Part-Time Faculty at Two New York Colleges Join AFT

by James Parks, Jun 4, 2009

Part-time and adjunct faculty teaching at two private colleges, the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) and Cooper Union (CU), voted recently to join the New York State United Teachers, an affiliate of AFT and the National Education Association. The faculty members at both schools are all accomplished artists and working professionals who perform outside the college as well as teach.

The 150 part-time and adjunct faculty who teach in the MSM precollege program work on year-to-year contracts and make about half the pay of the regular faculty. In 2002, management cut off the precollege faculty’s access to health insurance that once had been available to all MSM teachers who taught at least 10 hours.

Susan Deaver, a precollege flute teacher at MSM, says:

With a union, we’re looking at a positive future. We’ll have job security, transparency, a fair grievance procedure, binding arbitration. We’ll still be working with administration, but on a level playing field.

The effort to form a union began in earnest last year, when MSM officials arbitrarily required precollege faculty to fill out new job applications. The application form included a fine-print clause allowing the school to release the faculty at any time. Many of the workers refused to complete the application.

Cooper Union is one of the most selective institutions in the country, offering degrees in art, architecture and engineering. Its students all attend on full scholarship. But the faculty doesn’t have the security of a guaranteed salary. Many of the CU faculty have not had a raise in up to 15 years. What is more, the college does not provide firm assurance of whether adjuncts will be teaching until just a few weeks before the semester begins, in some cases.

Sculptor Betsy Alwin, the newly elected president of the Union @ Cooper Union, says:

Because the lion’s share of teaching falls on adjuncts, they feel we should have a collective voice and speak together when we approach the administration.

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