Labor rules for adjuncts

[Hibush]

With Uber's recent success in classifying as contractors people who are clearly employees by US Dept of Labor, it is not surprise to see colleges trying a similar thing.

Instead of making people contractors, make them management to avoid having to pay the minimum hourly rate. The Obama administration tried to foil that tactic by making them minimum salary for management (aka overtime exempt) about $50,000.

Elon U tried calling their adjuncts management in order to thwart the SEIU-affiliated faculty union. NLRB didn't go for it.

Elon's evidence that adjuncts were management was apparently that some serve on committees.

[Mobius]

I thought this was about union representation and has nothing to do with overtime rules. I empathize with the adjuncts, but adjuncts shouldn't have job security. The push should security for FT NTTs and clarifying the role of adjuncts. The saddest part are adjuncts doing service work in the false hope that will land them job stability.

[mahagonny]

The saddest part are adjuncts doing service work in the false hope that will land them job stability.

Would have been stopped years ago the minute the problem was discovered in a culture that was more free of corruption. What are the penalties for misusing adjunct faculty this way? None. Someone might come along and say 'all right, that's enough. Cut it out.'

[Hibush]

The saddest part are adjuncts doing service work in the false hope that will land them job stability.

Would have been stopped years ago the minute the problem was discovered in a culture that was more free of corruption. What are the penalties for misusing adjunct faculty this way? None. Someone might come along and say 'all right, that's enough. Cut it out.'

Can you figure out any of the specifics as Elon based on the article or supporting infomration? On the surface it looks like run-of-the-mill administrative mendacity. You can probably identify the dynamics more precisely. 

[mahagonny]

The saddest part are adjuncts doing service work in the false hope that will land them job stability.

Would have been stopped years ago the minute the problem was discovered in a culture that was more free of corruption. What are the penalties for misusing adjunct faculty this way? None. Someone might come along and say 'all right, that's enough. Cut it out.'

Can you figure out any of the specifics as Elon based on the article or supporting infomration? On the surface it looks like run-of-the-mill administrative mendacity. You can probably identify the dynamics more precisely.

Well, I appreciate your asking. But...
The link doesn't work for me. Can you help?
What I am reacting to, I'll admit, is the discourse I've read on the forum over many years. Therefore I think my observation will hold up.
I would assume in any case the committees were staffed with full time faculty who could have spoken up.

[polly_mer]

There are a handful of examples of fully fractional part-time faculty.  However, that means doing all the duties, not just teaching.

Generally, faculty are management--that's the shared governance model.  The idea that faculty aren't management is unusual and Yeshiva won a Supreme Court decision that stood for decades insisting that faculty are management https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/444/672.html

Making the argument that faculty are just worker bees does not bode well for faculty maintaining control over academic matters, let alone academic freedom.

[dr_codex]

There are a handful of examples of fully fractional part-time faculty.  However, that means doing all the duties, not just teaching.

Generally, faculty are management--that's the shared governance model.  The idea that faculty aren't management is unusual and Yeshiva won a Supreme Court decision that stood for decades insisting that faculty are management https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/444/672.html

Making the argument that faculty are just worker bees does not bode well for faculty maintaining control over academic matters, let alone academic freedom.

Ok, but what if p/t and contingent faculty cannot vote? Asking for a very specific reason.

[Mobius]

There are a handful of examples of fully fractional part-time faculty.  However, that means doing all the duties, not just teaching.

Generally, faculty are management--that's the shared governance model.  The idea that faculty aren't management is unusual and Yeshiva won a Supreme Court decision that stood for decades insisting that faculty are management https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/444/672.html

Making the argument that faculty are just worker bees does not bode well for faculty maintaining control over academic matters, let alone academic freedom.

This is also on-going battle for faculty at private institutions to force recognition of a union. Obviously, the NRLB with a Democratic administration is going to be more friendly to unions than an NRLB under a Republican administration. The Elon case is notable in that it was unanimous and not a 3-2 decision. Right now, there are three Republican members, one Democrat, and one vacancy.  One of the Republican's term expires in August.

[Hibush]

The saddest part are adjuncts doing service work in the false hope that will land them job stability.

Would have been stopped years ago the minute the problem was discovered in a culture that was more free of corruption. What are the penalties for misusing adjunct faculty this way? None. Someone might come along and say 'all right, that's enough. Cut it out.'

Can you figure out any of the specifics as Elon based on the article or supporting infomration? On the surface it looks like run-of-the-mill administrative mendacity. You can probably identify the dynamics more precisely.

Well, I appreciate your asking. But...
The link doesn't work for me. Can you help?
What I am reacting to, I'll admit, is the discourse I've read on the forum over many years. Therefore I think my observation will hold up.
I would assume in any case the committees were staffed with full time faculty who could have spoken up.

Sorry, I messed up the link to IHE. Here it is.

A local article from last summer gives an idea of the players and alliances.

An unrepresentative sample of adjunct opinion can be found in the  Indeed reviews of Elon as an employer of adjuncts. Most of the sentiments there are generic: Spoiled students, no job security, dismissive senior faculty.

[mahagonny]

Making the argument that faculty are just worker bees does not bode well for faculty maintaining control over academic matters, let alone academic freedom.

The tenure track has a solution for that. Just claim that while adjunct faculty teach students all week long, they're not faculty.  This is what comes of spinning reality to aid your agenda. Fortunately for the adjunct faculty the NLRB is charged with protecting workers not elite workers, and views the academic culture and its precepts from afar.

