Connecticut
Campus Equity Week Events
Anne Doyle, University of Connecticut-AAUP part-time faculty member,
who teaches Statistics on the Avery Point campus, and is a member
of the UCONN-AAUP Executive Committee, reports that UCONN-AAUP created
a new committee on contingent faculty issues this year. The results
of a recent survey designed by Anne sent to all UCONN campuses guides
the committee. The survey indicated that many contingent members
were unaware of contractual rights; consequently communication will
be strengthened not only with the membership but also with the system's
human resource department and the UCONN-AAUP office. Anne reports
that It
became apparent that the AAUP office has incomplete mailing lists
for all the adjuncts. There is a significant time delay from the
time Payroll receives the information to when the AAUP office receives
it. There is also very little information about adjuncts maintained
by the university.
Julia
Launer, assisted by part-time colleagues, will staff booths at all
UCONN campuses and distribute informational materials and membership
enrollment forms. Legislation providing pension benefits for UCONN
part-time faculty was introduced in the last session and will be
again. Support for the legislative initiative will be gathered during
CEW. Part-time members teaching at UCONN and the branches are encouraged
to contact Anne Doyle for additional information Toughones@aol.com.
"In
an important CEW activity by the UCONN Committee on Part-time Issues,
faculty will be asked to mail postcards to Connecticut Senator Joan
Hartley, Deputy President Pro Tempore, Chair, Higher Education Committee.
The effort will secure members' support for recent legislation "SB00060,
AN ACT CONCERNING CERTAIN HIGHER EDUCATION PERSONNEL, which was
raised in 2002, but did not make it through the Higher Education
Committee. This bill would have given part-time employees of one
or more constitutent units of the state system of higher education
who are not otherwise entitled under law or a collective bargaining
agreement to receive retirement benefits equivalent to those available
to full-time faculty."
Contact:
Julia Launer jayump@comcast.net
Anne
Doyle Toughones@aol.com
REPORT
FROM THE DAY
Adjunct
Professors At Avery Point Join
Campaign On Wage, Benefit Concerns
By JUDY BENSON Day Staff Writer
Published on 10/28/2003 - Groton, Connecticut
Adjunct professors at the University of Connecticut's Avery Point
campus are joining their colleagues at the other UConn campuses
around the state in an informational campaign this week about pay
and benefits issues.
Campus Equity Week, sponsored nationally by the American Association
of University Professors, is designed to inform the public about
adjunct professors' relatively low pay and need for better working
conditions, according to an AAUP news release. Many universities
are increasing their reliance on adjunct professors as a substitute
for hiring full-time faculty.
Unlike some other institutions, however, UConn has been trying to
reduce its reliance on adjunct professors, according to Richard
Veilleux, spokesman for UConn. He was unable to obtain figures Monday
on the numbers of adjuncts at UConn.
Avery Point adjuncts Christine Green and Julia Launer said information
they have gathered indicates that excluding the Marine Science Department,
about 74 percent of courses at Avery Point are being taught by adjunct
professors.
Adjunct professors are hired on a semester-by-semester basis to
teach one or two classes, and are paid according to the number of
credits they teach. At Avery Point, adjuncts are paid $1,210 per
credit hour with no benefits and are not allowed to teach more than
eight credits per semester, said Launer, who teaches mathematics
and statistics.
Full-time professors earn about $90,000 to $110,000 annually plus
benefits, she said.
"The
real problem most people see is in consistency," said Launer.
"There's a lot of turnover in adjuncts because of the low pay
and no benefits. Most have to teach at more than one place"
or supplement their income another way if teaching at the post-secondary
level is their main occupation.
Launer is one of the adjuncts staffing a table outside the bookstore
at Avery Point for Campus Equity Week. The table is stocked with
information about pay and equity issues and a petition for students
to sign showing their concern about the issues. As of Monday morning,
the first day of the effort, 13 students had signed it.
Green said she supplements her teaching income by working as a lab
assistant at Avery Point.
The group is asking that a bill to offer pension benefits to adjunct
professors be introduced in the upcoming session of the state Legislature.