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National Adjunct Walkout begs reflection on state of US faculty
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2015/02/24/national-adjunct-walkout-begs-reflection-on-state-of-us-facultyMy situation, while better than the typical adjunct who averages $2,987 a course, contains all the associated problems: semester-by-semester employment on an as-needed basis, lack of paid medical benefits, the need for survival strategies during occasional summers and a pay level capping at less than half that of professors teaching the same classes. At times, I even felt as though I was a kind of academic scab, eroding tenure, pay and benefits for my colleagues.
Then an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette written by the general counsel of the United Steelworkers union broke everything open. Margaret Mary Vojtko taught French at Duquesne University. She worked semester by semester with no health benefits for 25 years. Even though many of her students gave her glowing evaluations and she never missed a class, her teaching load was reduced to one class a semester. Her electricity was turned off and she resorted to sleeping in her office. University police were called to eject her. Vojtko died sick, impoverished, disrespected and unemployed Sept. 1, 2013.
That story hit many of us hard. The conditions we might have accepted in order to be part of this country’s great universities became a rallying cry for justice.
Adjuncts, including graduate students, make up 75 percent of college instructors, and our average pay is $25,806 annually. Seventy-five percent of us don’t get paid health insurance, and few adjuncts participate in faculty governance. Most of us work many more hours than we are paid, a kind of wage theft that makes our hourly wage less than the federal minimum. We have begun to organize across the country in a variety of labor unions and in associations like New Faculty Majority. Next week, thousands of us plan to participate in what the American Federation of Teachers is calling “Adjunct Awareness Week.”
Then an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette written by the general counsel of the United Steelworkers union broke everything open. Margaret Mary Vojtko taught French at Duquesne University. She worked semester by semester with no health benefits for 25 years. Even though many of her students gave her glowing evaluations and she never missed a class, her teaching load was reduced to one class a semester. Her electricity was turned off and she resorted to sleeping in her office. University police were called to eject her. Vojtko died sick, impoverished, disrespected and unemployed Sept. 1, 2013.
That story hit many of us hard. The conditions we might have accepted in order to be part of this country’s great universities became a rallying cry for justice.
Adjuncts, including graduate students, make up 75 percent of college instructors, and our average pay is $25,806 annually. Seventy-five percent of us don’t get paid health insurance, and few adjuncts participate in faculty governance. Most of us work many more hours than we are paid, a kind of wage theft that makes our hourly wage less than the federal minimum. We have begun to organize across the country in a variety of labor unions and in associations like New Faculty Majority. Next week, thousands of us plan to participate in what the American Federation of Teachers is calling “Adjunct Awareness Week.”
Rhythm reports that the average at West Virginia University is more like $17-18,000. That's less than she makes working in a restaurant!
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