The Adjunct Advocate

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ARCHIVE: June 2008

June 16th 2008

I Strongly Object

I recently read a piece about New Jersey Governor Corzine's pension reform plan. The long and short of it is that the Governor's proposal would exclude anyone working fewer than 30 hours per week from the state's pension system. That would include, according to the article, 10,000 part-time faculty.

In response to the possibility that 10,000 part-time faculty might be excluded from the pension system in New Jersey, "[l]awmakers also are getting objections from the unions that represent more than 10,000 part-time college faculty members. They claim the proposal to exclude anyone working less than 30 hours a week from the pension system will eliminate the retirement benefit for all part-time professors."

Objections? That's it?

At Rutgers, in New Jersey, the AAUP-AFT local represents about 1,000 part-time lecturers (PTLs). Dues are .05 percent of pay, or $20 per term per course. Non-union members pay a fee of 85 percent of dues "to cover the costs of representation." Since 2005, the Rutgers chapter has been affiliated with both AAUP and AFT. Those 1,000 part-timers represent almost one-fourth of the AAUP's total part-time faculty membership.

The AAUP recently held its annual meeting. A quick look at the program, leaves one feeling, well, like no one at AAUP's national office is paying attention to the fact that almost one-quarter of the union's entire part-time faculty population is in jeopardy of losing their retirement benefits. At the AAUP's recent annual meeting, there was this special panel of interest: “Stories Your Mother (and the Dean) Never Told You: Planning Now for Future Health Security in Retirement." Here's the panel description:A new paradigm for sustaining retiree medical benefits for retiring faculty and staff at colleges and universities. The presenter will be Linda Cool, Professor of Anthropology at Union College and Founding Director of Emeriti Retirement Health Solutions.There was also a TIAA-CREF seminar. A lovely little get-together for those AAUP members who have access to TIAA-CREF benefits, or who have access to TIAA-CREF benefits until they don't anymore.

Heck, maybe the New Jersey part-timers who attended the AAUP Annual Meeting drank away their sorrows at the AAUP's one hour "Contingent Faculty and Interested Parties Meet for Happy Hour" schmoozapalooza. It was the only event for part-time faculty at the three-day conference.

Finally—I saved the best for last—the theme of the AAUP's 94th Annual Meeting was "Scholars in Peril." It seems AAUP is more concerned with the fact that scholars from abroad are having a more difficult time securing Visas for entry into the United States, than whether or not 25 percent of their total part-time membership will have to start eating wallpaper paste for protein after they lose their retirement benefits.

Then again, AAUP has defied gravity, conventional business practices, and logic for the past decade. In 2007, after Dr. Cary Nelson was elected president, the organization increased dues for those members who earn the least by 380 percent, and dues for those who earn the most were increased by only 3.8 percent. Between 2000 and 2007, membership fell from 45,000 to 41,543, but revenue jumped from $5 million per year to $7.3 million.

"Scholars in Peril," indeed. I strongly object. The hubris and thoughtlessness boggle the mind.

Posted By Part-Time T. at 1:09 PM

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June 13th 2008

)()&)@&@%#% Comment Problem FIXED

I have just discovered that, well, a lot of you have been leaving me some pretty juicy comments, and the notifications of your posts did not get routed properly. The result was that, today, I approved about a Brazilian (very bad joke about President Bush's inability to count; ask me someday and I'll tell it to you) comments. So, if you leave a comment, providing I like what you say, and you have perfect grammar, are very rich, and have a vacation home in a warm spot that you would be willing to loan out to your favorite blogger free of charge, I'll make sure your comments get posted. Seriously, all comments get posted, so post, post, post. I'd be thrilled to login and find another Brazilian comments waiting for me. To those who've posted already — obrigado. :-)

Posted By Part-Time T. at 4:03 PM

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June 11th 2008

Huzzah for Adjuncts in Maryland

According to this piece posted to the Gazette.Net web site, 1,075 part-time faculty at Montgomery College voted to affiliate with the SEIU on June 3rd. The group is the first and only group of college faculty teaching at a public college in the state of Maryland to unionize. Union leaders chose to affiliate with SEIU over AFT, NEA and AAUP on advice from colleagues at George Washington University, who spent seven years organizing 1,000 part-timers there.

In the AdjunctNation.com Podcast Interview with Kip Lornell, part-time faculty and union organizer from George Washington University's part-time faculty union, he tells a revealing tale of shopping his 1,000 member group to AFT and AAUP, and coming away frustrated and disappointed.

