Campus Equity Now Equal Pay for Equal Work

Campus Equity Now! Equal Pay for Equal Work!

What is Campus Equity Week? CEW is a national event started by the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) and participated in by AFT and other organizations. Its purpose is to publicize the exploitation of adjunct faculty, the effects of corporatization on students, and the corporatization of higher education in general.

Campus Equity Week Faculty Issues • Eliminating the inequity between adjunct/contingent and full-time pay • Increasing the opportunities for adjunct/contingent faculty to get fulltime positions • Providing adjuncts paid opportunities for professional development • Securing rehire rights for adjuncts • No faculty terminated without due process • Insuring all faculty members enjoy full protection of free speech rights and academic freedom • Guaranteeing adequate office space for adjunct/contingent faculty • Recognition of adjunct/contingent faculty as vital members of the academic community

Corporatization (i. e. , Wal-martization) • Stage 1: Adjunctification – Create a “precarious” workforce • Stage 2: Corporatization – Institute “efficiency of production” (i. e. , make education a salable product, a widget) • Stage 3: Privatization – Maximize profit: charge consumer (i. e. , student) as much as possible America’s workforce is becoming temporary. Noam Chomsky names the modern worker the “precariat, ” the worker who cannot rely on his employer to be loyal.

The Adjunctification of the U. S. Higher Education Faculty 2014 Adjunct 75% Tenure-track 25% 1970 Adjunct 30% Tenure-track 70% Based on data from U. S. Department of Education 2009 Fall Staff Survey.

Source: Analysis of Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System by AAUP 6

What is an Adjunct Professor? 75% • • • Adjunct: non-essential Contingent: conditional Part-time: not fully employed A “precarious” worker, with little job security “Just-in-time professor” working whenever, wherever “Freeway flyer, ” driving fast from one campus to another Part-time-full-timer: actual employment for many Career academic Dedicated professional Adjuncts are misnamed because we are essential: a day without adjuncts would leave students with 3/4 less faculty. How many professors would be left to teach?

What Adjuncts Do But Are Not Paid For • • • Adjuncts do professional work Prepare syllabi for unprofessional pay. Plan lessons Evaluate student work Honors contracts Answer emails Develop and administer Blackboard sites Counsel students Develop curriculum Administer department programs Shared governance Department meetings Various campus committee work

How Adjunctification Hurts Adjuncts • Diminished career prospects • Contradiction of prestigious professional status and low economic status • Isolation from colleagues • Stress of teaching at multiple locations • Worry over future teaching assignments • Challenge of maintaining professional integrity • Financial insecurity • Feeling powerless • The stigma of contingency

How Adjunctification Hurts Students • • Diminished student retention Diminished graduation rates Diminished transfer rates Limited student-faculty interaction Faculty have obligations at many campuses Lack power to serve students effectively Students with the greatest need have the least support Students are “repositioned” as consumers Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions.

How Adjunctification Hurts Full. Time Faculty • Perpetually decreasing tenure-track colleagues • Perpetually increasing workload – – Program review Accreditation preparation Tenure review Adjunct review • Threatens academic freedom • Weakens shared governance • Weakens resistance to corporate reform

Why Not Convert Adjuncts to Full. Time? It’s Time to Resurrect FACE • Why not? Most adjuncts want full-time positions • It’s the only sensible option • It’s the only just option • FACE it! – AFT model legislation rewrites state law – Bring about fairness and equity for part-time adjuncts – Reverse the erosion of ful-time tenured faculty positions Faculty and College Excellence Campaign (FACE)

Equal Pay for Equal Work! • Typical adjunct earns roughly 50% of a full-time salary at SDCCD • Adjuncts perform the same professional labor as full-time faculty • AFT 2121 at CCSF: an example – Negotiated 85% full-time pro rata for adjunct • To resist corporate reform (Walmartization), adjuncts need to be empowered with financial security

What should be our priority? • Adjunct faculty issues are full-time faculty issues • Adjunct issues are student issues • Adjunct issues are higher education issues We’re all on the ship of higher education. If corporatization sinks the ship, adjuncts will drown, and everyone else will be shipwrecked.

A Step in the Direction of Equity: Write to the Governor • $50 million towards equal pay (15% of need) – Average salary part-time full-timer=$35, 784 – Average salary tenured faculty=$89, 727 • $30 million for increased office hours (25% of need) • $100 million for more full-time positions (38% of need) – We need almost 8, 000 more full-time positions statewide to meet 75% of classes taught by full-time faculty (AB 1725) Source: Analysis of Fall 2013 California Community Colleges, Chancellor's Office Datamart Report by Jim Mahler.