Recently, we reported that the Wayne State University Union of Part-time Faculty (UPTF) had reached a tentative agreement with the University.  The highlights of that agreement are now online as members consider ratification.  Check them out here or hop over the jump with us for a quick summary.

A good friend of mine and I often talk about a project we would like to do. We've seen several studies conducted that talk about the abuses part-timers suffer, but we haven't seen any that investigate the consequences of choosing to be a part-time instructor.

Our theory, which is based entirely on anecdotal evidence and personal experience, is that part-time faculty suffer from a higher rate of stress-related conditions. For example, many part-timers I know who have been teaching for more than five years have gone through a divorce at some point in their careers. Several suffer from depression; others deal with health issues like ulcers and heart disease. I can’t help but wonder how many, if any, attempt and/or commit suicide.

Now I am not going to suggest that the Ann Marie Murray, vice president of academic affairs at Broome County College (BCC) is not telling the truth, but I am going to guess a few stories are getting swept under the rug in her recent interview about how adjunct faculty are employed at BCC.  No one is going to argue about the value of bring in a "practitioner expertise to the classroom" or of building the connection with the community by having those who work in the community teach at the college.  And no one is going to argue that the services adjunct faculty provide a college and its community aren't valuable.

All of that said, the story seems a bit too tidy to me.  According to our numbers, BCC employed 390 faculty members in 2005 and of those, 243 were contingent faculty members.  Phew--that is a whole lot of community relations going on. 

The question has been raised over whether accrediting bodies should consider the use of contingent faculty in the assessment process. I believe that, yes, they should question how adjunct faculty are treated and how they are used. Here in the Northwest, I have been grateful for accreditors who have gone out of their way to talk to adjunct faculty and incorporate those concerns in reports. The heavy use of non-tenure track faculty is more than a labor issue.

The use of faculty on temporary contracts is closely related to assessment, especially in general education classes, which are taught in large numbers by faculty whose employment is often based almost entirely on student surveys conducted in the classroom. As the numbers of temporary (often a legal fiction) faculty increase, tenured faculty are hard pressed to make classroom visits or examine the classroom teaching as carefully as is really needed. There is just not enough time and faculty on personnel committees are often not given enough release time to do more than a cursory check. Since a tenure decision is not at stake, the non-tenure track’s evaluation also tends to be placed on the backburner.

So I have been absolutely horrible about keeping up with the conversation that Bruce Simon and I were having about tenure and staffing (although Bruce keeps carrying the torch), and I promise to get back to it . . . eventually, soon even.

Until then, Brandon Withrow has a nice piece over at the Chronicle about whether to blog or not blog as a faculty member.  This isn't a new topic, but his perspective is interesting as he is currently an adjunct faculty member looking to make the jump to a tenure-track position.

All too often, when working on issues that impact contingent employees, strange things occur that we would never be able to predict without being clairvoyant. We meet with college administrators believing that simply explaining the circumstances will convince them to “do the right thing” and find ourselves facing a series of hurdles and roadblocks.

Last quarter, for example, one of our adjunct faculty had serious surgery. Fortunately, in Washington State, we have won health care and the ability to accumulate sick days for part-time faculty in community and technical colleges. In fact, we can even transfer our sick days from one college to another as long as they are both in the state system and participate in shared sick leave programs.

So, this colleague was able to use sick days that he has accumulated in the seventeen years he has taught at our college as a part-timer, and he was able to use his health care benefits.

He was able to focus on recuperating and everything seemed to be going well . . . until we reached the end of the quarter.

We have been remiss in not sending a shout out to Joe, Beverly and Helena over at Chicago COCAL for producing a great new resource for contingent faculty, union locals, or state organizations looking to advocate for unemployment insurance benefits for contingent faculty.  The new booklet, Access to Unemployment Insurance Benefits for Contingent Faculty: A manual for applicants and a strategy to gain full rights to benefits, is available over at the Chicago COCAL site for download and you can order purty print  copies as well!

The booklet discusses the unemployment situation in general, provides guidance on how to apply for unemployment insurance and outlines strategies for gaining these benefits for contingent faculty.

As we have documented, some states have already achieved access to such benefits and others are working on it, but it is no easy task.  And even when contingent faculty do have access to these benefits, taking advantage of that access (as Phil has pointed out here before) can also be a  challenge.

So check out the new resource and let the authors know what you think.

Maya Angelou recently said, “I’m not a writer who teaches, I’m a teacher who writes.” When I heard this, I realized that I sometimes confuse who and what I am as a person with the conditions of my employment.

I’m not a part-timer who teaches, I’m a teacher who has been trapped in the maelstrom of teaching as a part-timer for much too long.

Strange things happen to us when we slip into thinking like a "part-timer." Gradually, we begin to believe that there is something that makes us different from our full-time, tenure colleagues. Sometimes, after I introduce myself as a writing teacher, I find myself feeling a need to explain that I’m actually “just a part-timer.” There have been times when I felt almost apologetic for what I do. Recently, I even started referring to myself as a “professional part-timer” or a “freelance instructor.” Somehow this sounds better to me, but the fact of the matter is, I am a first and foremost a teacher.

When people learn that I’m a professional part-time, freelance, adjunct, contingent instructor, they ask, “Have you ever thought about teaching full-time?”

Congratulations to Washington State AFT on getting the Senate’s budget to include $500,000 for conversion efforts at community colleges.  As we lay the groundwork in PA to get our bill passed in the next year, it is encouraging to see some success.  I was disappointed, though not terribly surprised, to see that the Washington legislators had dropped the directive for priority to be given to part-time instructors when these jobs are filled.  There is always reluctance to control local decisions from above. 

I can see this priority directive being a problem in other state legislatures too.  This priority is something that AFT will continue to fight for. What better candidate for a position than someone who has already proven their committment to the college? 

However, there is something else AFT's model FACE legislation includes, something that each state's FACE bill needs to include, job protection for the part-time faculty.  Looking to the future, as the ratio of full-time faculty inches towards its 75% goal, the fear expressed from most part-time faculty is job loss.  Some part-time teachers do not want full-time positions; however, they all want to keep their jobs.

The full-time faculty in our division know each other very well. While they may not always get along, they at least understand one another’s perspectives and are able to work together. They have had opportunities to get to know each other as they have worked together, not only in the classrooms, but also on committees and within the division.

Part-time faculty simply don’t have the same opportunities to build professional relationships. Besides having fluctuating schedules and not knowing from one quarter to the next if we will even be teaching, we don’t often have the opportunities to attend division meetings and serve on committees. However, after we teach for a few quarters on the same campus, we begin to recognize one another. Sometimes we are actually able to build friendships.

Part-Timer collegiality has its own peculiar twists and features. For example, one college heard us when we talked about the importance of having offices, and they gave us a large room (twelve work stations) that sixty-three of us shared. Of course, we weren’t all there at the same time, but we were seldom alone in the office. The first quarter, we would quietly sneak to our assigned workstation, lay claim to a drawer in a file cabinet and a shelf in the bookcase, sign up for time on one of the computers, do our work and leave.

Eventually, we actually began talking to one another. One of my colleagues referred to what eventually happened as a form of Stockholm syndrome – instead of developing an attachment to our “captors,” we build friendships with our fellow “captives.” We began to share our ideas about teaching as well as our frustration with the system. I remember one friend weeping because she had accepted too many classes (six classes spread over three campuses) and didn’t know how she was going to survive the quarter, and weeping again the following spring when she was down to three classes on two campuses and she didn’t know how she was going to pay her bills.