Congratulations to the part-timers at Montgomery College. Let's hope the group and college officials bargain a first contract smoothly.

Posted By Part-Time T. at 5:12 PM

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June 10th 2008

I Dreamt I Died and Went to....Well...Canada

Today, the Dalton McGuinty government introduced legislation which would make it legal for all of Ontario's 12,500 part-time faculty to bargain collectively. Read the press release about the proposed legislation here. In the latest issue of Adjunct Advocate, there is an interview with Mr. Smokey Thomas, President of OPSEU, the union that initiated the organization of Ontario's part-time faculty. Check out the interview here.

Posted By Part-Time T. at 5:46 PM

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June 6th 2008

What Are The Odds?

Ever been struck by lightning? Ever won $1,000,000 bucks in the lottery? Ever had a tenure-track job handed to you? Hell's Bells, then, you're never standing in the wrong place; you're never picking the sweet numbers; you don't know the right people; and you didn't come in second in the search for a tenure-line faculty job in the English Department at Green River Community College in Washington State.

In Washington State, there are 10,000 part-time faculty. As of March of 2008, AFT-Washington represented exactly 945 part-time faculty, and 519 quarter-time faculty. As of that same date, the union represented 1,783 tenure-line and tenured faculty members, members whom the union classifies at earning over $40K per year.

Adjunct Advocate bloggers have written about the American Federation of Teacher's FACE initiative in Washington State here and here. Read up on it if you haven't.

AFT blogger Phil Ray Jack writes about the drive to win FACE funding in his state in early-2008 here. To paraphrase, Phil Ray Jack told AFT blog readers that AFT Washington had won $500,000 “provided solely to convert classes taught by faculty employed in part-time positions to classes taught by faculty employed in full-time positions. Particular emphasis shall be placed upon increasing the number of full-time faculty....” Jack also writes in that same blog posting, "While we were able to get funding in at least the Senate budget, we lost most of the language that was intended to protect part-time faculty. There is a little good news, though. The budget language does specify that "the state board shall determine the distribution of these funds among the colleges in consultation with representatives of faculty unions." Hopefully, we will be able to include 'priority consideration of part-time faculty' as a condition for receiving the funds."

Let me translate that last part: AFT Washington union leaders helped decide to which of the state's 34 community colleges the $500,000 would go. Seems fair, right? After all, the union fought for the money. Except, well, I'm somewhat naive where playing by the rules is concerned. I have this insane idea that fair is fair.

Our story continues....

The part-time faculty "priority hiring" language was never included in the legislation. According to Washington State officials from the Community College Council, union leaders were consulted, and the $500,000 was allocated to fund 20 positions on 20 campuses. Union leadership in Washington State consists of president, Sandra Schroeder, of whom we have written here and here.

Here's the bunch in my bloomers about all of this. A memo from a VP on the Green River Community College campus went out to faculty saying that the FACE funded position would go to ESL, not English, Jack's department. Further, there was no notification sent to the union's other members teaching in the English department concerning the FACE-funded opening at Green River Community College. Finally, hiring Miss Idaho (second runner up) in a national search for a previously advertised full-time position for a suddenly-funded full-time position is something that the college has never done before. There is no language in the contract between the college and the faculty union that covers such situations. In fact, AFT-Washington officials have been quoted as seeing a need to address this issue through collective bargaining.

Phil Ray Jack is one of three part-time faculty members who sit on the 15-member AFT-Washington Executive Committee. He is the Vice President of the AFT-Washington's COPE program, which oversees fund raising from union members for political purposes. Phil Ray Jack helped raise money for the campaign donations AFT Washington gave to the legislators who introduced the FACE legislation in 2007 and 2008. In February of 2008, Phil Ray Jack testified in favor of FACE before the Washington Senate Higher Education Committee. Finally, Jack is the president of the Green River Community College Faculty Union, a unified local.

In essence, the single AFT Washington FACE funded full-time tenure-track job awarded to Green River Community College was handed without a national search to the president of the faculty union, a union that only 10 percent of the school's 300 part-time faculty have joined. What were the odds?

