Adjunct faculty at St. Michael’s College in Colchester voted 46 to 26 Monday to unionize with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). They join colleagues from Burlington and Champlain colleges, where a majority of adjunct professors voted on Nov. 24 to join SEIU.
The national union’s Adjunct Action initiative aims to organize part-time faculty at colleges and universities across the country. Adjunct instructors typically work without job security or benefits, and often for low pay. According to a 2012-2013 report by the American Association of University Professors, the median pay nationally was about $2,700 per three-credit course.
Sharyn Layfield, an adjunct professor at St. Michael’s College, said in a news release from SEIU that Monday’s vote is a culmination of her life’s work. Layfield is 65 and has been teaching since she was in her 20s.
“I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be doing this, but it means a future for other people who do what I’ve been doing all this time,” Layfield said.
She and Anne Tewksbury-Frye, who teaches as an adjunct at St. Michael’s and Champlain colleges, said joining SEIU will give adjunct professors more power to improve their working conditions.
“The union will serve to improve best practices, and help us learn as educators and teachers in a way that will benefit our students directly,” Tewksbury-Frye said. “And that’s our goal — to improve education for our students at these very fine colleges and universities.”
Adjunct faculty at more than a dozen colleges and universities have joined Adjunct Action in the past year, including 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.
