Here is a letter to Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez in support of AB 375, an assembly bill before the California legislature. The bill would increase the percentage of hours for which an adjunct can be employed in one district to 80 to 85% which, of curse, would improve education at community colleges almost instantly. Please print this letter, alter it as appropriate, put your name on it, and send it by US mail to Assemblywoman LauraGonzalez.

Recently, I was contacted about a research study Dr. Emily Heying, College of Saint Benedict/St. John’s University, is conducting on food insecurity on college campuses, especially among adjuncts and students. For decades, a key part of the dismantling of higher education, which has been escalating lately, has been the transformation of faculty from vast majority tenure-track status to vast majority “precariat’ status. Massive debt burden, food and housing insecurity, health insecurity, along with diminishing career expectations, all have been common experiences among adjuncts.

And although I am restrained in my expectations, with a First Lady who knows what a community college looks like from the inside, and other tantalizing possibilities, we might be on the cusp of changes that could have profound impact on the lives of 75% of college faculty. This is a good moment for a new study on the lives of adjuncts.

Please consider participating in this study by taking the brief survey. I did.

Adjunct faculty and staff are needed for a research study on food insecurity. The study consists of completing a 10 min. anonymous survey and is open to higher education staff and faculty in the US over 18 years old. You’ll be asked about your own food access, perceptions of campus food security among students, demographics, and nature of employment.   Upon survey completion, you can provide your email in a separate form to enter a drawing for one of two $25 VISA gift cards.   Link: https://forms.gle/JFspgu5Ta4EUoPjs9

Thank you!

Dr. Emily Heying (eheying@csbsju.edu)  and Dr. Zubaida Qamar (qz@sfsu.edu)

*This research study has received exempt status from the Institutional Review Board’s at both SFSU and CSB/SJU.

The following post is one I received from an adjunct, who, as you will read here, is facing the very issues that this year’s Campus Equity Week campaign has been pointing out. She chooses to remain anonymous, and we respect her wishes.

#classcanceled

Campus Equity Week 2020

I am an adjunct counselor at two community colleges. At one of my community colleges where I have been for seven years and have “seniority,” my hours per week have been slashed from 25 to 18 to 14 and now to 7. I usually find out my hours for the semester the Friday before the Monday start date. 

This last cut, given with mere days notice, caused me to have to move to a smaller apartment immediately as I could no longer pay my rent. I also can no longer make my ACA payment of 729.00 per month. At this point, I am housing and food insecure, as well as worried about lack of healthcare. 
I feel that I am one interview away from the respect that I deserve as a faculty member. Going from part – time to full- time would change my world, and yet I know the odds are against it. 

I often wonder why the full-time tenured faculty who are in a privileged and untouchable position, don’t reach out to help us in any way. Do they not remember what it was like to be an adjunct, or is it that they just don’t care?

For me, how adjuncts are treated by our respective institutions is unethical and immoral. They say they are concerned with equality and equity, but I remain unconvinced. 

Here is a short but great list of sources from the Longreads web site each of which takes a deep look at the adjunct crisis faced by higher education. Adjunctification, the normalization of the practice of hiring college professors part-time to teach courses, has been with us decades now, but has worsened every year since sometime in the late 1970’s or so to become the defining but still largely marginalized issue in higher education today.

As it turns out, we potentially (hopefully!) will have an adjunct (although not one whose experience as such, as far as I can tell but certainly not since she has been married to Joe Biden, resembles that of the typical adjunct), Dr. Jill Biden, as first lady of the United States. We have written her a letter. In a recent AFT roundtable, the “Good Adjunct” himself, president of the AFT-ACC, the indefatigable Geoff Johnson posed a question to her about the adjunct crisis. She responded that she would “have to look into it.” Not a response that indicates she is in the trenches, financially speaking, that most adjuncts are in, nor that she is aware of the crisis of adjunctification and how it is at the core of devaluation of higher education.

But, once she “looks into it….”

In this episode of “The Patriot Act,”f Hassan Minhaj does a great job of getting at the real state of college today, from what’s real value is, to why it’s so expensive, and to why students are getting ripped off via adjunctification and corporatism. Essential viewing. Click on the link below:

“Is College Still Worth It?”

The numbers are alarming. The US Department of Labor has reported that in just over three months 44 million people, or approximately 28 percent of the US workforce, have filed for unemployment.  In addition, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, over 10% of apartment households have yet to pay their rent in spite of receiving benefits from the CARES Act provisions, which expire at the end of July.

This is an American problem, but moreover, it is a catastrophe for America’s contingent, or “at-will” workers, who comprise approximately 30% of the US Labor force.  Among these workers are 1.3 million “part-time,” “adjunct,” or contingent college instructors, representing 75.5% of US faculty. These faculty, hired term-by-term on an “as needed” basis generally work with few to no benefits, and are paid, on the whole, less than half of what the full-time colleagues make. Surveys have shown that even prior to the COVID-19 Epidemic, approximately one of four of these faculty were receiving some form of government assistance.

Though having to take on the literal overnight and often uncompensated training and conversion to remote, or fully online instruction, adjunct/contingent college instructors rose to the challenge, and were able to be paid through their Spring terms. Now that the Summer has arrived, instructors at many institutions of higher learning are facing layoffs which will extend through the Fall as many students, out of either financial need, or lack of comfort with remote learning, will either put off or abandon instruction. In addition, they await an uncertain picture in the Spring of 2021.

Beyond Spring 2021 is even less certain.  The revenues collected by state and local governments to support education have sharply dropped, meaning without an influx of funding from other sources, college budgets will be sharply reduced. There will be fewer class offerings, fewer sections, and contingent instructors will lose the income that in many cases just kept them afloat.

