In the coming weeks, Georgetown’s adjunct faculty members will vote to decide whether they should form a union. The election has been scheduled thanks to the efforts of the Service Employees International Union-Local 500, which, in conjunction with advocacy organization New Faculty Majority, has lobbied for the unionization of adjuncts in universities throughout the District.
If approved by a majority of voting adjunct professors, the union will bargain on behalf of adjunct faculty in order to ensure much needed job security protections, work benefits, higher salaries, and opportunities for professional development for part-time and non-tenure track faculty members.
Adjunct professors, who contribute mightily to the intellectual life of any modern American university, receive a relative pittance of a salary with little to no benefits. Adjunct pay ranges from as little as $1,000 to $8,000 per 3-credit course. The national average salary of a full-time adjunct is roughly $21,000—an undeniably low working-class income for white-collar professionals with graduate degrees.
Georgetown rests on the upper end of this bracket, paying its adjunct faculty roughly $6,000 per course. However, the fact remains that the University allots a mere 2 percent of its budget to its adjuncts, even though they make up roughly 48 percent of Georgetown’s faculty.
The marginalization of adjunct faculty also harms them professionally. Due to low salaries and lack of job security—and oftentimes, the added burden of crushing student debt—adjuncts often split their energies between multiple universities and day jobs. These various demands constrain adjuncts from developing professionally through traditionally academic pursuits like research.
The shift of university cost structures from scholarship to flashy facilities and bigger administrations is a nationwide phenomenon, as brand-conscious universities attempt to boost rankings in order to compete for students and funds. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a system that takes emphasis away from the quality of academic life of students and professors.
Indeed, students also pay the price for subpar adjunct conditions. For example, without offices, adjuncts do not have an adequate space to hold office hours which are invaluable to fostering student-professor relationships. Income insecurity and the stress of juggling multiple jobs also negatively impacts adjuncts’ abilities to address the needs of students.
The upcoming election is a chance for adjuncts to push back against the supply-and-demand principles that have compromised the integrity of academia. While it is encouraging that the University administration has pledged neutrality in the process, in correct observance of its Just Employment Policy, the Georgetown community needs to take a more active role in support of its adjunct faculty. Even though only adjunc ts can actually vote, the student body has a particular responsibility to present a united front in support of those professors who have devoted so much of their time and energy to our education. After all, we only stand to gain.