Well, to begin, the money was distributed to 58 percent of the community college campuses in the state. There was, then, roughly a 1 in 2 chance that Green River Community College would have received no FACE funding at all. Then, we had the 1 in 77 chance that the money would go to the English Department, where Jack teaches, as opposed to one of the other 76 departments at the college, or the ESOL Department where college leaders told faculty it would go. What about the part-timers in Jack's own department. Would 6 out of the 25 who are employed by the English Department have applied for the FACE-funded job? He would have had a 1 in 6 chance of winning the post if only any of the part-time faculty whom he represents had been allowed to apply. How many hundreds of applications from among the part-timers state-wide/country-wide would have the English Department have received had it conducted a national search? In the end, Jack could have found himself competing with 150-200 applicants.

AFT Washington officials should come forward immediately with incontrovertible proof that Phil Ray Jack's new tenure-track job wasn't handed out under the table thanks to his seat on the AFT Washington Executive Council, his connections to union officials who decided to which campuses money would be allocated, and his public support of FACE in front of Washington legislature. What are the odds Sandra Schroeder and Green River Community College officials will do this?

The odds are much much better we'll see AFT use Phil Ray Jack as the FACE Poster Boy around the country. After all, he is living proof that any and all part-time faculty represented by AFT can beat the odds and get a tenure-track teaching job thanks to FACE.

What are the odds? I just recently re-read Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's story about what happens when one breathes life into an artificial and corrupt creation.

Posted By Part-Time T. at 3:09 PM

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June 4th 2008

UNLV Deals Out NTT Faculty

I bet you know that politicos in California and New York are cutting higher education. Five will get you ten you haven't heard as much about the cuts in Nevada.

At the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the state's budget crisis has hit the journalism department. This article recently published in the school's student newspaper talks about the ramifications of budget cuts. The writer says, "Within the journalism school, the two visiting faculty positions - filled by Kathy Espin and Charlotte Anne Lucas - have been eliminated. A few part-time positions will also be cut....For the fall 2008 and spring 2009 semesters, the journalism department's personnel budget for both visiting and part-time faculty will be reduced by $186,000 - $200,000, with additional cuts possibly on the horizon."

A few part-time positions....Ok, I'll bite.

How many NTT journalism faculty can you fit onto a poker chip at UNLV? Some information further along in the piece gives us more clues: "Last school year, there were 37 sections taught by part-time instructors, which will be reduced to a mere 16 in the fall, subsequently affecting accreditation issues, class sizes and limited course offerings."

So, in the UNLV's journalism department $186,000-$200,000 will get you Blackjack (21) sections of courses taught, and a pair of Queens (visiting professors). Using the UNLV Bursar's Office handy dandy Fee Calculator, one discovers undergraduate tuition for 15 credits for Fall 2008 will be $2,366.50 per semester. A single three-credit course will set a student back $591.50. Thus, a single section of Journalism with 22 students enrolled generates $13,013 in tuition revenue. UNLV part-timer pay ($2,200 per course) amounts to just 16 percent of the tuition in that course.

My guess is that a few part-time positions means 7-10 faculty, plus the pair of visiting profs.

At a cost of $200,000 per year, those 9-12 temporary journalism faculty are a bargain at twice the price. Then again, it's Las Vegas; bargains abound. At UNLV, so do the whales, and it's the tenured and TT whales who enjoy all the job protection, perks and pay.

Posted By Part-Time T. at 9:08 AM

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June 1st 2008

Some Advice About Advice

Gregory Zobel has a terrific blog called Adjunct Advice. It's a terrific blog, because Zobel gives some terrific advice. I know that sounds simplistic, but it's true. About a week ago, Zobel published an interview with the Associate Director of Field Services and Communications at American Federation of Teachers. Zobel writes, "In spite of my relative ignorance, I firmly believe that unions represent the best and strongest hope for adjuncts to engage in collective action to obtain professional parity." Not to be unkind, but giving advice from the perspective of relative ignorance is never a good idea. People have been giving opinions from that perspective since, well, someone convinced Aaron to make that Golden Calf, because Moses was never going to come down from the mountain. Further, interviewing someone like the Associate Director of Field Services and Communications at American Federation of Teachers from a perspective of "relative ignorance" results in, well, just the kind of interview people like the Associate Director of Field Services and Communications at American Federation of Teachers thrive on.

In the interview, which I suspect was written (the worst kind of interviews, because the interviewer really has no recourse to ask follow-up questions, and this shows in Zobel's piece), the AFT rep. talks up FACE. That's his job, of course. He says "AFT has been working on contingent faculty issues for some time now. That work has mainly been through local bargaining efforts and state level legislative work." Um....again, not to fault Zobel for his efforts, but this where his ignorance and knickers show clearly. At the new Western Washington University local, the union just negotiated a first contract on behalf of both full-time and temporary faculty. The full-timers negotiated themselves raises 12-14 times larger in dollars than they did for their NTT union brothers and sisters, plus $4,000 in merit pay payable to tenured and tenure-track faculty only. In fact, Western Washington's "bargaining efforts" as the AFT rep. refers to the group's work, are typical within AFT affiliates nation-wide. Equal percentage raises work only to sustain and widen pay/benefit gaps between union members.

