Adjunct faculty at Whittier College voted to form a union in Adjunct Action, a project of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) today. The mail-ballot election was the first to be held at a number of campuses in the L.A. area where adjunct faculty have been organizing to form a union.

“We are happy and excited to be leading the way to raise standards for adjunct faculty in L.A. County,” said Whittier College adjunct Celestine Candida. “We look forward to working together so we can achieve real improvements for our profession, our students and the Whittier community.”

Adjunct faculty at Loyola Marymount University and the University of La Verne have currently filed for National Labor Relations Board elections, and will be the next two schools to hold elections.

For decades, universities have shifted the structure of their academic workforce from middle class jobs in favor of low wage contingent teaching positions. In the early 1970s, almost 80 percent of faculty were tenured or on the tenure track. Today, only 33 percent of faculty remain in tenured or tenure-track jobs. As a result, many university professors face low pay and no benefits or job security. Many do not even have access to basic facilities like office space, making it increasingly difficult for adjuncts to do their best for their students.

Adjunct and part-time faculty at schools across the country are engaging in conversations about raising standards for private, non-profit universities. This fall, adjunct faculty at Tufts University in Massachusetts voted to join SEIU/Adjunct Action. Part-time instructors at Lesley University in Boston and the University of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. have recently filed for union elections with the NLRB.