Through the labor movement taking place in Boston and across the country, contingent professors are using their newfound voices to begin formulating answers. But it is also the responsibility of ladder faculty to take action, to openly acknowledge how exploitative labor and hiring practices have affected the lives and work of those unprotected by tenure.
I quite agree. Yet I wondered aloud what, precisely, would taking action for adjuncts entail? Initially, I had difficulty coming up with ways that tenure-track faculty can address inequities adjuncts experience. Chalk this up to my naiveté or lack of experience. However, I realized that my previous employer, the Office of Faculty Affairs at the University of Maryland, provides a few examples. Here are the steps this forward-looking office initiated or implemented over the course of the past two years. These steps illuminate several courses of action for tenure-track faculty at other institutions to demonstrate activism for adjuncts.
1. Get a sense of numbers and issues - Many institutions do not meaningfully keep track of the number of adjuncts they employ. Although all of this information should be available through the human resources record system, it is often the case that no one is tasked with collecting it or presenting it to show trends. This was the case at the University of Maryland. When you don't know how many adjuncts are employed at the institution over time, it is difficult to realize how the academic labor force is changing. A task force was convened by the Senate to study adjuncts, and it became patently clear that, over the preceding decades, the university's reliance upon adjuncts had exploded. Tenure-track faculty numbers remained constant, while adjunct numbers ticked upwards. As a result, the university's academic labor force now includes more than 60% adjuncts. In addition to understanding the proportion of adjuncts employed at the university, the task force conducted a survey of adjunct working conditions. The findings were revealing: no recognition, exclusion from governance, lack of promotion, outright abuse, and so on. So, one early step that tenure-track faculty can take: request that a study of adjuncts be conducted and periodically updated. Encourage other tenure-track faculty to support the initiative and even participate in the committee or task force. When the report is finished, disseminate it widely in your department.
2. Create opportunities for more inclusive governance - Raising awareness is important, but it fails to change material conditions. One of the findings of the task force at the University of Maryland was that, despite the fact that adjunct numbers where steadily rising, the seats in the Senate allotted to adjuncts remained constant. Additionally, it was often the case that adjuncts had no voice in departmental decision-making. This means that adjuncts are becoming more and more vital to the operations of the university, yet excluded from the formal structures of enacting change within the institution. Such exclusion makes it possible for inequities to continue, as adjuncts have few opportunities to express their opinions or share their experiences. Tenure-track faculty can help to re-calibrate this power differential. A second step is to fight to have adjuncts included in departmental decision-making. Don't simply rely upon adjuncts to implement the curriculum you create--partner with them and draw upon their knowledge. Furthermore, propose that systems of institutional shared governance reflect the realities of the academic labor force and that the composition of seats are periodically reviewed.
3. Include adjuncts in departmental and campus recognition opportunities - One of my responsibilities was to determine which departments across campus include adjuncts in their annual rewards. The answer: hardly any. All departments and colleges honored outstanding tenure-track faculty. And the institution had a number of prestigious awards for the very best faculty. However, only a few departments and colleges made adjuncts eligible for awards or created a separate award for adjuncts. Indeed, there were more awards for graduate students than adjuncts. A third, relatively straightforward step is to rewrite the eligibility rules for faculty awards to include adjuncts. It makes sense that adjuncts, by virtue of their specific responsibilities, may not be eligible for all awards. Nevertheless, it strikes me as unreasonable and cruel to have, for example, an outstanding teaching award that is not open to a long-term adjunct who teaches multiple sections of an important course with great student reviews. If departmental politics get in the way of including adjuncts, at least propose to create a separate award. The important thing is to start thinking about how adjuncts can and should be recognized for their good work.
4. Ensure that professional development is open to all faculty - Hosting a conference on engaged scholarship? Invite adjuncts. Organizing an orientation for new faculty? Invite adjuncts. Creating a series of luncheons to promote cross-disciplinary research? Invite adjuncts. Step four basically means re-imagining the concept of faculty. Any opportunities for tenure-track faculty to do their work better should be made available to adjuncts. Because they are also faculty. Tenure-track faculty should ask when opportunities are announced, when they register, and/or when they arrive if adjuncts can also attend.
5. Question contracts and ladders - A major finding of the task force at the University of Maryland was that contracts made a mockery of job security. Fear of losing their job was motivating adjuncts, not the possibility of promotion based on strong work. This creates two points of action for tenure-track faculty. For those in positions of power to hire adjuncts, work with human resources to figure out how to offer multi-term contracts for adjuncts that have strong performance records. Some adjuncts must live semester to semester, without knowing whether or not they will have a job from fall to spring. Such uncertainty is not only emotionally damaging, it disrupts the continuity that allows instructors to develop relationships, improve courses, and become stable enough to give back to the university in other ways. Another point of action for tenure-track faculty is to request that adjuncts have clear job descriptions and a ladder for promotion. Just as tenure-track faculty know what they must do to move from assistant to associate, adjuncts should know what to do to move from lecturer to senior lecturer. Each title should have clear guidelines and include an opportunity to renegotiate payment.
In summary, tenure-track faculty should not be silent. They should acknowledge that they are complicit in the plight of adjuncts and realize that the destinies of all academics, regardless of rank, are intertwined in the neoliberal university. Tenure-track faculty should locate or create opportunities to get a sense of the numbers and issues, make governance more inclusive, include adjuncts in recognition processes, open professional development to all faculty, and question contract systems and ladders.
I'm sure that I've only scratched the tip of the iceberg and, given that my time as a lecturer was short-lived, I can't speak on behalf of adjuncts. I can only work to follow these steps as an assistant professor at my new institution, if they haven't been initiated yet. I would love to hear from others with a stake in this conversation: in what ways can tenure-track faculty take action for adjuncts?
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