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Advocacy Groups:

• Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) (Website is not available.)
• New Faculty Majority (Website is not available.)

Articles and Interviews:

This new report from the American Federation of Teachers exposes the disturbing economic reality faced by millions of contingent and adjunct faculty at the nation's colleges and universities, with nearly 25% relying on public assistance and 40% having trouble covering basic household expenses. Feb. 2020.

Campus Equity Week is about recognizing the manifestations of inequity on college campuses first with regard to teaching working conditions, but also, by extension, student learning conditions. It is also about communicating these concerns beyond contingent faculty to our respective campus communities at large. By Geoff Johnson, AFTACC President. Sept. 2019.

After the “Art/Museum Salary Transparency” spreadsheet and the ensuing “Arts + Museums Transparency Internship Survey” made waves this summer, a new Google spreadsheet circulating on the web is allowing adjunct professors in colleges and universities to share their salaries and working conditions. The spreadsheet, simply titled “Adjuncts Rates,” has so far garnered about 250 entries from adjunct professors across the United States. The project was launched by Erin Bartram, a historian and academic. Sept. 2019.

At all US institutions combined, the percentage of instructional positions that is off the tenure track amounted to 73 percent in 2016, the latest year for which data are available. 

~"The view that we adjuncts are inferior teachers or scholars who somehow deserve our lot makes less and less sense as time goes on," Angela B. Fulk argues. "In this piece, I will examine how bias toward adjuncts seems to play out among different groups: students, other faculty and administrators, in that order." Published by Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 2019.

~As academic departments at colleges and universities face higher enrollments without concomitant funding, more are turning to contingent full-time instructional faculty members to meet their needs. As a result, higher education has increasingly devolved into a pseudo-caste system -- with tenured and tenure-track faculty held in the highest esteem and receiving the largest salaries, while contingent full-time and part-time faculty languish with disproportionately heavier workloads and relatively low salaries. Published by Inside Higher Ed, Jan. 2019.

~The article outlines the five categories of inequality faced by non-tenure-track faculty, and provides multiple examples of each. The five categories: hiring and promotion inequality, income inequality, benefits inequality, pedagogical inequality, and infrastructure inequality. By CCLIP and published by MLA Profession, Dec. 2018.

~"Educational laborers contend with administrators who often seem reluctant to protect us from the forces assailing our campuses. Many administrators avoid acknowledging the importance, or even the existence, of the social-wage compact. Expanding at a time of supposed austerity, university and college administrations are beholden to the corporate logic peddled by private consultants in the name of 'efficiency,' austerity’s avatar in polite company. The terms set by this corporate logic dictate a steady and lucrative increase of funds for administrators and private consultants and the concomitant pressure to strip the social wage for educational laborers. Tuition and student debt soar; job security mutates into precarious employment; spaces of reflection are ridiculed for sheltering 'snowflakes'."  Published by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Nov.-Dec. 2018.

~Published by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the end of the article sums it up: "Following the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements’ vocal challenge to abuses of power, we must push back against the hypocrisy of administrations that issue abstract calls for 'diversity' and 'equality' while threatening and impoverishing their adjunct faculty. This is discrimination. This is harassment. This is not a 'safe space'." Nov.-Dec. 2018.

~The entire publication is filled with articles addressing contingent labor, such as "Adjuncts, Staff, and Solidarity," "Confessions of a Prize Heifer: From Adjunct to the Tenure Track," and "Common Good, Not Common Despair." 

"The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2017-18"
~The AAUP (American Association of University Professors published their annual economic status report, and among their conclusions are, "Only 5 percent of reporting institutions indicated that they offer all part-time faculty members benefits. Another 33 percent of reporting institutions offer some benefits to part-time faculty." Apr. 2018.

~The New York Times published an article by Phyllis Korkki that reports on a group of University of Pittsburgh faculty members exploring unionization as a way to press for changes that include higher adjunct salaries. Apr. 2018.

~The American Association of University Professors publishes the Journal of Academic Freedom. This article by Gerald Turkel explains how "the interplay of unions powers, academic freedom principles, professional norms in the faculty senate, and actions by administrators combined to establish policies that provide significant academic freedom protections and employment security for full-time, non-tenure track faculty members." Vol. 8. 2017.

"At a time when adjunct faculty members now make up a majority of higher education instructors nationwide, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Al Franken (D-MN) today introduced legislation that would allow part-time faculty at colleges and universities across the country – who are often paid low wages with few benefits – to be eligible to participate in the federal student loan forgiveness program for public servants." Oct. 2017.

~The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article by Nell Gluckman that reports on Penn State and others' attempt to create viable career paths for non-tenure track faculty. Apr. 2017.

~Inside Higher Ed published this article by Robert Samuels that brings attention to the dangers of having non-tenure-track faculty, new faculty majority in the U.S., rely on getting high student evaluations in order to keep their jobs or earn pay increases. "The emphasis on pleasing students not only can result in grade inflation and defensive teaching, but it also places the teacher in an impossible situation when dealing with political issues in a polarized environment." The author recommends a peer-review process. Apr. 2017.

~CounterPunch published this article by Michael Yates that encourages everyone to advocate for positive change, now. Do not assume advocating will get easier or even happen when or if, in the future, you find yourself in a more stable position. Apr. 2017.

~The Chronicle of Higher Education published this article by Kevin Birmingham that skillfully describes the exploitation of adjuncts in academia and how it affects everyone, not just the adjuncts. Feb. 2017.

~Various authors of this free, online book address five threads: strategies for self-advocacy; organizing within and across ranks; professionalizing in complex contexts; working for local changes to workload, pay, and material conditions; and protecting gains. Feb. 2017.

"Long-Awaited DOL Guidance Issued on Adjuncts’ Right to Unemployment Insurance"
~New Faculty Majority has published a statement regarding the new U.S. Dept. of Labor guidance that clarifies to state agencies how to understand adjunct employment and our right to unemployment insurance under the law. Dec. 2016.

~The U.S. Dept. of Labor revisited adjunct/contingent labor in higher education, and clarified the terms "contract" and "reasonable assurance [of employment]," two issues that have historically made qualifying for UI difficult. While the whole document is interesting, pages 4-10 are particularly important. Dec. 2016.

~PBS Newshour published an article by Denise Cummins that "is in part an acknowledgement from full professors of just how meaningless the tenure division is; they know their adjunct peers are just as qualified to be sitting in their offices as they are. Aug. 2014.

~Interview by Claudio Sanchez, heard on NPR's All Things Considered. Feb. 2014.

~Rebecca Schuman for Slate.com. Feb. 2014.

~Colleen Flaherty for Insidehighered.com. Jan. 2014.