❝@AnaMFores' People's #Petition: #AdjunctJustice demands Better Pay for #Adjunct Faculty

…how it all started…When I first began my petition, Vanessa Vaile was the first to pick up on it and post it. I can't find that link offhand, but I do have one of her first few emails that began our friendship and collaboration, dating back to April 2012. It seems only yesterday, but a lot has happened since then, in our movement, and in our lives. I think I will save that for another blog, though...

I remember when I began my petition for Adjunct Justice, demanding better pay for adjuncts; it was a day of desperation, as my college had given me an ultimatum: either teach Writing Composition classes with 35 students each or do not teach these particular classes at all. It was my choice. 

I gave them an unequivocal no. 

I would be remiss in my duties as an effective educator were I to teach students under such untenable circumstances. How can we teach that many students at the same time, and have them learn anything of value? 

That semester I taught only two classes, thus beginning my quiet revolution against what I saw not only as the exploitation of adjunct faculty but also the diminution of student learning. 

These past two years I have persisted, so the petition has gone forward little by little. We now have over 8300 signatures. I have met online friends and colleagues, groups of grassroots activists who have helped me nurture it and bring it forward. I have become friends with higher ed academics all across the United States: adjunct, tenured, and untenured alike.  

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.