Op-Ed:  Why invisible faculty favor unions

 

Gretchen E. Knapp

 

I am an invisible professor, and I am not alone.  Over 40% of Illinois State University's professors are invisible.  We are temporary employees, known as nontenure-track or adjunct professors.  Although we teach one-third of all classes, most people don't even know we exist.

 

Many temporary faculty have the same education, credentials, and teaching experience as our permanent colleagues, the tenured and tenure-track professors.  We teach many of the same courses.  We are proud to deliver the same quality of teaching. 

 

Inside the classroom students and parents can't tell us apart.  Outside the classroom our status as valued employees disappears.  Being invisible affects our wallets, our job security, and our working conditions.

 

Despite advanced degrees, many full-time temporary faculty earn less than newly hired public schoolteachers.  Beyond the university setting, workers usually can expect to earn a minimum wage or salary level.  But Illinois State has not set a minimum pay rate for part-time temporary faculty.  No mechanism exists to reward the experience, seniority, or exceptional performance of adjuncts. 

 

Many temporary faculty are hired or rehired shortly before the semester begins.  Some of us have been "temporarily" employed on an annual or semester-by-semester basis over a decade.  Sometimes we work for weeks on end without being paid because our contracts are late.  No contract, no paycheck.

 

Not all adjunct professors have offices to meet with students in private and protect student confidentiality.  About 15% of us are so invisible that we're not even listed in the university phone directory.  Some temporary faculty don't have work phones while others don't have office mailboxes, university email, or access to office computers or copiers.   We work for an employer who needlessly restricts student interactions with faculty.

 

Why don't we file a complaint, you ask?  Because we are truly invisible.  Unlike the rest of the University's employees, temporary faculty have no recourse to a grievance policy or procedure. Our students have a grievance policy, but we don't.   We work for an employer who refuses to establish formal means to resolve workplace problems.

 

Why do we remain invisible although so many?  Since 1996, our numbers have increased almost 70% while the number of permanent faculty has remained practically static.  Increased reliance on hiring temporary professors to replace tenured and tenure-track faculty erodes tenure, threatens academic freedom, and reduces faculty authority.  Ideally, permanent faculty provide expert guidance in specialized subjects to students, contribute to the world's store of knowledge through research and publication, and serve the University and local community in various ways. 

 

Temporary faculty should not be expected to fulfill the triple roles of teaching, research and service unless the University chooses to employ them permanently with appropriate compensation.  By and large, adjuncts do not have access to the resources available to tenured and tenure-track faculty.  Those resources enable the science faculty to discover cures for diseases, the business faculty to create new economic indicators, and the education faculty to continue improving public education. Universities serve students best when employing permanent faculty who receive the resources and support needed to fulfill their multiple roles. 

 

            The best uses of temporary faculty are limited and specific.  The National Education Association endorses the use of adjuncts when an educational program requires specialized training not available among permanent faculty, or when a tenure-track faculty member has a temporary absence or leaves without sufficient notice for the department to conduct a search to fill the position.  Other professional associations recommend that no more than 1 in 7 faculty should be adjunct at any given time, but at Illinois State, the number is currently about 1 in 3.  When employees are hired year after year to fill the same instructional needs, then clearly the University should create more permanent positions to best serve our students.

 

Why, then, do invisible faculty favor unions?  

 

Like many professional educators, we believe that a union is the sole means to guarantee the rights we seek and the respect we deserve.   We are not alone.  Our colleagues across Illinois and the nation have shown us how organized labor benefits temporary faculty and their students.  Adjuncts at Northern Illinois University, Eastern Illinois University, Western Illinois University, and more recently, Roosevelt University and Columbia College, are unionized. Through collective bargaining our colleagues were able to negotiate equitable salaries, better access to health benefits, standardized workloads, and improved working conditions.  

 

At Illinois State, we've waited patiently for decades while committees and task forces brought about few substantive improvements.  Whether the University budget has a surplus or a shortfall, the result is the same.  Temporary faculty remain invisible. We only ask to be treated with the respect that all professional educators deserve.  Our students will benefit, and so will we.

 

Gretchen E. Knapp, Ph.D. is spokeperson for the ISU Nontenure-track Faculty Association-IEA/NEA, and can be reached at [email protected].

 

Note:  Despite repeated attempts by the editorial board, no one at ISU could be found to write the opposing piece to this op-ed article.