Ok, but what if p/t and contingent faculty cannot vote? Asking for a very specific reason.

In case the obvious needs to be pointed out, from the perspective of adjunct faculty, tenure track faculty are administration, not co-workers. They generally don't want us voting, citing the reason that we can be cowed by 'administration' (meaning the other administration, not themselves).  But as for letting adjuncts have some job security, which you don't favor, tenure track faculty and administration are generally working together to keep adjunct positions as essentially sacrificial.

An unrepresentative sample of adjunct opinion can be found in the  Indeed reviews of Elon as an employer of adjuncts. Most of the sentiments there are generic: Spoiled students, no job security, dismissive senior faculty.

All pretty typical, but someone on the tenure track offering to forgo a raise in order to boost adjunct pay is something I've never seen.

on edit:

There are a handful of examples of fully fractional part-time faculty.

There are also example of automobiles with air-cooled engines, but generally speaking, autos use water cooling.

[Caracal]

The saddest part are adjuncts doing service work in the false hope that will land them job stability.

Would have been stopped years ago the minute the problem was discovered in a culture that was more free of corruption. What are the penalties for misusing adjunct faculty this way? None. Someone might come along and say 'all right, that's enough. Cut it out.'

Can you figure out any of the specifics as Elon based on the article or supporting infomration? On the surface it looks like run-of-the-mill administrative mendacity. You can probably identify the dynamics more precisely.

Well, I appreciate your asking. But...
The link doesn't work for me. Can you help?
What I am reacting to, I'll admit, is the discourse I've read on the forum over many years. Therefore I think my observation will hold up.
I would assume in any case the committees were staffed with full time faculty who could have spoken up.

Sorry, I messed up the link to IHE. Here it is.

A local article from last summer gives an idea of the players and alliances.

An unrepresentative sample of adjunct opinion can be found in the  Indeed reviews of Elon as an employer of adjuncts. Most of the sentiments there are generic: Spoiled students, no job security, dismissive senior faculty.

Usually, I tend to be fairly dismissive of complaints about spoiled students. In this case, I suspect the adjuncts are pinpointing a problem, although they're laying the blame for it in the wrong places. I've adjuncted at a SLAC, I thought the students were great and they weren't spoiled, they worked hard. However, they did take up a lot of time and they did expect faculty to be around all the time. Its hard to blame them for that, that's why they decided to go to a SLAC. I was teaching one writing class with 15 students at the SLAC and at the same time I was teaching three classes at a big regional school. Those 15 students took up far more of my time than the 100+ students I was teaching at the regional school. This wasn't a big issue for me, I got paid very well for that course, and I happened to live quite close to the SLAC so I could meet with students without too much hassle.

However, I can imagine that if these Elon adjuncts don't live near campus and have limited availability to meet, the students probably do see that as a failure. If the pay is crummy, that's only going to make adjuncts more resentful of heightened expectations.

[downer]

How often does a contract spell out how much office hour time adjunct faculty are expected to hold? I've never personally encountered such a requirement, and so I never have office hours of any sort.

There's also the question of policing office hours. I've known plenty of cases of FT faculty who don't turn up to their own office hours, and presumably the same would happen with PT faculty.

[Aster]

How often does a contract spell out how much office hour time adjunct faculty are expected to hold? I've never personally encountered such a requirement, and so I never have office hours of any sort.

It is pretty rare, and predominantly limited to a small minority of SLAC's.

[mahagonny]

How often does a contract spell out how much office hour time adjunct faculty are expected to hold? I've never personally encountered such a requirement, and so I never have office hours of any sort.

It is pretty rare, and predominantly limited to a small minority of SLAC's.

You're asking? OK, I'm telling then. I get paid for one office hour per week at school A which does not offer tenure. Part time faculty and full time are in the same union together. This is the far less common situation. Whereas, if you talk to the typical educator with a tenure track position, they maintain it's not good to use adjuncts because they are not available enough to students. Yet an obvious remedy would be  paying the adjunct who is designated part time for one office hour per week (mine always gets filled), which would be a clear bargain at the hourly rates we get, yet their faculty senate and their unions almost never push for, and often push against by outcompeting adjunct faculty for funding.

So, there you have it. More railing against the tenure track undisputed facts.

[Hibush]

How often does a contract spell out how much office hour time adjunct faculty are expected to hold? I've never personally encountered such a requirement, and so I never have office hours of any sort.

It is pretty rare, and predominantly limited to a small minority of SLAC's.

You're asking? OK, I'm telling then. I get paid for one office hour per week at school A which does not offer tenure. Part time faculty and full time are in the same union together. This is the far less common situation. Whereas, if you talk to the typical educator with a tenure track position, they maintain it's not good to use adjuncts because they are not available enough to students. Yet an obvious remedy would be  paying the adjunct who is designated part time for one office hour per week (mine always gets filled), which would be a clear bargain at the hourly rates we get, yet their faculty senate and their unions almost never push for, and often push against by outcompeting adjunct faculty for funding.

So, there you have it. More railing against the tenure track undisputed facts.

If a school is willing to pay adjuncts to hold office hours, what is the best structure? If they pay by the course, do they count how many hours and an hourly rate, but package as a lump sum difference in the semester pay?