Activists Call on States to Take on For-Profit Colleges

“Activists have turned to state governors in a battle over the fate of students at Corinthian Colleges, the massive for-profit college chain that is in the process of being shuttered by the federal government.”

Adjunct Action/SEIU has partnered with Higher Ed Not Debt to bring greater accountability to the for-profit higher education industry, including delivering a petition today to ECMC in Minnesota calling for students to be protected during the sale of Corinthian College, a for-profit that was sanctioned by the Dept. of Education for major violations.

Read more about the renewed focus on state-level change here.

Minnesotans Calling for Justice Re: For-Profit Corinthian

Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit company which operates 107 colleges under Everest, WyoTech, and Heald brands, is closing or selling their schools after the Department of Education found the company ripped off students by manipulating job placement rates.

One of Corinthian’s holdings, Everest College in Minnesota, falsified job placement rates and tricked students into thousands of dollars of debt, while leaving them without a usable degree. Everest was just bought by ECMC Group, an entity that’s never run a school before and currently makes its money ensuring that students can’t declare bankruptcy on their student loans.

In conjunction with Higher Ed Not Debt and SEIU, on Wednesday Minnesotans will be delivering a petition to the ECMC group calling for justice for Minnesota students.

Sign a petition calling for justice for those students and read more here.

Adjunct Faculty Discuss Union, Future on VPR

Adjunct faculty at three colleges in Vermont, Burlington, St. Michael’s, and Champlain, voted in the past month to form a union with Adjunct Action/SEIU. Today, Genevieve Jacobs, an adjunct faculty member at Champlain College and Sean Witters, a lecturer in the English Department at the University of Vermont, spoke to VPR about their experiences.

Click here to listen to the full interview.

St. Michael’s Adjuncts Vote to Form a Union

Adjunct professors at St. Michael’s College in Vermont today voted strongly in favor of forming a union with SEIU/Adjunct Action. By a margin of 64% in favor (46 yes to 26 no), the adjuncts at St. Michael’s join their colleagues at Champlain College and Burlington College, who voted overwhelmingly to form adjunct unions at their respective colleges last week.

The adjuncts at St. Michael’s join their colleagues at Champlain College and Burlington College who last week voted overwhelmingly to form adjunct unions. Taken together, the three votes represent a significant step forward for adjuncts in Vermont who are working to improve the working conditions of the increasing numbers of part-time and contingent faculty in higher education in the state and across the country.

“We join all of our colleagues around country in raising standards, in knowing each other and being able to work towards a better life for all of us,” said Sharyn Layfield, an adjunct faculty member at St. Michael’s College. “I’m 65 and started in teachings in my 20s, and for me this is a culmination of a life’s work. I’ve always been an adjunct. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be doing this, but it means a future for other people who do what I’ve been doing all this time. It’s important to me to see this go on. It’s a movement forward.”

Throughout the campaign, adjunct faculty at St. Michael’s received an outpouring of support from Vermonters. Senator Bernie Sanders sent a letter of support to the faculty at the college, as did a number of city council members, state legislators, and the AFT/AAUP-led union representing faculty at the University of Vermont. Hundreds of students and community members signed a petition supporting the organizing efforts, which was delivered to school administrators.

“With the victory today, adjuncts at St. Michael’s can be more focused as a group, as we join together and move forward,” said Anne Tewksbury-Frye, an adjunct faculty member at St. Michael’s College and Champlain College. “The union will serve to improve best practices, and help us learn as educators and teachers in a way that will benefit our students directly. And that’s our goal — to improve education for our students at these very fine colleges and universities.”

Vermont Adjunct Faculty Vote to Form a Union

Adjunct professors at Burlington and Champlain colleges have voted overwhelmingly to join adjunct faculty at schools across the country in SEIU/Adjunct Action, with 80% at Champlain College (118 to 30) and 85% at Burlington College (23 to 4) adjunct faculty voting yes to a union. The vote was a significant step forward for adjuncts in Vermont who are working to improve the working conditions of the increasing numbers of part-time and contingent faculty in higher education in the state and across the country.

Over 40 percent of faculty at Vermont’s private, non-profit colleges and universities work part time and 72 percent of all faculty are not on the tenure track. Adjunct faculty, now the majority of teaching faculty across the country, typically have no job security, no benefits and low pay that forces adjuncts to string together jobs at multiple colleges and universities to make ends meet. At the same time, revenues and tuition have increased steadily over the last two decades while spending on instruction has declined – and it’s adjuncts and their deeply-in-debt students who are suffering as a result.

Throughout the campaign, adjunct faculty at both schools received an outpouring of support from Vermonters. Senator Bernie Sanders sent a letter of support, as did a number of city council members, state legislators, and the AFT/AAUP-led union representing faculty at the University of Vermont. Hundreds of students and community members signed a petition supporting the organizing efforts, which was delivered to school administrators.

