#Adjunct/#AFT14 in brief & Sunday Night Late Show: Starting a #PTFaculty Union

…because it's far too late for a Matinee…Chicago seemed a particularly setting apt for this weekend's feature because of an announced CACHE Chicago event, The Pursuit of Truth, Friday July 11. I can't say how it went because haven't heard more

That might have been because the AFT convention in L.A. was also this weekend. It saw more contingent friendly resolutions than usual. Twitter covering for and posting on National Mobilization for Equity as well as a pre-convention AFT in the news special issue on Precarious Dispatches added more to the usual online busy.

K-12 issues usually dominate both AFT and NEA deliberations, leaving higher ed somewhat to the side and contingent faculty even more so. This year's battle was Common Core, not irrelevant to higher ed but that's for another time. For now, I'll go with +George Station who says it best: "no one will be pleased.").

Our news: the new Contingent Faculty Caucus organized by Bill Lipkin (yes, our Bill) held its first meeting at yesterday. Bill standing in front of the meeting sign smiling says it all.

On with the show, the final chapter. Next week will be with the Afterword filmed at COCAL VI in 2001 or a back track to Degrees of Shame, Barbara Wolf's first adjunct video and a perennial Campus Equity Week staple. ICYMI, catch the previous episodes in the series here. 

P-FAC: Starting a Part-Time Faculty Union (Chicago) from Adjunct and Contingent

In Chapter 6, of A Simple Matter of Justice, the part-time faculty at Columbia College in Chicago organized themselves into a union in an institution where the full-time faculty is not unionized. 

WHY CAN'T WE ALL WORK TOGETHER?

I became active in the labor movement over 25 years ago at a time when very few people even knew what the word 'adjunct' referred to. I immediately saw the inequities in every aspect of Higher Education and began to question and investigate. It did not take me long to realize that we were a new class of professional educators: a class with little pay, no benefits and few rights. As a Political Scientist/Historian I knew something was wrong but no one wanted to listen to me. Well, at that time we made up a small percentage of the teaching force and had little support outside of our own circle.

Did I give up trying to better the position of adjunct faculty? Of course not, but as our numbers grew the support did not. In fact many of us just hunkered in and continued to let ourselves be exploited. Many of us had been working as individuals in our own states or in our own Colleges to get more equity for adjunct faculty. Working alone is difficult when trying to achieve success, however many of us networked and kept each other aware of the failures and success we had achieved. We did this because we shared a common goal: respect and better pay and working conditions for adjunct faculty.

AFT #ADJUNCT/CONTINGENT FACULTY CAUCUS

If you are planning to attend the AFT Convention from July 11-14 in Los Angeles, and you are adjunct faculty or contingent faculty, please come to the brand new caucus meeting on Saturday, July 12 from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM in Room 407 of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

This will be an organizing meeting where the purpose and mission of the Caucus will be defined. We will be establishing committees to work on the formal By-Laws and proposed resolutions for the future.

We also plan to create a steering committee of local leaders all over the country to drive the agenda between conventions.

Bill Lipkin, Acting President

AFT Adjunct/Contingent Faculty Caucus

Bill Lipkin reports on the AFT HigherEd Conference in Baltimore

The weekend of April 11, 2014 saw one of the best AFT Higher Ed Conferences I have ever been to. The theme was 'Reclaiming the Promise of Higher Education' and there was a strong focus on contingent and adjunct faculty issues and solutions.

President Randi Weingarten opened the Conference with one of her rousing speeches. I had to compliment her after the speech for the concentration she put on contingent and adjunct faculty and our situation in the United States. She even took the time to explain the differences between adjunct and contingent positions and the various problems connected with each.

Reflections on 50 Years as an #ADJUNCT

‘I make a difference every day’. That is a slogan of the American Federation of teachers (AFT), and that is my goal every of my life. Who am I? I am an adjunct, a proud a dedicated adjunct, who makes a difference in the lives of students every day. I spent seven years in College becoming educated in my field so I could go out and teach others how to make the world a better place and how to have a successful career. Fortunately I was able to go to College on merit scholarships and did not have to amass a large student loan debt, as most students do today. I studied and worked hard, I read a lot, I took part in student demonstrations, and I kept up on current events. I was very optimistic and felt I was on a crusade to help change the world with a career in academia

That was fifty years ago. Today, I am a realist, and the reality is scary. While in graduate school studying History and Political Science, I taught myself accounting, figuring it would come in handy doing taxes for me and my family and friends. I never thought that I would make a living and raise a family as a controller rather than a professor. For thirty-five years I worked in private industry, while teaching one or two courses at night in a local college. When my sons were grown and married, my wife and I decided that it was now time for me to follow my real goal and go into college teaching full time. Ha! 

