By Jonas Miller
Opinion Editor
On Thursday, adjunct professors from The College of Saint Rose held a meeting to discuss the working conditions of adjuncts around the country. More specifically, the lack of office space and low pay at Saint Rose.
The meeting attendance was small, but the issues are not to be taken lightly. Seventy-three percent of adjuncts at Saint Rose do not have offices of their own. And, the most an adjunct professor can earn in an academic year is $9,600 dollars. In the eyes of those who attended, these two issues present cause for immediate action that needs to be taken.
Two adjunct professors from the college, and one student, spoke to a group of five students and teachers that attended the panel style discussion.
Tyler Piazza, a senior at the College studying political science, was the first to speak. Piazza is the vice president of the school’s Environmental club, and believes that the adjunct working conditions and his club have a deep connection.
“Our members share a consciousness for other social issues,” Piazza said.
Very recently, the adjunct professors at Saint Rose unionized, which means they will be allowed to more easily negotiate for better terms. While the future is still unclear, and negotiations are going slowly, it is a step in the right direction.
Piazza has a family history of union struggles. His father was in an out of unionized and non-unionized positions his entire life, so Piazza understands the struggles of non-unionized workers.
Piazza is pro-union; he believes increases the morale of a work force allowing them to perform better knowing they have job security. The concept of job security carried throughout the meeting.
Alissa Colton is an adjunct professor in the English department at Saint Rose, and has been teaching here for 6 years.
Colton, like many adjuncts across the country, goes into each semester unsure whether or not she’ll have a job.
“Coming into this semester, I didn’t know if my classes were going to fill,” Colton said.
This is a frequent issue for adjunct professors. If their classes do not fill up, the class is then cut. Since there is not class for them to teach they are out of a job.
Adjunct, by definition, means part time or temporary. An adjunct professor at Saint Rose is not allowed to teach more than two classes per semester. Some adjuncts choose part time work because they are experts in the field that they teach and hold jobs outside of teaching. For some, the job is a profession. It is what they rely on to make a living.
Colton spoke of how much she loves her job, and teaching as a profession, but knows that isn’t always enough.
“You can’t pay your bills on loving your job,” Colton said.
Her comment sparked further talk of money at the meeting,
The starting salary for an entry-level full time professor at Saint Rose averages around $85,000 dollars a year. Compare that to the less than ten thousand that an adjunct can make no matter how long they’ve been at the school. In 2015, fifty-eight percent of the Saint Rose faculty is employed part-time. In 1995, that number was only four percent.
At the College, and at colleges across the country, has been rising at a steady 7 percent per year over the last decade.
This is a major issue in the eyes of Bradley Russell, an adjunct of Anthropology and Sociology at Saint Rose.
“Students are not getting their money’s worth when half of their teachers are adjuncts,” Russell said.
Russell broke it down even further. When a position opens up at the college a nation wide job search is conducted to fill that position. Even though there are a handful of adjunct professors who are able to fill said position they are looked over.
“Adjuncts are every bit as good, and every bit as qualified,” Russell said.
Russell admitted no one would ever guess that, referring to how little adjuncts make, and how few of them actually have a space of their own on campus.
“Adjuncts make the least money on campus,” Russell said, “That’s including administration, food service, and maintenance.”
On top of that adjunct professors receive no benefits whatsoever from the school.
There is something that can be done about all of this, though it relies heavily on the students, according to Marcelle Grair, a national organizer working for United Students Against Sweatshops.
Grair showed two short videos made by students at Tufts University and Northeastern University. The videos showed student support for the fair treatment of adjunct professors, something Grair highly recommends, as it has been effective in the past at making change on college campuses.
“Getting student support is crucial,” Grair said.
Having used student support to help the adjunct professors at Tufts completely restructure their contract with the school, the method is proven to work.
Russell spoke about the need for student support as well.
“Nobody has as much leverage as the students,” Russell said, “Your money is what keeps this place running.”
Any students who would like to show their support are encouraged to contact Bradley Russell at russellb@strose.edu, or Sean Collins at scollins@local200united.org.