“Ever since we started the process of forming our union, I’ve been feeling more and more empowered. I’m already noticing that we adjuncts are talking to each other a lot more, and we have a much greater sense of collegiality. I no longer feel marginalized on campus,” said Betsy Allen-Pennebaker, who teaches at Champlain College. “I think that this victory today is a wonderful thing for adjuncts, not only in terms of pay and job security, but also in how we feel about ourselves and our profession. Throughout this election, we’ve been talking about all the positive things that will come out of having a union, and that’s what we’ll continue to focus on as we move forward. I really believe that this union is a win-win for everyone. What’s good for adjuncts will also be good for Champlain College as an institution – and improving adjuncts’ working conditions is going to create an even better classroom experience for our students.”

Vermont adjunct faculty are following in the footsteps of adjuncts at more than a dozen universities who have joined Adjunct Action in the past year, including The College of St. Rose in Albany, New York where adjuncts voted to join SEIU Local 200United this summer. They join faculty at the Howard University and Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Antioch University in Seattle and Northeastern University in Boston who have all voted for unionization in order to strengthen their voices and improving working conditions for all part-time faculty in America.

“I am thrilled by the results of the vote and I am looking forward to what is to come for Burlington College and the wider teaching community in Vermont,” said Jonathan Auyer, who teaches at Burlington College. “The campaign aimed at highlighting the need for sustainable pay, access to benefits and stable working conditions for the adjunct faculty, and this vote is one step on the path to making these things happen. I really am excited to work with the administration, my fellow adjuncts and the full-time faculty in the hopes of continuing to better Burlington College by bettering the teaching conditions, which will undoubtedly result in bettering the learning conditions for our students.”

ACA Webinar and Q&A

Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) began on November 15th. Below you’ll find a video covering the most important parts of how to get covered with SEIU’s ACA expert Sarah Nolan. We’ll also be hosting a Q&A on our forum, with Nolan answering questions on December 5th from 2 to 3pm EST. Post your questions now in the forum and join us on 12/5 for an informative discussion.

If you’re ready to enroll, visit healthcare.gov to enroll by December 15 for healthcare starting on January 1, 2015.

Webinar on Student Loan Forgiveness on 11/20

SEIU is co-sponsoring a webinar on student loan forgiveness on Thursday, November 20^th from 12-1PM EST. Representatives from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will lead the presentation on student loan forgiveness, what goes into Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Teacher Loan Forgiveness, IBR/PAYE Forgiveness plans, and some state initiatives that forgive student debt – with an emphasis on how to get coworkers/bosses engaged in the discussion.

The presentation will last about 30 minutes and will include a segment on income-driven replacement plans. It will be followed with a Q&A, and the link to access the webinar will be mailed out to those who RSVP.

Click here to RSVP. Please share the invite on your social networks using the hashtag #debtfreefuture.

New Regs on For-Profit Just A Start in Reforms needed to Protect Students

The Department of Education has released new regulations on the for-profit higher education industry (read the Associate Press story here). Below is SEIU’s statement on the new regulations.

The Department of Education’s (DOE) new regulations on the for-profit higher education industry are a modest step forward in efforts to hold these schools accountable for dismal student outcomes but much more still needs to be done.

“I’m glad the Department of Education is taking steps to ensure that these schools begin to live up to their commitment to their students,” said Tyrone Jones, a veteran and a former Corinthian College student. “We are pushing for even stronger student protections, and we’re going to keep fighting to make sure both Congress and DOE do their part to keep this industry honest.”

The Department maintained a crucial accountability metric which ensures that career education programs are held accountable for the debt of their graduates as it relates to their income. However, it is worrisome that the regulations do not hold predatory programs accountable for students who have defaulted on their loans, which amounted to over a quarter million students between 2009 and 2011.

We know, based on Department of Education data, students attending for-profit career education programs are twice as likely to borrow and three times as likely to default. Without the default rate measure, programs can still saddle students with crippling debt and continue to receive taxpayer funded financial aid as long the vast majority of students drop-out.

It’s disappointing that even in the face of these modest regulatory improvements, the lobbying group for the for-profit higher education industry is signaling that they will sue the Department for this effort to ensure that they prepare their graduates for the workforce.

While these regulations are not sufficient, they are a step in the right direction and send a clear signal to the for-profit industry that students’ interests must be a priority. In order to protect students and taxpayers’ investment, the Department of Education and members of Congress must use all available means to hold for-profit colleges accountable.

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Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is home to over 90,000 college and university faculty and employees who have won improvements in pay, job security, evaluation processes, and access to retirement benefits.