NJ #adjunct union chapters react to revised #ACA regs

…When the revised IRSregulations came out last week on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) there was cause for reserved celebration at many County College adjunct local union chapters in New Jersey. Several of us have been fighting since last February to maintain our teaching loads while the Colleges have been trying to cut our courses in order to cover themselves on hours. 

Our leadership has been working very hard to maintain our income levels while preserving our dignity. Surveys among adjuncts in several County Colleges in NJ show that if we have to make a choice between healthcare access or maintaining our income level the income wins out with a 65% majority. We all agree that this is a horrible decision that we are forced to make, but that is they way it is in real life.

With the IRS now recognizing now that one for the reasonable methods may be a ratio of 1 1/4 hours outside of call for every hour in class (as long as we are not required to hold office hours) this gives us the opportunity to push for the 12 credit load. That would come to 27 hours based on this ratio. To those critics that claim we are demeaning ourselves and underestimating the work we actually do, I say 'you are correct'.

However, given the choices we have it appears that most of our members want to be able to eat, have a place to live, and be able to buy gas for their car. Many of our members have health insurance through Medicare, a retirement system, or their spouse, making the need for additional coverage redundant.Perhaps ACA should provide for exemptions for those of us who do not require the coverage.

We do not know yet how the revised regulations will play out with the colleges, but we will be using this in negotiations to try to convince the schools. I will keep you all informed.

Bill Lipkin

CFHE Conference January, 2014…

The CFHE Conference in Manhattan, hosted by PSC CUNY, was fantastic and a great success. The PSC staff went out of their way to accommodate the over 100 attendees, and Mike Fabricant ran the tightest, yet most informative and collaborative, conference possible. I am sure I speak for all attendees when I offer a resounding THANK YOU!

The conference began Friday evening with a unique dinner featuring tastes from all over the world and a comprehensive discussion of the accreditation battle at City College of San Francisco. It is amazing how corrupt an accreditation board can be.

Saturday morning began with a panel discussion on 'Effective Higher Ed Campaigns'.

Can New Jersey Adjuncts Break Down a Stone Wall? by Bill Lipkin

On October 26, as part of the start of Campus Equity Week activities in New Jersey, United Adjunct Faculty of NJ held its Delegate Assembly meeting. Present were 68 delegates from 10 Community College Chapters and members of the AFTNJ Executive Board. A major focus of the Assembly was on the Affordable Care Act and how it was already affecting adjuncts in the state.

The State of New Jersey had issued a letter several weeks before concerning the ACA and the four year Colleges and Universities in NJ. This letter instructed HR directors to determine hours worked for adjuncts by crediting them 8 hours for every day they had a class on the campus. In other words if you had one Monday/Wednesday/Friday class (3 credits) that would count as 8 hours per day or 24 hours a week. You would not be able to teach on Tuesday or Thursday. We did convince the State how ridiculous this was since an adjunct would be able to teach all day on those three days, teaching 18 credits and still be credited with 24 hours a week. Plus this did not address on-line courses.

COMPROMISE BETWEEN COLLEGE AND ADJUNCTS

Since April our Union leadership has been in discussions with the administration of Union County College in New Jersey involving adjunct teaching loads in relation to the Affordable Care Act. At first these discussions were quite contentious, and our members were motivated to write letters to the editors of local newspapers and stage a threatened walk-out at a 'Adjunct Forum' where the administration was ready to take the hatchet and drastically reduce our teaching loads. The presence of local news reporters and health care experts from AFT National forced the administration to back off a little.

Obamacare, hours, strange math & unintended consequences

…as Bill Lipkin reflects on them, writing,

 

I would never have dreamed that the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obama care) would cause a hardship on adjuncts and other contingent faculty. This is supposed to help those who cannot afford health care get some basic coverage. But the 'unintended consequences' of this Act can be very detrimental to us. Yes, adjuncts stand to suffer from this Act. Why? Because when it goes into effect in January, 2014 it carries with it a stipulation that if an employer does not supply health care to employees working 30 hours or more a week they have to pay a penalty.

