2008 Woodie Awards
Campus Equity Week calls attention to adjunct faculty
Professors call attention to concerns about benefits, pay
By: Kim Nolan
Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
Exploitation of faculty, protecting the profession of teaching and academic freedom are some of the topics that will be covered during Webster's Campus Equity Week, Oct. 31 through Nov. 4. Campus Equity Week is a national event hosted by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
According to their web site, the purpose of the AAUP is to promote academic freedom, protect professors' jobs, define professional values and standards for higher education and ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.
"Degrees of Shame," a 30-minute documentary by Barbara Wolf, will be shown three times throughout the week. The first showing will be Oct. 28 in the University Center Presentation Room, a panel discussion will follow the film. The film exposes the economic situation and working conditions of adjunct faculty.
Unlike adjunct faculty, tenure track faculty members receive benefits and a one-year contract for each of the first six years of employment. After a tenure track faculty member's seventh year, they can apply for tenure determined by an evaluation process. If the evaluation is successful, tenure track faculty are entitled to a career at the university as long as their work is satisfactory.
Earl Henry, a music professor co-founder of the AAUP Webster chapter, said tenured professors can only be fired for the most serious reasons and even then are entitled to due process.
"In many fields there is an overabundance of people qualified for one job," said Brian Kennelly, chair of the department of international language and cultures. "Many universities accept an adjunct as the solution and then their position (of adjunct) becomes a long-term situation."
Kennelly, a member of the AAUP, said Webster is leading the way for this negative trend. Webster claims adjunct faculty members have other jobs in their fields so they offer students a "real-life" perspective.
"The theory of the real-life perspective doesn't work the same way in the college of arts and sciences as it does in the business school," Kennelly said.
According to their web site, the purpose of the AAUP is to promote academic freedom, protect professors' jobs, define professional values and standards for higher education and ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.
"Degrees of Shame," a 30-minute documentary by Barbara Wolf, will be shown three times throughout the week. The first showing will be Oct. 28 in the University Center Presentation Room, a panel discussion will follow the film. The film exposes the economic situation and working conditions of adjunct faculty.
Unlike adjunct faculty, tenure track faculty members receive benefits and a one-year contract for each of the first six years of employment. After a tenure track faculty member's seventh year, they can apply for tenure determined by an evaluation process. If the evaluation is successful, tenure track faculty are entitled to a career at the university as long as their work is satisfactory.
Earl Henry, a music professor co-founder of the AAUP Webster chapter, said tenured professors can only be fired for the most serious reasons and even then are entitled to due process.
"In many fields there is an overabundance of people qualified for one job," said Brian Kennelly, chair of the department of international language and cultures. "Many universities accept an adjunct as the solution and then their position (of adjunct) becomes a long-term situation."
Kennelly, a member of the AAUP, said Webster is leading the way for this negative trend. Webster claims adjunct faculty members have other jobs in their fields so they offer students a "real-life" perspective.
"The theory of the real-life perspective doesn't work the same way in the college of arts and sciences as it does in the business school," Kennelly said.