Earlier this week U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis appeared on NPR's Talk of the Nation.  During that interview a question was raised about the working conditions of part-time faculty, specifically at community colleges.  The Secretary's response (excerpted below) worried some activists concerned about contingent faculty working conditions.  They took the Secretary's answer to imply that part-time faculty were not committed to their students.

"If that were the case, we would be very concerned about that as well" stated AFT President, Randi Weingarten.  "However, having worked with the Secretary and knowing her concern for workers in all professions, we were sure that was not her intent and so we approached the Department of Labor seeking clarification."

In response, Secretary Solis made the following statement:

Adjunct faculty are being particularly hard-hit by the financial crisis at the state level. They deserve to be represented in collective bargaining, and their collective bargaining agreements should be respected. I certainly was not implying that adjuncts are not committed to their students, or that they are anything other than excellent educators.  In fact, my involvement with California community colleges has shown me that they are committed professionals who are dedicated to helping students succeed. What I wanted to get across is that, too often, adjunct faculty do not get the level of compensation or professional supports that full-time faculty receive to advise students academically, follow students through their academic careers, develop the college's curriculum, etc. Too many adjuncts, I noted, wind up needing to move from college to college each week just to put together a small living. 

                                                          --Secretary Hilda Solis

We appreciate the Secretary's concern and commitment to improving the working conditions of our members and her desire to make sure that she was clear about her support of part-time faculty.  We will continue to work with her and the Administration in general on finding ways to address the staffing crisis that our colleges and universities face, now even more acutely than before.

Excerpt from Talk of the Nation after the jump.

Just in time for "Just Ask," AFT's newly launched campaign to bring public attention to the people who teach the majority of classes to undergraduates today, is an illuminating  and spare commentary in Saturday's New York Times.  In "Quenching the Thirst for Learning," adjunct writing professor Katherine Jamieson tells why she keeps coming back to the job: "When I walk into my classroom and look into 20 pairs of eyes ready and waiting to learn, I can't turn away."

Jamieson opens with an overview of her situation:

I'm an adjunct professor, one of hundreds of thousands in an overeducated, unmoored, disposable work force staffing a majority of the nation's colleges and universities. At the community college where I work, I have no permanent desk or office, no telephone, no benefits and, to many, no name. When I calculate the time and money spent traveling, grading, answering e-mail, teaching and planning, my wages come to about $9 an hour.

Yet, she notes, her students make no distinction between the tenured and untenured who teach them. "They're oblivious to the internal wrangling of academia, and the heroic efforts of the unions to garner us a living wage. They're just looking for someone to teach them."

Most of Jamieson's piece is about the students she encounters and the complicated lives they bring to class.  Yet, as we are set to begin a new school year,  we can't help but note and pay tribute to Jamieson and the other "nameless" legions of adjuncts who bring opportunity to students of all ages and backgrounds.

Some of you may remember that about a year ago, fellow FACT Talk blogger Phil Ray Jack started telling the story of Margaret West, who, after 21 years of service at Edmonds Community College in Washington State, had been "non-renewed."  Not so coincidentally, West was also about to become the first part-time faculty member at Edmonds to assume the role of president of the faculty union at Edmonds.  In response to Phil's first post, a commenter asked what the union was doing in response and what others could do as well.  Phil pointed out that the union was taking action on several fronts and encouraged others to offer their support.

And now a little bit more than a year later, it appears that justice has been served.  In a decision handed down by the Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission, Edmonds CC was ordered to:

• Cease and desist from discriminating against West in reprisal for her union activities;
• Offer West immediate and full reinstatement to the former position she held or an equivalent position; and,
• Compensate West for back pay and benefits lost due to the improper actions of the college.

And, is the case with such decisions, the college is also required to report in a public meeting of the Board of Trustees and by notices posted on campus that the administration "unlawfully discriminated against Margaret West" and outline what they have been ordered to do to remedy that wrong.

One might suggest that a more fair hiring and renewal policy for contingent faculty would be a good place to start!  Until then, congratulations to Margaret and to her union for protecting her rights.

Today the instructors and adjunct faculty at Western Michigan University overwhelmingly voted for the Professional Instructors Organization (PIO) to represent them.  The Michigan Employment Relations Commission counted the votes in Lansing this morning and announced that the final vote tally was 207 to 29. 

"We are delighted that our colleagues have strongly supported the PIO union, and we will work hard to improve wages and working conditions for all instructors at WMU," said Janet Heller, Instructor in the English Department and Gender & Women's Studies Program. 

"We are confident that our organizing will help university leaders to see that part-time faculty are an essential component (along with tenure-line faculty and graduate teaching assistants) in the educational enterprise at WMU," said Karl Schrock, who teaches in the School of Music. "We look forward to working with the administration to improve communication, faculty recognition, and long-term planning for the university's mission in ways that will benefit students and the university community as a whole." 

Those who voted were instructors at WMU who held appointments of at least 3 total credit hours during the spring 2009 semester although the PIO has been organizing for more than a year.  "I'm proud of our hard work over the last sixteen months to achieve this union," said Martha Faketty, instructor in the English department.

The PIO, which will represent a unit of 430 instructors and adjunct faculty members at WMU, will now begin discussions with the WMU administration about better recognition as members of the faculty and university community.  Many instructors at WMU have not received any salary increase for 12 years.  WMU instructors and adjuncts continue to be one of the lowest paid groups of state university faculty in Michigan.

