Job equity focus of faculty union campaign event

By Jeremy Rue

When one of Paul Gilmore’s students asked if he would be available in a year to write a letter of recommendation, he could not give a definite answer.

“ As a lecturer, I just don’t know,” said Gilmore, who teaches history at Fresno State. “Next year I might not be here.”

It’s a scenario that the California Faculty Association sees as all too common for many part-time, adjunct or contingent faculty, where jobs can change each semester. The CFA sponsored a Campus Equity Week event on Wednesday, to bring awareness to universities’ increased use of non-tenured instructors, who typically do not get the same pay or benefits as professors and lack the same job security.

CSU faculty in 1985 consisted of 7,511 professors and 8,615 lecturers, according to data from the California Research Bureau. In 2001, the number of professors teaching fell to 6,355 and lecturer positions rose to 12,220; almost double that of professors.

Such figures alarm some faculty. Students often can’t cultivate a relationship with a lecturer the same way they would a tenured professor, said women studies professor Loretta Kensinger, who attended the Campus Equity Week event.

“ It’s not an ideal situation,” Kensinger said. “For many students, their first or second year in a university is spent with a lecturer. It’s an advising burden—many literally have no place to meet with students.”

Although many times lecturers offer specialized skills to university departments, they often have multiple jobs, sometimes at several colleges and cannot keep the same office hours as professors. Those who do have offices, often have to share.

“ How can we improve our ability to meet one-on-one with students when many of us share an office with three or four other instructors?” Mary Coomes, CFA lecturer representative, asked.

During the event, a film was shown called, Degrees of Shame, a throwback to Edward R. Murrow’s 1960s documentary Fields of Shame about migrant farm workers. The video compared the exploitation of contingent faculty with that of migrant farm workers, calling them “freeway faculty” because they often travel between jobs.

“ When you might expect our conversation to center on job insecurity and inadequate pay, in fact, we most often discuss how we can continue to teach well in less than ideal circumstances,” Coomes said.

This year at the Campus Equity Week, the CFA addressed the California budget crisis’s effect on job security of lecturers. As the state faces cuts in education and class sections, lecturers could face layoffs.

In response, the CFA called on Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger to include a university professor to a proposed education team he unveiled during his election campaign. The team consisted mostly of foundation executives, school district superintendents, K-12 classroom teachers and a member of the California State University board of trustees, but lacked any professors.

“ It is not right for the governor-elect to be hearing from trustees and managers while not having access to other important education voices – specifically, teachers at every level,” CFA President John Travis said.

“ As we like to say, the working conditions of faculty are the learning conditions of students,” Coomes said.