FYI: Adjuct (Part-time) Faculty Not Satisfied with Working Conditions

Adjuncts Forgotten Amidst Grad Student Negotiations
Drake Baer, Daily Illini, 11/3/06

There have been ongoing negotiations between the University and graduate employees in an effort to come up with a fair and equitable contract for both sides. The graduate employees are organized and have made their presence known through demonstrations all over campus. However, another group of academic professionals has not received that recognition - adjunct faculty members.

The benefits, pay, and working conditions vary greatly amongst different members of University faculty because not every instructor at the University is full time. Adjunct faculty do not have the guaranteed work that their full-time colleagues receive. ...

"The situation varies from whole year, multi-year, to (contracts that are) per course and per hour, really the academic equivalent of day labor," he said. ...

Many adjuncts have more than one teaching job at a time, and most work for multiple institutes, especially in major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Berry said. University of Illinois-Chicago has 1,112 part-time faculty members, whereas the Urbana campus has 850 part-time faculty, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

"Our teaching conditions are the students' learning conditions," Berry said. ...

He said that an adjunct will earn from $600 to $1200 a course at an average institution (but significantly higher at the University).

"You can't live on that," Higbie said. ... "How long can you carry on the University's principles when you're exploiting certain sections of your workforce?" ... Higbie said that the University should be a "model employer," and not simply follow what corporations are doing.

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