Congressional Report on Contingent Faculty- UC-AFT Continues to Advance the Front on Faculty Equity

The Congressional Committee on Education & the Workforce just released a report entitled, Just-In-Time Professor, which focuses on the low pay, piece meal work, and poor access to benefits characterizing the majority of faculty jobs in American higher education. Bob Samuels’ recent blog about the report suggests a national solution for the problems of contingency in the academy.  After 30 years of union negotiations, non-Senate faculty positions at UC compare favorably with most adjunct faculty jobs in the country when considering compensation and benefits.  However, the quality of education we deliver is influenced not only by pay and job security, but also by workload, enfranchisement in governance, and the extent and quality of institutional inclusion and support for our positions. UC-AFT’s You See (UC) Democracy? campaign is building upon our existing leadership in the contingent faculty movement to advance the front beyond the necessary fight around pay and benefits to other core issues affecting educational quality.  UC-AFT believes that these issues can only be addressed through a fully enfranchised teaching faculty.