Craig Smith

And you thought only autoworkers needed a union?

The news this week of the courageous act by GM workers to send a clear message to their employer that workers in this country deserve to have their investment in a company acknowledged with fair compensation, benefits, and job security surely has generated conversations about how many other employees in this country could use a strong union to promote their interests. But it might surprise some readers to think of higher education faculty as one of those groups of employees that need such representation.

However, those DMI readers who have been good enough to hang with us through Part I and Part II of this series, know we have been drawing a picture of what is happening at our colleges and universities that demonstrates that this is clearly the case. Faculty members at U.S. colleges and universities are increasingly being hired as contingent faculty for low wages, little, if any, benefits, and virtually no job security. This is a situation that we at the American Federation of Teachers believe desperately needs attention if this country is serious about the repeated claims that higher education is more important than ever.

Earlier this year, we launched a new national campaign called Faculty and College Excellence (FACE). FACE seeks to accomplish two things:

• Increase the number of full-time faculty with tenure eligibility; and
• Improve the working conditions of contingent faculty.

You’re thinking, well who wouldn’t go for that? Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. That’s why it will take a union like the AFT to make this happen. Legislators, trustees and administrators (even those with the best of intentions) are never going to push this agenda on their own.

So we crafted model state legislation that calls for 75 percent of all classes at each institution to be taught by full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty. The legislation simultaneously calls for pay and benefit parity for contingent faculty, and also calls for a system to be created where contingent faculty desiring full-time, tenure-track positions have priority in the hiring system. We believe a systematic approach that addresses both the erosion of full-time faculty positions and the exploitation of contingent faculty is imperative; both of these issues are equally important to improving our system of higher education.

The legislation has been adapted and introduced in 11 states so far, and several states have held hearings on the legislation. These hearings have provided our state affiliates and locals with the opportunity to raise this issue before the legislature and the public. In Oregon, for instance, those hearings were responsible, in part, for spurring a new Commission on Higher Education that will be examining, among other things, the use and treatment of contingent faculty and graduate employees in the Oregon system.

We are just at the beginning of what we know will be a long campaign, and we are committed to sticking with it. In this fall’s legislative sessions, we will continue to push bills that are still moving and will introduce another round of bills. Our blog, FACE Talk, will be reporting on our progress and will explore academic staffing issues from a variety of perspectives. We hope you will visit.

Just as important, we are organizing around the FACE campaign: organizing to gain new members and grow the union; organizing to activate more members into a more powerful union; organizing to elect legislators who will not just support higher education, but make it a priority; and organizing to educate more of the public about what needs to be done.

In particular, we believe that more students and parents must become sensitized to issues of academic staffing, AND must begin to question colleges and universities about these issues. Prospective students and their parents need to ask the college admissions representatives what percentage of classes is taught by other than full-time faculty. They need to ask whether first-year classes are taught by tenured faculty or graduate students. They need to ask if part-time, adjunct instructors have offices for planning and meeting their students. If they believe in fairness, they need to ask if the college’s contingent faculty are paid a commensurate wage and if they receive health benefits. They must let college officials know that they expect a college or university to make academics its first budget priority, and that they question skimping on those who are most responsible for the learning and success of the student body—faculty.

Because, as we like to say, FACE Facts: Investment Counts.

Craig Smith: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 8:14 AM, Sep 26, 2007 in Labor
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