Fair Use Notice

Contingent Faculty Rights Hearings

The CEW Steering Committee has determined that pubic hearing structures can be used to good advantage. We encourage you to consider organizing local and regional hearings to publicize your issues and gather a consensus among policy makers to address the destructive inequities of contingent academic labor.

Contingent Faculty Rights Hearings enlist prominent citizens to take testimony from faculty, students, workers, employers, and other involved parties about the impact of contingent employment on individuals and institutions. The hearing and the “board of notables” that takes the testimony have no legal authority, but they help to publicize exploitative working conditions and get community members involved in improving them. Public hearings provide an excellent forum to create understanding of the link between teachers' working conditions and students' learning conditions.

Hearings can be an hour affair, an all day event, or anything in between.

See "Why? and How!" for a brief description. Print the one page "Why? and How!" document and copy it for distribution at a meeting of your CEW planning committee.

 

 

Three Examples of Contingent Faculty Hearings

1) Emerson College Non-Tenure Track Faculty Organize Hearings in Boston

From AAUP At Work, "Hearing on Contingent Faculty Held at Emerson College."

"At Emerson, Part_time Faculty Leads Fight: 2 Years After Unionizing Adjuncts Still Seek Pact," Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company, The Boston Globe, February 2, 2003, Sunday, 3rd Edition

By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff

2) "The Future of the University" Hearings in California

The California Faculty Association (CFA) represents all faculty in the California State University (CSU) system. Susan Meisenhelder, President of CFA, writes of the history of the project and notes the role of faculty organized public hearings planned for many CSU local colleges. An excellent 15 minute video report on the hearing, “Future of the CSU Hearing -- San Jose” is available from Alice Sunshine, <asunshine@calfac.org> or Craig Flanery <cflaner@calstatela.edu>. Click <here> for a CFA collection of articles on the future of higher education.

3) Legislative Hearing on Adjunct Issues in New York

Spotlight on Adjunct Concerns at Legislative Hearing, (PSC Clarion in April 2001), "It’s the largest group I’ve seen in 24 years,” said Ed Sullivan, chair of the New York State Assembly’s Higher Education Committee, as he looked at the crowd of 150 people who packed a legislative hearing on adjunct issues on March 9. "

SAWSJ Sponsors Public Hearing in New York City by Jennifer Berkshire, from Adjunct Advocate

 

History of Workers’ Rights Boards

Workers’ rights boards were developed by Jobs with Justice, a network of local coalitions that connect labor, faith-based, community, and student organizations to work together on workplace and community social justice campaigns. Jobs with Justice has used hearings in dozens of workplace justice campaigns across the country. For examples, visit
          <http://www.dcejc.org/pr_wrb.htm>;
          <http://www.ofnhp.com/pmhwrbpressrelease.htm>;
          <http://216.239.33.104/search?q=cache:cuQZRwc9vMcJ:
                www.rijwj.org/Flyer%252012.19.2001.pdf+%22workers+rights+board+hearing%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8>

Search Google for "workers rights hearing" for other examples.

Fair Use Notice