“Due to the continued corporatization of higher
education, contingent faculty—adjunct and non-tenure track instructors—are at a
crisis point. Nowhere is this inequity more hypocritical than in Jesuit
colleges, such as Loyola University Chicago.
“Students pay more for college than ever, yet less of
their overall tuition actually goes to their professors. At Loyola, it has been
seven years since adjunct faculty received a raise in pay. Between 2002 and
2012, Loyola quadrupled the number of adjuncts it employs, while decreasing
instruction spending by 11 percent. In the meantime, Loyola's total revenues
have risen by over a quarter of a billion dollars. Though tuition is
skyrocketing, roughly 15 percent of faculty at Jesuit institutions have had to rely
on public assistance.
“Without a stable career base, contingent faculty cannot
best serve their students. Nationally, a reported 46 percent of instructors
believe students are receiving insufficient support from their professors
because of work overload and other challenges. This deficiency most greatly
affects those at the highest risk, i.e., nontraditional students, whose need
for individualized instruction and specialized ballasting demands time and
resources that adjuncts and NTT faculty simply do not possess.
“In protest of this and other institutionalized
injustices, faculty presented Loyola's administration with the Jesuit Just
Employment Petition in April 2015, declaring all campus workers' right to fair
pay, benefits, a safe and just work environment, and the freedom to form unions
without employer interference or retaliation. This petition spoke directly to
Loyola's social justice mission, a core tenet of Jesuit education.
“This motion, as well as various subsequent actions, was
met with silence from the administration. When Loyola contingents did file to
organize with the Service Employees International Union, the university
protested. It claimed that the laws that protect workers' right to organize do
not apply because of Loyola's religious affiliation, as well as arguing just
who among the faculty should make up the bargaining unit.
“This month, the National Labor Relations Board overruled
Loyola on all of its positions. Despite intimidating emails from administration
in recent months, adjunct and NTT instructors are undeterred and today voted to
form a union.
“The culture of adjunct and NTT vulnerability perpetrated
by Loyola University is neither in keeping with its Jesuit ideals nor in the
best interest of its student body. The public is often unaware of the
difficulties facing contingent faculty, but students and their families are
feeling the repercussions of an educational system that does not value its
educators.
“By forming a union, contingent faculty can negotiate in
the best interest of students, faculty and the social justice mission of the
university. Adjunct and NTT instructors should be championed in their efforts
to better support their students and themselves.”
The above article, I’m an adjunct professor at Loyola. Why I just voted to unionize by Alyson Paige Warren, was printed in Crain’s.
Though these two commentaries are responses to Reverend Dennis H. Holtschneider’s editorial from Inside Higher Ed (January 28, 2016) regarding DePaul University v. the Unionization of Its Adjunct Faculty, they are relevant to the aforementioned issue:
“…Isn't it more than hypocritical to oppose the adjunct's
unionization effort on the basis of the integrity of your Catholic faith when
you've already compromised that faith to such an extent by exploiting your
adjuncts that you've driven them to unionization in the first place? If your
Catholic faith had any integrity whatsoever, your adjuncts wouldn't want or
need a union to safeguard their interests. As I understand it, all they're
seeking is equal pay for equal work, a living wage, opportunity for
advancement, and working conditions that respect their basic human dignity, and
apparently your Catholic faith is so lacking in integrity already that it
hasn't provided for these basic needs. What's most pathetic and despicable
about your column comes at the end when we learn that it's the Catholic
institutions that are the real victims here, not the exploited overworked
underpaid government-subsidized adjunct freeway fliers living course-to-course in
poverty, or the students whose education you've placed into the hands of
contingent migrant laborers” (Refereeing Religion?).
Commentary:
“…In 2013, NPR reported that these
itinerant teachers make up 75 percent of college professors,
and their pay averages between $20,000 and $25,000 annually. And this trend may
be long term, as three in four college professors are not on a
tenure track, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) reports.
According to a 2015 study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center, 25 percent of
part-time college faculty and their families are enrolled in a at least one public
assistance program such as Medicaid or food stamps. Most adjunct
professors are forced to work two jobs to make ends meet…” (The Christian Science Monitor).
“We are the stoop laborers of higher
education: adjunct professors. As colleges and universities rev for the fall
semester, the stony exploitation of the adjunct faculty continues, providing
cheap labor for America’s campuses, from small community colleges to knowledge
factories with 40,000 students” (Colman McCarthy, Adjunct professors fight for crumbs on campus).
“Memories of the
university as a citadel of democratic learning have been replaced by a
university eager to define itself largely as an adjunct of corporate power. Civic
freedom has been reduced to the notion of consumption, education has been
reduced to a form of training, and agency has been narrowed to the consumer
logic of choice legitimated by a narrow belief in defining one's goals almost
entirely around self-interests rather than shared responsibilities of
democratic sociability…” (Higher Education and the New Brutalism).
Why We Need Unionization for College Adjuncts:
“…RESOLVED, that the AFT will continue
to work with its affiliates and promote their successes in collective
bargaining to bring about the elimination of contingency within the
instructional workforce by advocating for faculty currently in contingent positions
and all new faculty entering the workforce to achieve:
- Pay equity, including compensation for class preparation time and office hours;
- Equitable access to employee benefits;
- Access to and compensation for opportunities for professional development;
- Meaningful job security, including job security comparable to tenure, long-term academic appointment contracts or certificates of continuing employment, which guarantee the presumption of rehiring;
- Opportunities for career advancement, including conversion opportunities to full-time, tenure-track positions;
- Enforceable standards for the timely notification of teaching appointments;
- Protections for academic freedom, regardless of tenure status; and
- Full inclusion in and compensation for participation in all institutional work, including service, research and governance…” (AFT Resolutions).
