Howard University Adjuncts Vote to Form a Union

Join Rapidly Growing Union Movement, Become First HBCU Adjuncts to Form Union

In a significant victory for adjunct faculty across the nation, Howard University adjuncts in Washington, DC, have overwhelmingly voted to form a union with SEIU. Howard’s 176 adjuncts have become the first part-time faculty members at a historically black college or university to have a faculty union. They also join a majority of adjuncts in Washington, DC and a rapidly growing number of part-time faculty who are joining unions across the country.

Washington, DC is the epicenter of what has become …

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Maryland Institute College of Art Vote to Join SEIU Local 500

Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) adjuncts voted overwhelmingly to form their union with SEIU Local 500, joining a national movement of adjunct faculty uniting to raise standards in higher education.The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced the vote count was 163 to 75 on Tuesday, April 29.Katherine Kavanaugh, an adjunct at MICA, was thrilled at the victory and ready for the next steps. She said, “Today’s victory came after nearly three years of listening to the stories and concerns of many adjuncts. Following several …

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Marist Adjuncts File for NLRB Election

Nearly three weeks after holding a press conference discussing their efforts to improve conditions, adjunct instructors at Marist College filed with the National Labor Relations Board today to form their union with SEIU/Adjunct Action. They seek a voice in their classrooms, a fair process for class reappointments and pay parity.Adjunct faculty at Marist College comprise the majority of professors at the school, but they are contingent employees, meaning they are hired semester to semester without job security, and paid an average of $3,000 per class.The …

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Chronicle Story on Metro Organizing Strategy

There’s a new article in The Chronicle of Higher Education today about Adjunct Action/SEIU’s metro-organizing strategy, focusing on the efforts of adjunct faculty who are organizing across the Boston-metro area.

“The thinking behind the approach holds that sufficient union saturation of a given local labor market will not only produce big gains at unionized colleges, but put nonunionized ones under pressure to treat adjuncts better, too. Those colleges might be prompted to improve pay or working conditions to be able to compete for talent or, in …

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Student Debt Webinar

Adjunct Action hosted a student debt webinar by the Department of Education focused on student loan repayment plans, loan forgiveness, and the best strategies for paying back your loans . The video of the webinar starts at 6 minutes and 51 seconds. Click below to watch.

For those who would like to read the PowerPoint presentation from the event, it can be found here: SEIU Student Debt Webinar

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Durbin, Harkin Aim to Improve For-Profit Oversight

Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Tom Harkin have introduced legislation aimed at improving federal coordination of oversight of the for-profit college industry. The Proprietary Education Oversight Coordination Improvement Act would establish interagency oversight committee and improve enforcement of federal laws and regulations of the for-profit industry. The Act is being introduced in the House by U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings.

“For many years, for-profit schools were allowed to operate one step ahead of the law. As the number of investigations by federal, state and local agencies increase, however, I think …

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Webinar for Adjuncts with Student Debt on April 11

Adjunct Action has partnered with the Department of Education to offer you a webinar on student loan repayment plans, loan forgiveness, and the best strategies for paying back your loans. The webinar will be held on April 11th from 2 to 3 p.m. EST.

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Inside Higher Ed Article on launch of Adjunct Network

“Hoping to reach an estimated 1 million adjunct professors nationwide, Service Employees International Union on Monday officially launched its new Adjunct Action Network website. The union marked the occasion with a ‘national town hall’ event for adjuncts at Georgetown University here.”

Click here to read the full Inside Higher Ed article by Colleen Flaherty about the launch of the Adjunct Action Network.

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Town Hall Unites Adjunct Faculty

Adjunct faculty joined SEIU president Mary Kay Henry and House Education and Workforce Committee Ranking Member George Miller (D-CA) to launch the Adjunct Action Network and talk about the future of adjunct faculty organizing at a town hall at Georgetown University today.

“Imagine if brick-by-brick adjuncts work to build a new model,” Henry said as she led a discussion about how adjunct organizing victories from Los Angeles to Boston could be leveraged into even larger movement both online and offline.

Though adjunct faculty often lack physical meeting …

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Howard University, Maryland Institute College of Art Adjuncts File for Union Elections

On March 7th, adjunct faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore filed for a union election and to join the SEIU Local 500 Coalition of Academic Labor. It’s another step forward in the movement to form adjunct faculty unions across America.

The news follows up a huge victory for Lesley University adjuncts in Boston who voted 84 percent to join SEIU/Adjunct Action. In the past two weeks, contingent faculty at Seattle University have also …

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