The Coalition on the Academic Workforce, which AFT is a member of and helps to coordinate, has just released an important new issue brief and launched a new website!  You can check out the brief on the website and read the full press release about the brief below.  We will have more on this important release throughout the day.

Coalition on the Academic Workforce Calls for Fair and Equitable Treatment
of All College Teachers
The Majority of Undergraduate Courses Should Be Taught by
Faculty Members with Full-Time Appointments

The Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) announces the release of a new issue brief calling on institutions of higher education to work toward ensuring that all college and university faculty members are recognized and supported as professionals committed to providing a quality education to all students.  "One Faculty Serving All Students" calls for improvements in the current staffing ratios at colleges and universities, increased support for faculty members serving in contingent positions, and inclusion of  all faculty members in the work and life of their institutions.

"The public has a large investment in higher education and expects a solid return on that investment," said Rosemary G. Feal, Executive Director of the Modern Language Association. "For four decades, however, institutions have increasingly shifted teaching responsibilities to an ever-larger body of dedicated but underpaid and undersupported contingent faculty members. It's time for institutions to shift priorities by increasing the number of full-time faculty members in the academic workforce and by providing equitable pay, working conditions, and job security to both full- and part-time teachers whose work with students is at the core of the college experience."

The brief sets forth four broad principles:

• 1. All faculty members need to receive compensation and institutional support and recognition commensurate with their status as professionals.
• 2. All faculty members should be aware of the recommended standards and guidelines for the academic workforce issued by their professional associations and faculty organizations.
• 3. All faculty members should have access to key information on academic staffing in their departments and institutions and use this information to advocate for change.
• 4. All long-term faculty members need to be fully enfranchised to participate in the work and life of the department and institution.

"Many of the organizations in CAW have been working extremely hard on these issues and have adopted policy statements of their own," said Linda Downs, Executive Director of the College Art Association. "We felt that it was important to identify areas that we could also work on as a coalition, particularly in terms of activating our collective memberships."

CAW will work to promote adoption of the goals of this issue brief and will continue to advocate equitable and fair treatment for all members of the higher education academic workforce.

###

The Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) is a group of higher education associations, disciplinary associations, and faculty organizations committed to working on the issues associated with the deteriorating conditions of faculty working conditions and the impact of these trends on the success of college and university students in the United States.  A complete list of CAW members is available at www.academicworkforce.org.

After flirting briefly with the idea of privatizing its adjunct workforce, which we reported on here, at its January 21 meeting the board of trustees at Kirtland Community College decided not to take such action.

The trustees considered the plan last August because, if privatized, the adjuncts would not be part of the state's defined benefit pension plan.  This would save the college the 17 percent contribution the state requires for each employee and save the adjuncts, many of whom don't put in enough time to vest, a required 3 percent contribution.

The plan was to farm out payroll administration of their adjunct's compensation but retain recruiting and hiring rights. So the adjuncts-some 80 who are hired each semester-would be employed by a private company that specializes in placing substitute teachers.

The 39 full-time faculty at KCC are represented by the AFT Michigan, but adjuncts have no union. KCC Federation of Teachers vice president Kevin Baughn and AFT Michigan president/AFT vice president  David Hecker participated in discussion of the idea at KCC's January board meeting.

Hecker pointed out the flaws in plan: that an optional privatization plan would undermine the retirement system, that adjuncts would have no guarantee they could keep the 3 percent or more contribution--the college could just decide to lower the pay of adjuncts. The money the college would "save" would actually go to the private company. Finally, the plan wouldn't contribute to the state's "greater good," said Hecker. KCC is supported by taxpayer dollars. "The overwhelming number of taxpayers do not attend KCC.  What if they had the option of not paying the portion of their taxes KCC receives?"

Says Hecker: "It was a good conversation."

One question that always comes up from folks outside of higher education when we talk about the issue of underpaid contingent faculty is: "Why do they keep teaching if the pay is so bad?"  Well here is one response over at Musings of a 20-something. 

QuasiGrownUp's post contains so many of the pieces we hear about in the life of a contingent faculty member--particularly one early in her career:  she loves teaching, feels financially trapped, sees this as a step toward eventual full-time faculty status, works a gazillion hours in her "part-time" jobs-both teaching and elsewhere, etc.  Her post inspires both hope and heartbreak as you read about her clear passion for teaching and her expectations for the future.

Of course, this is just one story, but there is an important lesson to be learned here.  Quasi has a story that both "tells it like it is" with regard to the labor situation and expresses a deep conviction and commitment to the profession.  It is that mix that makes the story compelling. We need more of those stories from contingent faculty at all stages of their careers.

So how about it?  Do you have a story to tell?  Let us know if you do.  We know they are out there.

The vote of Oregon residents earlier this week in a special referendum on taxes shows that the public will stomach a tax increase to support vital public services like higher education, health care and transportation if the tax doesn't unfairly on the middle class.

That was the message of an election on Jan. 26, when Oregon voters approved two tax measures that will raise $727 million in revenue.

The turnout was unusually high for a special election, says David Rives, AFT-Oregon president and part-time community college instructor. It shows two things--both public support for critical public services and the effectiveness of a broad coalition that speaks with one voice.

It's a point that we can make when talking to legislators about the Faculty and College Excellence legislation as well.

Measures 66 and 67 raise the corporate minimum tax from $10 to $150 for the first time since 1931 and raise the tax rate on household income above $250,000. Prior to the passage of these measures, more than two-thirds of corporations doing business in Oregon paid just the $10 a year corporate minimum income tax.

This morning, we attended the "Community Colleges and Competitiveness: Generating Economic Opportunity Through Innovation in Postsecondary Education" at the Center for American Progress which featured Dr. Jill Biden and then a series of discussions based on three new papers released today by CAP dealing with community colleges.  There were plenty of good observations and policy recommendations, although as a former faculty member, the gap between education as a policy area and education as an actual human endeavor always seems vast in those settings.  Not to mention that as the presentations went on, I was wondering how many presentations I have heard about improving higher education's performance and helping more students succeed that never mention the role of faculty.  I mean not at all. 

Well, until Gail Mellow, president, LaGuardia Community College began her response to one of the papers being delivered.  She noted that all the policy recommendations were great from a policy perspective. Spot on.  But then she put on her hat as a community college administrator and brought the perspective of someone who views policy from within the actual inner-workings of a community college and from that perspective, her response was: "Oh, c'mon, get real!"