The darkest part of this picture is that now in many states, as many adjunct/contingent faculties’ teaching assignments are considered completed, they are not eligible for unemployment benefits. Such presumption and denial is based on a false presumption that the offer of, or even the possibility of an assignment in a subsequent term represents “reasonable assurance” of future or continued employment.  The presumption is the result of a false equation between High Education and K-12 teaching.  Adjunct/Contingent faculty are not guaranteed work in the next term because their employment is based on enrollment, which unlike the K-12 system, fluctuates greatly. This longstanding practice has contributed to 30% of adjunct-contingent faculty living at or below the poverty line.

Some states, such as California, have recognized that the nature of adjunct/contingent teaching in Higher Ed means teaching from term-to-term, with no reasonable assurance of future employment, and as such, this enables these instructors and their families access to benefits which are often the one thing keeping them from absolute destitution.

The United States Department of Labor needs to recognize and acknowledge that adjunct/contingent faculty lack “reasonable assurance” of employment, as discussed in Section 3304(a)(6)(A) of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act.  In light of the COVID19 crisis, the loss, not just to these faculty and their families, but to the US Higher Education System will be incalculable and lasting. Further, America’s main vehicle for innovation, economic success, and most of all, societal equity, will be irreparably harmed.

Moreover, the existing extension of unemployment benefits from 27 to 39 weeks needs to be expanded to a full 52 weeks or a year to help adjunct-contingent faculty, adjunct/contingent workers and the unemployed as a whole. Only with the security to pay for food, rent, utilities, and basic living expenses can Americans move ahead.

In closing, this is not an issue or an impending crisis to be addressed later—the time is now. The expiration of CARES Act provisions is but weeks away. The devastation of the COVID19 need not be further amplified by inaction.

The American Federation of Teachers Adjunct/Contingent Faculty Caucus

Geoff Johnson President                                   William Lipkin             Vice President

Linda Chan      Secretary                                    Leonard Winogora     Treasurer

Cherie Kipple     Communications Officer

Arnie Schoenberg      Organizing Officer

Arnold Korotkin        Member at Large: 4-year Colleges

Linda Sneed                Member at Large: 2-year Colleges

Nancy Merrill-Walsh   Member at Large: Eastern Half

While we are in the early stages of this pandemic, it is abundantly clear that the COVID-19 outbreak has already created the greatest disruption in American Higher Education history, with campuses nationwide being shuttered, and faculty, students and staff being forced to, with minimal preparation and support, work and learn remotely. The rapid spread of the virus, and the need to, for lack of a better word, “manage” its transmission, have forced administrators and public policymakers to make quick and tough decisions which will have both an immediate and lasting impact.

More than simply being educational providers, colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning play a vital and irreplaceable role in the success, prosperity and growth of their respective communities and the country as a whole. The ability of these institutions to fulfill their mission requires the coordinated cooperation and involvement of students, staff, and faculty.

Of these faculty, a significant proportion, and in many institutions, the majority, work on an “as needed,” or contingent basis, and in addition to receiving lesser pay, benefits, and job security, are given less institutional support or voice in the shared governance of their respective institutions.

Now, in what is clearly an unprecedented crisis, the vast bulk of higher education instruction is being moved to “remote” learning or online platforms, with little to no time for preparation or training.

Classes transitioned to a remote format are not a substitute for face-to-face instruction and do not equate to face-to-face instruction. Such classes are a mechanism to provide instruction given the current COVID-19 crisis and take preventative measures to ensure social distancing and to minimize the outbreak.

In light of the above, to empower these faculty to fulfill their mission in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is essential they:

1) Receive full pay for their current assignments and ancillary activities, whether their coursework or duties have been moved to a remote or online format, or cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

2) Not lose or see reductions in benefits due to the aforementioned change in assignments or duties as a result of COVID-19 outbreak.

3) Not be forced to use up sick leave as a result of the institution’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including faculty subject to quarantine, whether voluntary or involuntary, as a result of exposure.

4) Be given the sole discretion, as faculty, to determine how their instructional and/or non-instructional workload can be completed remotely.

5) Be compensated for additional training needed for the transition of classes to a remote format.

6) Be, when lacking the proper tools to provide online education, loaned tools by their respective institutions for no charge.

7) Not be subject to evaluations that could potentially be used for punitive actions including, but not limited to termination or a denial of future teaching assignments. They should be cancelled for the length of the outbreak.

8) Be able to retain their rehire status in the event of class or assignment cancellation caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

9) Be able to retain their rights to their own intellectual property, either created for, or moved online to provide remote or online teaching in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

10) Be included in decision-making processes regarding curriculum, the delivery of instruction, and their respective institutions’ shared governance process.

11) Be made eligible for unemployment compensation as a result of job loss or underemployment due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Further, to protect these faculty who may still be teaching face-to-face courses, or providing instruction in a healthcare setting, it is essential that their institutions put in place proper safeguards to ensure they and their students’ safety.

Finally, it should not be lost upon these institutions, their administrators, or public policymakers that the precarity of all higher education faculty working as adjuncts or contingents, including graduate students and non-tenure track faculty, that COVID-19 has only exacerbated an intolerable and unsustainable model for the continued success of higher education. It is therefore incumbent that as the COVID-19 crisis abates, that concerted effort one again be taken up to address the inequities of pay, job security, lack of benefits, institutional support, and inclusion these faculty face.

The post COVID-19 success, prosperity, and growth of our respective communities and country depend upon it.

The AFTACC Executive Committee

Geoff Johnson, President                             William Lipkin, Vice President

Leonard Winogora, Treasurer                   Arnie Schoenberg, Organizing Chair

Arnold Korotkin, Member-at-Large          David Albert, Member-at-Large