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Boston Globe: Adjunct Op-Ed on the “Invisible Professor”

On Sunday, Boston University adjunct and author Jay Atkinson shared how on most campuses, adjuncts are an undervalued, invisible population. His featured piece included quotes from SEIU/Adjunct Action leaders like Andy Klatt. “Now on the bargaining committee after a successful effort to unionize at Tufts, Klatt says that an adjunct’s life is doubly ‘precarious’ — employment can be terminated at the administration’s whim, and the terrible pay makes it difficult to raise a family, pay a mortgage, or plan for retirement.” But, Klatt said, “We’re not just talking about Boston … We’re talking about a national crisis of academic labor.”
Read the entire piece here.

Boston Contingent Faculty Support Lesley Adjuncts

The following is a letter of support from the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor to Lesley University adjuncts as they begin voting to join SEIU/Adjunct Action.

We are contingent faculty at colleges and universities in the Greater Boston area. We strongly support your organizing efforts and believe your election victory will be an inspiration to faculty citywide.

We know from personal experience there is a stark difference between working in an environment where there is a union for faculty and one where there is not. There is no substitute for being able to negotiate over the terms and conditions of your employment.

Your colleagues on the Lesley Adjunct Organizing Committee have been working tirelessly to get the word out about why it is important for everyone to vote “Yes” when your ballot comes in the mail.

As in many other sectors of our economy, jobs in higher education have been atomized, cheapened and contracted out. Over 70 percent of all university teaching positions are now off the tenure track, underpaid with few, if any, benefits. All the while, students and their families go deeper into debt.

The right to bargain will change this trend, not just in Boston, but nationwide. The future of higher education is in our hands, but only if contingent faculty stand together.

We encourage you to vote “Yes” to join Adjunct Action/Service Employees International Union (SEIU). We stand with you as you choose to change the future of higher education for all of us.

Sincerely,

The Boston Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor

Sincerely,

The Boston Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor

Barbara Gottfried, Ph.D. Member-at-Large, Executive Board, Massachusetts Conference/AAUPSAF AAUP Staff

Gary Zabel, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA, Co-Chair Boston Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor

Jaspal Singh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abby Machson-Carter, Non-Tenure Track Instructor, UMass, Boston

David Kociemba, President AFEC/AAUP

Kenneth P. Martin, Treasurer SAF/AAUP

Leslie Brokaw, Bargaining Team Member, AFEC/AAUP

Robert Rosenfeld, President, SAF/AAUP

Bebe Beard, Vice President SAF/AAUP

Anne Erde, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Sandra J Howland, North Shore Community College, MCCC, MTA

Sheree Dukes Conrad, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/MTA

Peggy Walsh, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/MTA

Larry Kaye, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Amy Todd, Ph.D, Lecturer in Anthropology, UMass Boston, Vice President, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Jonathan Millman, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Wendy Schoener, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Nural Aman, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

John Hess, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Emmett Schaefer, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Philip Chassler, Ph.D, Lecturer, American Studies Dept., UMass Boston and Member Executive Board, Faculty Staff Union/MTA

Doreen Drury, Women's and Gender Studies, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Betsy Smith, Adjunct Professor of ESL, Cape Cod Community College, DCE Director, MCCC Board of Directors

Ann Tolbert, UMass Boston, Faculty Staff Union/ MTA

Claire-Marie Hart, Adjunct at North Shore Community College and Endicott College

Beth Kontos, North Shore Community College, MCCC

Dora Capite-Tkal, North Shore Community College, MCCC

Pauline A. Boutin, North Shore Community College/MCCC

Janet Burt, North Shore Community College, MCCC

AFEC=Affiliated Faculty of Emerson College/American Association of University Professors

SAF=Suffolk Affiliated Faculty/American Association of University Professors

MCCC=Massachusetts Community College Council

MTA=Massachusetts Teachers Association

Community Support for Adjuncts Featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education

These resolutions are another way students, full-time professors, community leaders and elected officials are coming together to support adjuncts as they help build a nationwide movement to improve standards for the profession by forming unions with SEIU/Adjunct Action.