On July 23, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Strengthening Transparency in Higher Education Act,” marking an important step toward bringing transparency to our higher education system. The bill will help millions of prospective and current college students make well-informed decisions about enrolling and attending college. It will also require universities to reveal important information about the working conditions of adjunct faculty, who are now the majority of faculty in higher education.
“This important legislation gives students, faculty, lawmakers and the public more information about what’s happening in higher education,” said SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry. “Over the past year, adjunct faculty have joined together to raise standards in our profession and it’s good to see Congress is interested in shining a spotlight on trends in higher education that have marginalized contingent and part-time faculty.”
SEIU helped to make sure that the “Strengthening Transparency in Higher Education Act” will also allow students and families to gain better information about academic working conditions. It requires institutions of higher education to report the ratio of the number of courses taught by part-time instructors and full-time instructors as well as the mean and median years of employment of their part-time instructors.
Andrew Nelson teaches English at Lindenwood University and East Central College in the St. Louis area. He said,“As an adjunct professor who has taught six years at the university and community college level, I have always placed student success at the top of my education philosophy; accordingly, I am pleased to see that HR 4983 is designed to assist students in pursuit of realizing their educational goals. I am also happy to see legislation that acknowledges the troubling trends in faculty working conditions nationally.Hopefully this bill is a step toward improving the working conditions of millions of adjuncts like myself.”
Read more about the bill and implications for part-time faculty at the Chronicle of Higher Education.
