[A] team of part-time professors from Champlain College’s newly formed union are nearing the end of talks with administration officials over improved contracts for the over 200 adjuncts at the 138-year-old Burlington institution.
Last year, part-time faculty at Champlain College unionized with the Service Employees International Union. The professors say that even though adjuncts shoulder a lot of the teaching workload, they still see stagnant wages, no benefits and short contracts, forcing some of them to work at other colleges.
“That’s why you’re seeing people unionize now, because they see that they teach a majority of classes, that adjuncts outnumber the full-timers,” said April Howard, a part-time spanish professor at Champlain and at SUNY Plattsburgh.
“It’s part of the greater corporatization of the college industry.” said Howard, who is on the union’s bargaining team, “They discovered that having a contingent workforce is more lucrative.”
After a survey of faculty, Howard and her team said they found that full-timers are getting paid at least twice what an adjunct does for time teaching a class.
“We consider ourselves professionals and that Champlain considers us professionals,” she said.
Asked for comment on the negotiations, Laurie Quinn, provost of the college gave VTDigger a statement through a spokesperson:
In November 2014, Champlain College campus-based adjunct faculty voted to become part of the Service Employees International Union and the College and the union began meeting shortly thereafter.
Our scheduled regular meetings with the Service Employees International Union for a first contract agreement are proceeding in good faith, and we are optimistic that the mutually collegial approach and productive conversations will continue to a successful conclusion.”
We’re approaching this with the best mindset for a good outcome that serves our students, all of our faculty and the College.
Betsy Allen-Pennebaker, a former adjunct who was recently promoted to a full-time position, said that students at the college in general aren’t aware of the deep divide between full and part time pay.
“They don’t understand this sort of second tier of professors,” she said. “My compensation literally tripled from one year to the next.”
Union members held a rally last week and said they’ve received support from some of their students and other teachers unions in the area, including United Academics and UVM and other SEIU unions at St. Michael’s and Burlington Colleges.
Negotiations are expected to wrap up in the next month, but the timeframe is ultimately uncertain, according to union members on the bargaining committee.
Geniveve Jacobs, a psychotherapist who has taught at St. Michaels, Burlington, and now works at the Community College of Vermont we well as Champlain, drew a contrast between her two employers.
“There is a wonderful sense of community at CCV,” she said. “All professors are on an equal basis. There isn’t that hierarchy set up, which as we know is a major source of stress, chronic stress, in human beings.”
“Faculty needs are intrinsic to student needs,” she said.
