Adjunct professors at Burlington and Champlain colleges voted by wide margins on Monday to join Service Employees International Union. Their counterparts at Saint Michael’s College are expected to vote Dec. 1.
Burlington College’s adjunct faculty voted 23 to 4 to unionize. The tally for Champlain College was 118 to 30. They were organized by the SEIU’s Adjunct Action initiative, which is working to unionize adjunct professors at colleges across the country.
In Vermont, more than 40 percent of faculty at private, nonprofit colleges and universities work part-time. Seventy-two percent of all faculty in the state are not on the tenure track, according to a press release from SEIU. Adjunct faculty typically work from one semester to the next without job security or benefits.
Betsy Allen-Pennebaker, who teaches at Champlain College, said the organizing process has changed the culture among adjuncts at her school.
“I’m already noticing that we adjuncts are talking to each other a lot more, and we have a much greater sense of collegiality. I no longer feel marginalized on campus,” Allen-Pennebaker said.
She said the unionization will help adjuncts improve working conditions.
Jonathan Auyer, from Burlington College, said he looks forward to seeing what the votes mean for the “wider teaching community in Vermont.”
“The campaign aimed at highlighting the need for sustainable pay, access to benefits and stable working conditions for the adjunct faculty, and this vote is one step on the path to making these things happen,” Auyer said.
Adjunct faculty at more than a dozen universities have voted to join Adjunct Action in the last year, according to SEIU. They include the College of St. Rose in Albany, N.Y.; Howard University and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.; Antioch University in Seattle; and Northeastern University in Boston.
