BY JENNIFER RUTH
In “Adjunct and Tenured Faculty Must Unite to Resist Pandemic Opportunism on Campus”, a piece I wrote recently for Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt and Bertin M. Louis Jr.’s “Challenging the Corporate University” special series in Truthout, I argued that “it has become clear that adjuncts and tenured faculty alike will only be able to defend our jobs and institutions from this continued onslaught from neoliberal university administrators if we organize ourselves in one union wherever possible and, where not possible, act as one union even if we are forced formally to speak in different voices.” For the piece, I did a little research on the United Academics union at the University of Oregon and was deeply impressed with what can be accomplished when faculty are in a combined union. I wrote:
United Academics negotiated bargaining contracts that required adjunct faculty be promoted into career positions after three years or not be rehired. While the data is not easy to chart over time, the efforts made by the University of Oregon union to limit adjunct exploitation are surely one major reason why there are significantly more “good” than “bad” jobs there. The outcome sought by the pandemic opportunists among administrators — fewer decently paid secure positions and more badly paid, insecure ones — will be very hard to achieve in the unionized environment created by United Academics at the University of Oregon.
AAUP members recently received an email announcing an AFT symposium happening on June 29th. The incoming United Academics of the University of Oregon president Mike Urbancic will be there, explaining the system of NTT job security that United Academics has negotiated. So will California Federation of Teachers president Mia McIver, Faculty Association of Monmouth University activist Beth Gilmartin-Keating, and United University Professions (SUNY) vice president for academics Alissa Karl. The symposium invitation reads:
This symposium will provide these experts the chance to explain the system of NTT job security they have negotiated, the solutions they have found, and the challenges they still face. The panelists will then engage in a in-depth conversation with each other about how their systems work beyond the language in the CBA. How does the non-renewal/layoff system work? Is the appeals process really a viable way to protect against administrative abuses? Have their [sic] been unexpected consequences for the faculty both positive and negative?
The AAUP Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2021-22 showed that three in five faculty members are on contingent appointments.
Come learn about strategies to increase job security for the majority of faculty.
Register for the symposium here.
Prof. Ruth may have noticed the note on the two charts showing the percentages of faculty that are contingent, etc, on pages 14 and 16 of the AAUP Annual Report. The note says:
“Figures represent full-time nonmedical noninstructional staff in degree-granting nonprofit institutions participating in Title IV federal finan-
cial aid programs.”
It would also be interesting — perhaps even more interesting — to see figures for instructional staff. Isn’t that what most of us are? I’m also puzzled at how the charts can include figures for part-time contingent faculty when the note limits the figures to full-time staff. I apologize if I simply haven’t had my coffee this morning.
Dear Professor Piper, That was an error in the report — it should have indicated “nonmedical *instructional* staff” in the note. The same error occurred in the notes for figures 6, 7, 9, and 10 as well as table C. We regret the error, and we are in the process of correcting it now. The corrected version will be published in the AAUP’s summer Bulletin. Thank you *so* much for pointing this out. We were not aware of the error until you mentioned it here. –Glenn
Glenn — I kinda figured that the label was an error, but one of the complexities that I’ve noticed in reports on adjunct/contingent faculty is that there is a habit of lumping under the ‘adjunct’ label a variety of jobs that don’t really capture the real problems of precarious, contingent faculty — for example our graduate student teaching assistants, or volunteer faculty in law schools. So when I saw the ‘noninstructional’ staff label my first reaction was to wonder if, once again, the wrong people were being counted. I’m glad to see that it was a simple error. Cordially, Barbara
Don’t forget the encouraging development of HELU, Higher Education Labor United, which you can check out here: https://higheredlaborunited.org/