The vote today follows several other votes in the Great Lakes State over the past two years.  During that time new unions representing contingent faculty and graduate employees have formed at Michigan State, Central Michigan University, Henry Ford Community College and Wayne State University all affiliated with AFT Michigan, the state affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to attend the U.S. Department of Education's Forum on Fostering Persistence and Degree Attainment, which was held at the Community College of Philadelphia, where I teach as a part-time faculty member.   As Barbara reported, I wasn't able to be on the panel.  The panel was totally made up of college administrators, with the exception of Larry Gold, director of AFT higher education.  I was the lone faculty member in the back of the room, an interesting position in which to be.  The goal of my attendance at this meeting was to help promote the idea that academic staffing ought to be a consideration as the federal government considers how to distribute the money going to the College Access and Completion Fund for staffing.  The fund is a 5-year, mandatory $2.5 billion investment in improving degree attainment rates in higher education.

When given the opportunity, though persistent hand-raising, I spoke about how the best way to achieve student persistence was through engaging faculty, giving them positive reinforcement, perhaps even creating a pool of money for contingent faculty to engage students and contribute to college life (through office hours, advising, committee work).  If some contingent faculty are willing, they should be asked to and paid to participate.  This will engage more and more students.

Earlier this week, I posted a response to a question posed by Kevin Carey regarding full-time faulty and student completions.  My basic response was to agree about the need for more research about the impact of our current academic staffing pattern and its impact on student success. 

I also know from talking with contingent faculty that they would like to see some research that goes beyond just looking at negative correlations between high reliance on contingent faculty and student outcomes.  Regardless of how careful researchers might be in presenting their findings in those studies, the results always seem to imply that contingent faculty are poor teachers rather than highlighting the correlation between working conditions and student learning (which is the real target).  Why not start some research that examines what happens when contingent faculty are actually treated equitably (or more equitably) with regard to working conditions and inclusion in the institutional community?  Well, here is one such research project.

Professor Adrianna Kezar and her assistant Cecile Sam from the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at University of Southern California are in the midst of researching institutional policies as they impact contingent faculty.  In particular, they are looking for model policies that benefit contingent faculty.  Here are some of the key areas they are looking at:

• orientation
• faculty development programs including mentorship and leadership
• inclusion in governance structures and polices
• promotion and merit policies
• access to campus and departmental resources
• involvement in curriculum development
• climate and culture including attitude toward contingents
• policies around job contracts; multi-year contracts, salaries, and benefits
• academic freedom
• inclusion in department through meetings and perhaps specially created meetings for contingents
• administrative decision-making frameworks

If you are at a campus that has a collective bargaining contract provisions or institutional policies that you believe are moving in the right direction in these areas, give Cecile a shout.  I know they would be happy to hear about what is going on at your campus.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggests that community college districts should hire more part-time faculty to help the state close its $24.3 billion shortfall.  Already, community colleges have been cut $800 million, which districts say will result in an estimated 250,000 students being iced out next year.  Now, the students who remain will find themselves plunk in the middle of a California's growing staffing crisis. It's suddenly starting to look a whole lot worse.

According to a story in the June 8 Sacramento Bee, the governor has asked the legislature to suspend portions of state education code that require 50 percent of a community college district's educational expenditures to be used for teacher salaries and which set a systemwide goal that 75 percent of instructional hours be taught by full-time faculty.

"This is almost silly," says Marty Hittelman, California Federation of Teachers president, a former math community college professor. "Under these kinds of economic conditions, districts don't have to keep to those 75:25 requirements anyway.

The bigger issue, says Hittelman, is that "if the Legislature enacts the governor's current budget proposals, our students and the society we live in are not likely to recover for decades."

In back-to-back elections this spring, part-time/adjunct faculty teaching at two private colleges, the Manhattan School of Music and Cooper Union, have voted to unionize. The new unions are affiliated with the New York State United Teachers/AFT/NEA.

While salaries are always a worry to people who make their living in the arts, as most of MSM and CU teachers do, of greater concern is having job security and some say in how the work is determined. At both colleges, the faculty say administrators haven't played fair with them.

Head over the jump to read about each union's story.

I know.  I should wait for the book, perhaps even the movie, but the article in last week's Inside Higher Ed about the new book coming out on academic staffing just keeps lingering in the back of my mind.  The new book Off-Track Profs: Nontenured Teachers in Higher Education by John C. Cross and Edie N. Goldenberg is an in-depth look at the issue of contingency in "elite" colleges.  Now it could just be the way the IHE article portrays the work, but I must say I am left with a number of questions.

AFT Michigan has added another notch to its belt, as nontenure-track faculty at Michigan State University voted by a two-to-one margin for representation. The new union, the Union of Nontenure-Track Faculty (UNTF), will represent 650 part-time and full-time nontenure-track faculty on MSU's East Lansing campus. The mail-in ballot election was overseen by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission and the votes were counted May 29. The final tally was 240-113.

Job security, health insurance and wages are the top concerns of the UNTF members, who work on year-to-year contracts. "Although I have been treated well in my department," says sociologist Ralph Pyle who has been teaching at MSU for 12 years, "I feel that I would have more piece of mind if I knew that my job was secure."

"What matters to me most is having a voice," says Naoko Wake, a visiting assistant professor in MSU's Lyman Briggs college. "Now we will be real citizens of the university community."

The victory is part of a national trend of nontenure-track organizing. In Michigan, faculty have been on an exceptional roll, with AFT Michigan-affiliated unions recently organized at the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Henry Ford Community College. Next month, the union hopes to pick up more when part-time faculty at Western Michigan University will also be voting for union representation.