Adjunct faculty and supportive full time faculty packed into a conference room at the SEIU headquarters in Washington, DC for the Third Annual Forum on Part Time Faculty Unions.
The topic of this year’s conference was “Contingent Academic Labor and Higher Education Teaching Profession.”
Local 500 members from George Washington University and Montgomery College joined faculty from American University, Baltimore City Community College, Northern Virginia Community College, Temple University, and other institutions to discuss how the pay inequality and lack of job security suffered by most adjuncts negatively affects America’s system of higher education and puts our economy and our future at risk.
Mark Plane from American University spoke about how increased unionization among adjunct faculty would not only improve the lives of adjuncts, but would also benefit higher education, as a whole.
Kip Lornell, a member of Local 500′s executive board and an adjunct professor at George Washington University, noted, “With GWU and Montgomery College part of Local 500, American University very likely to join the fold within a year or so, and others nearby schools beginning to organize, its very clear that we are part of an important movement and not simply an isolated anomaly. ”
Participants also got a sneak peek at Debra Leigh Scott’s documentary, ‘Junct: The Trashing of Higher Education in America.
Check out the preview of ‘Junct below, which includes clips of Local 500 member and Montgomery College adjunct, Victoria Baldassano and Local 500 Director of Strategic Research and former adjunct, Anne McLeer.
