Adjuncts are organizing in Los Angeles in an effort to broaden their voice in the future of higher education. There has been a consistent decline of tenure track positions at America’s institutions of higher education. In the Los Angeles market, 72% of employees with faculty status at private, not-for-profit colleges and universities are not on the tenure track or in the tenure system. [1]
Universities have shifted resources from instruction to administration, resulting in an over-reliance on adjuncts as teaching faculty instead of creating full-time positions with benefits.
Forty-six percent of employees with faculty status at private, not-for-profit colleges and universities in the Los Angeles market are part-time, and that percentage is as high as 98% of faculty at some universities. In fact, 29% of all non-profit colleges and universities in the Los Angeles market report 75% or more of their faculty are part time. [2]
Nationally, more than 70 percent of college instructional faculty are adjuncts. In 1969, tenured and tenure-track positions made up approximately 78.3 percent of the faculty. In 2009, tenured and tenure-track faculty had declined to only 33.5 percent. During this same period, 66.5 percent of faculty was ineligible for tenure.[3]
Unless action is taken, the trend toward a marginalized adjunct faculty will continue unabated.
Across the nation in Washington, D.C., New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut and California adjunct faculty are uniting with SEIU to build a marketwide movement and raise their professional standards. SEIU is the nation’s fastest growing union and home to more than 15,000 unionized adjuncts across the country. By joining together in our union, we will raise the standards for faculty and students alike in the colleges and universities where we teach here in Los Angeles.
Adjunct faculty in the Los Angeles area can find out more about forming a union by calling Myra Woodson at 213-394-9486 or emailing [email protected].
[1] IPEDS Data Center, 2011 final release data set. All Title IV participating, private, not-for-profit, 4-year or above colleges and universities in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA).
[2] IPEDS Data Center, 2011 final release data set. All Title IV participating, private, not-for-profit, 4-year or above colleges and universities in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA).
[3] The Changing Faculty and Student Success, Pg. 1, http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED532269.pdf, pg.
