against colleges that have shrunk the sizes of their tenure-track faculty in favor of more use of adjuncts.

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CNW Group: Concordia University Responds to Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA) Pressure Tactics

Students are asked to report to all classes during CUPFA work disruption

MONTREAL, March 26 /CNW Telbec/ – The Concordia University Part-Time
Faculty Association (CUPFA) announced today that it has decided to employ
pressure tactics.
On the basis of what CUPFA announced today, the university expects that
the majority of classes will not be affected. It is the university’s
understanding that we will see rotating work stoppage, with a few departments
picketing at different times during the week of March 31. It also appears that
that CUPFA members who are not engaged in the picketing will continue to teach
their classes.

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Inside Higher Ed: Better Contracts for Full-Time Adjuncts

Many people used to use “part timer” as a synonym for “adjunct.” Increasingly, the two words can’t be assumed to be interchangeable, as one of the fastest growing job categories in higher education is the full-time instructor off the tenure track. With that in mind, faculty unions are talking more about the need to include specific provisions in contracts to help this subset of the professorial work force.

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Inside Higher Ed: Pushing for Job Conversions

In the campaign to deal with the shift of faculty positions from full-time to part-time, what counts as a victory? Better wages and benefits for adjuncts? More job security? Collective bargaining? Or the job security that comes with a tenure-track position?

In recent years, adjuncts have won notable successes on a variety of fronts, particularly through unions — although the most notable advances have helped but a small fraction of those off the tenure track. In Washington State, a national union-backed effort may be about to achieve legislation that specifically goes after “conversion” — taking part-time jobs and turning them into full-time positions, with tenure eligibility.

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