Sadie Reynolds
Campus Equity Week 2015: Adjunct Organizing at Cabrillo
During the week of October 26th, faculty across the nation participated in Campus Equity Week, a biannual event designed to raise awareness about the national crisis of part-time academic labor in higher education. CCFT’s Solidarity & Community Leadership Team, COPE, and Part-Time Committee created a flyer and asked faculty to consider posting it on office doors and classrooms as a way to call attention to these important issues and stand in solidarity with adjunct workers at colleges and universities far and wide. The flyer contains select statistics and references to sources for further information.
In conjunction, the Part-Time Committee organized a presentation to the Governing Board this month. Eric Hoffman framed the presentation with a statement on the state of working conditions and pay for adjuncts and why improving them is absolutely imperative for the college and the nation. Adjunct Chair Sadie Reynolds provided an overview of the adjunct problem at Cabrillo, presenting a handout created for the Board (displayed here) with basic statistics on our numbers, pay, benefits (or lack thereof), length of service, and participation in ancillary activities. And adjunct members Justina Buller (History), Meg Gudgeirsson (History), and Timothy Frank (Nursing) each spoke eloquently on their personal experience of part-time teaching at Cabrillo, and their views on the issue. Adjunct visibility on campus will be critical to ensuring adjuncts’ issues are fully incorporated into planning and contract negotiations. Please contact Adjunct Chair Sadie Reynolds (sareynol@cabrillo.edu), CCFT Vice President John Govsky (john@teacherjohn.com), or CCFT Director Maya Bendotoff (ccft@ccftcabrillo.org) if you have questions or concerns, would like to be added to our part-time list serve, or would like to join the Part-Time Committee.