The AFT rep. goes on to give Zobel the skinny on the AFT's FACE efforts. I have written about FACE here, here and here. He tells Zobel, "FACE has been criticized by some for being all about creating more full-time positions and not about the needs of contingent faculty....Now obviously, that is the model legislation and it will get altered as it moves into and through a state legislature or through the bargaining process." Hell yes it has gotten "altered." In this case "altered" can be defined as "all talk of pay equity and job security for part-timers gets removed from the legislation, and AFT goes ahead and takes the money anyway." It happened in New York, and it happened in Washington State.

Zobel asks a good question: "If adjuncts are in a union which does not address their concerns, how can they pressure their union to deal with those issues?" The AFT rep. answers thusly: "Unions are some of the most democratic organizations in this country, and as such, all union members have multiple avenues to make sure their voices are heard and their concerns addressed. The bottom line is participation. As I said earlier, unions are the people who make them up. It is not a third party organization; its members organize collectively to empower themselves."

Yes, I am rolling my eyes, and making that pfffffft sound. First I want you to go to the AFT web site and download the group's Constitution and bylaws. You can't. They're not posted. Second, are you feeling like you'd like to participate on, say, the AFT's Higher Education Policy Group, the group that came up with FACE in the first place (FACE did not originate from the membership)? Well, you can't volunteer or get elected to the group; you get appointed. And if you think getting appointed to AFT leadership positions is the result of volunteer efforts and organizing successes, you're dead wrong.

In Washington state, AFT Washington's President was recently appointed to the AFT Higher Education Policy Group. In the seven years prior to her appointment, under her leadership, AFT Washington added 55 new members each year total, in a state with 10,000 part-timers. AFT Washington's president tripled the number of staff at the union, increased pay to union officers from $644 in 2001 to $111,000 in 2007, and in 2007 paid herself a salary equal to almost 10 percent of the total $1.1 million dollar revenue of the local. The previous president of the union paid herself a nominal $4,500 per year. Under AFT Washington's current president, the union has decreased the amount spent on representational activities as a percentage of total revenue, while spending more and more each year on overhead, political causes, staff salaries and benefits. All the while, AFT Washington's part-timers have seen their pay increased by just $60 per course per year.

Despite all this, AFT leaders in Washington, D.C. rewarded AFT Washington's president with a position as a Vice President on the AFT Higher Education Policy Group.

The AFT's rep. told Greg Zobel: "[AFT's] work includes not only policy statements on how contingent faculty should be treated, but is backed by a deep commitment of organizing contingent faculty, bargaining the strongest contracts we can and working as hard on the legislative front as we can to promote fairness and equity for contingent faculty."

If AFT Washington's president represents a "deep commitment of organizing contingent faculty, [and] bargaining the strongest contracts we can," every part-time faculty member represented by AFT is in deep, deep trouble. The truth that Zobel didn't know when he posed his questions to the AFT rep. is that the brand of "management" adopted by the union leaders in Washington State is the rule among state AFT unions, and not the exception.

All of this our friendly neighborhood AFT rep. conveniently neglected to mention, and Greg Zobel neglected to ask about. At base, I don't fault Zobel; he was clearly out of his league. I congratulate AFT, because as U.S. aphorist Mason Cooley once said, "The best propaganda omits rather than invents." Greg Zobel came face-to-face with AFT's nice brand of public relations strategy. It is best described by this quote from philosopher Hannah Arendt: "Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda." The AFT's Associate Director of Field Services and Communications works for the elite; Gregory Zobel gave that elite an opportunity to speak to their masses.

Here's my advice: Actions speak louder than words, and at AFT, there is not a single part-time faculty member in a leadership position within the union's Higher Education Policy Group, and the union represents some 60,000 part-timers. Is it that not a single one of those part-time faculty members has what it takes to be chosen for a leadership position within AFT? I wish Gregory Zobel had asked that of our friendly neighborhood AFT Associate Director of Field Services and Communications. I would have been interested in the answer.

Posted By Part-Time T. at 8:00 AM