Georgetown University Student Association and Georgetown Solidarity Committee co-sponsored a panel on adjunct unionization on Wednesday to discuss the issues that adjunct faculty face both at Georgetown and at other American universities.
Guy Mentel (COL ’14), GUSA secretary of academic affairs, organized the event to “inform people about the main plight of adjunct professors, not only at Georgetown, but also on a more national level.”
“I think most students don’t know that some of their professors are adjunct and what being an adjunct means,” said Sydney Browning (COL ‘15), an advocate for adjunct unionization and GSC member.
Anne McLeer, Service Employees International Union director of research and strategic planning, began the panel with remarks on the most pressing issues faced by adjuncts nationwide. “Many students may not realize that over 50 percent of the instructional faculty in institutions of higher education are part-time, paid by the course, have no benefits, no job security,” she said.
The panel’s adjunct professors included Ori Soltes, Kerry Danner-McDonald, and Senior Fellow at the McCourt School of Public Policy Pablo Eisenberg.
Danner-McDonald spoke about the challenges of balancing academia with family and personal commitments. Soltes stated he has worked for Georgetown for 20 years but still does not have an office and only earns 45 percent of what a beginning assistant professor does. Eisenberg discussed how other professors treat him as an inferior, even after winning an accolade for professor of the year.
All three felt the major concern was a lack of respect. “It really fundamentally comes down to a sense of being disrespected, rather than practical elements,” Soltes said.
According to McLeer, adjunct professors at Georgetown have had it easier in the unionization process compared to those at other universities. “The University followed the Just Employment Policy and didn’t try to fight the union or try to dissuade any of the adjuncts from supporting the union,” she said.
Although Georgetown’s adjunct faculty unionized last May, they are still in negotiations with administration. “It’s a very slow process,” Danner-McDonald said. “You make a proposal, there’s a counter proposal and it goes on until the language of a specific clause is agreed upon.”
“We have been bargaining over the whole semester,” said McLeer. She said they are first working on noneconomic issues, such as job security and academic freedom, but “hope to wrap that part up pretty soon.”
“So far it’s going very smoothly, very collaboratively, and it has been very productive,” McLeer added.
