Excerpts of Testimony “When the university wants us to be faculty we are faculty, and when they want us to be invisible and migrant farm workers, we are migrant farm workers...We might be part-timers, but we are not temporary. I have been ‘not a member of the faculty’ for 17 years.” ____________ “Many fine educators cannot afford to stay as educators because of the low pay and lack of benefits. Bottom line is that they need the job security, they need the healthcare, or they will move on to nonacademic positions. “ ____________ "By mid-August many international students still do not know if they are going to get funded, still do not know if they are going to have a TAship. As international students we cannot work off campus and we cannot get a loan, so no TAship means we go home." ____________ "Not knowing if I will have a contract two or three years from now, or if the state portion of my salary will be available causes great economic uncertainty for my family." ____________ “The part time faculty at Rutgers are the backbone of this University – out of sight but supporting the whole system. As PTLs we provide the valuable educational experience that bring real life into the classroom.” ____________ “The bottom line is, I don’t feel valuable
because every two weeks when I pick up
my pay check it is a mere pittance. On
one level I want to be professional and I
want to do the best job, but I get disheartened Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, AAUP-AFT (732) 445-2278 aaup@rutgersaaup.com |
Contingent Faculty Rights Hearing |
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Campus Equity Week 2005, Rutgers University |
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Faculty Testify to Working Conditions at Rutgers University |
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On November 1, 2005 Teaching Assistants, Part-time Lecturers and Non-tenure-track Faculty participated in the first Contingent Faculty Rights Hearing at Rutgers. Faculty members provided testimony before a board of notables about the contributions contingent faculty make to the university and the obstacles often encountered in the pursuit of quality education at Rutgers. Following the testimony, members of the board of notables were given an opportunity to respond. “I have listened with distress and anger to what has been shared,” expressed Rev. Gregory Bezilla, of St Michael's Chapel, “the university teaches by what it models. The part-time faculty present a model of passion and dedication and excellence. But I am concerned with what the university as an employer is modeling?” Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, Vice-chair of the Assembly Education Committee and a former part-time lecturer expressed his |
concerns;“what needs to change is the relationship that the part-time faculty have with the university. They are the first faculty members that our students come in contact with and they need to be valued for that.” The hearing concluded with comments by David Bilon of the UCGA with a commitment to bring involvement and awareness to other students. |
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Press Coverage Faculty Groups Draw Attention to Plight of Adjunct Professors, The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 31, 2005
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Contingent Faculty are the Backbone of the University |
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The emergence of education delivered by part-time and contingent faculty is one of the most important revisions in the composition of the university in the last half-century. It is important that we talk about this publicly because these changes have occurred slowly over time and, perhaps, without our awareness. In 1969 fulltime non-tenure-track faculty made up 3% of faculty members on a national level. In 2003 that number is nearly 25%. At Rutgers fulltime non-tenure-track faculty make up 23% of the fulltime faculty. Most departments have fulltime non-tenure-track faculty and part-time faculty that are integral to their departments yet are only |
given one year or one semester contracts. The growth of contingent faculty has cast lines of division amongst the faculty with contingent faculty being treated as second class citizens. Such division create obstacles and disincentives to providing quality education. Rutgers cannot function without members of the contingent faculty yet the university has made no commitments to them. They are hired and fired in the same letter. Get Involved -- Join Rutgers AAUP-AFT today. |
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Campus Equity Week was sponsored by the Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT Chapters, the Part-time Chapter, the TA/GA steering committee, the Non-Tenure-Track Caucus, and the Graduate Student Association. For more information about Campus Equity Week and to participate in the planning of next years activities contact Richard Moser at (732) 445-2278 x 18 or at rmoser@rutgersaaup.com |
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These fliers, stickers and ads were created to advertise for the week. Feel free to use them at your Campus Equity Event. Want ADS: Fliers: |
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