#HurricaneSandy & New Jersey #Adjuncts

…an instructive account by New Faculty Majority Board member (& Treasurer) Bill Lipkin. His cautionary tale illustrates how being an adjunct during a natural disaster doubles down on disaster ~ and emphasizes the importance of taking action. Adjuncts everywhere, blow a raspberry for Bill's VPAA.

…Hurricane Sandy has further shown how adjuncts are the bottom of the barrel in the minds of administrators in Community Colleges. I am the co-president of our AFT chapter, representing almost 400 adjuncts in our College. There are 168 full time faculty. The College was closed for over a week due to [...]

Read the rest of Hurricane Sandy and New Jersey Adjuncts on the Adjunct Project. 

A Message from the NJ State AFL-CIO

…via colleagues Robin Brownfield & New Faculty Majority board member Bill Lipkin 

The New Jersey State AFL-CIO Mourns the Passing of Nick Yovnello

It is with deep sadness that we inform you of the tragic loss of Brother Nick Yovnello, who passed away in a car accident Saturday afternoon. Nick served as that President of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals and was a dedicated union leader for over 40 years.

What is equity for adjuncts? Will it ever become a reality?

New Faculty Majority Treasurer & (founding) board member William Lipkin asks, explaining, 

I am currently 'celebrating' my 50th years of adjuncting. Why would I subject myself to such exploitation for such a long period of time? Well for the first 35 years I had a 'real' job in the private sector, not teaching, which allowed me to raise 2 sons and give me and my wife a good lifestyle. During that period I taught a couple of courses a semester at night or on Saturday and had very little interest in pay, benefits, support, governance, etc.?

Once I realized my real passion was in teaching I left my other job and became a professional adjunct, or as we call ourselves in New Jersey - 'Roads Scholars' - traveling the state between schools in order to earn a living.

Then came the wake up call!

Wanted: Adjunct Mentoring Program

Does anyone out there have a working adjunct mentoring program in place in their College? We have been trying to get one in my Community College but have met with resistance by our Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA).  When I first mentioned this to the VPAA last semester she responded by saying that it might be a good idea for full time faculty to mentor new adjuncts!!! 

NO!!! 

That shows how little the administration understands us. I told her that our proposal was for seasoned adjuncts to mentor new adjuncts. After all who knows better? After hearing many stories from new adjuncts who were hired, given a generic syllabus, and told to teach, without out any further direction, our adjunct local decided that we needed to step in and help. We created a model based on mentoring programs in other Colleges and Universities. Our plan called for a structured program of orientation, mentoring, observation, and evaluation. 

Reflections on AAUP's Contingent Faculty & Governance Report

I just feel I need to comment on the AAUP report regarding Contingent Faculty governance.

Campus Equity Week in New Jersey, #CEW2011

Great day today at Union County College in Cranford New Jersey. Our AFT Local's Executive Board hosted a 5 hour marathon for Campus Equity Week in the main hallway of the main building.

Within the first 2 hours we gave away over 100 AFT "I Make a Difference Every Day" T-shirts while the Board wore our Scarlet Letter 'A' is for \Adjunct t-shirts. By the end of the day we went through several large urns of coffee, about 300 cookies and pastries, and a lot of explanation to students about how the adjuncts add to the success of the students.

Yours truly, Bill Lipkin, far left

We harvested over 500 signatures on our petition for proportional compensation for adjunct faculty. The President of the College and several of the VPs actually joined us for a short time and shared cups of coffee. The chapter Executive Board of AAUP (our full time faculty) actually sat at our tables for most of the day to show support for us.

If nothing else, with all of our signs and posters, we did make a statement, and hopefully we can build off of the start we made today for equity for adjuncts.

Campus Equity Week at Union County College, #CEW2011

The Union County College Chapter of United Adjunct Faculty of New Jersey is planning a day of action during Campus Equity Week, on October 26. We have approval for some tables in the main hallway which our Chapter Board will man wearing Scarlet Letter Polos- a Red A for Adjunct. We have some posters being made up to demonstrate our exploitation and will have a big change jar with a sign something like –“we need change for adjuncts’…

We will also have petitions to be signed and AFT giveaways along with some free goodies (candy and cookies) and possibly some basic food items for ‘starving’ adjuncts. We also plan to have a section of a table with an ‘ASK AN ADJUNCT’ sign for students to ask us about our working conditions.

We are still working on other things to do.

Bill Lipkin
Co-President UCC CHapter UAFNJ
Secretary/Treasurer- United Adjunct Faculty of New Jersey
Treasurer- NFM and NFM Foundation