Last month, on the first-ever National Adjunct Walkout Day, adjunct professors held protests all over the country. A quick look at the numbers makes it easy to see why: A typical adjunct makes about $25,000 a year, receives no benefits, and works on a contract that lasts only one or two semesters at a time. Over the past few decades, instead of offering full-time faculty positions, colleges have increasingly hired adjuncts as a way to cut costs and circumvent the protections afforded to tenured professors. As a result, adjuncts now make up about half of all college and university faculty nationwide. Even though they have advanced degrees and do work that almost everyone agrees is vitally important, many of the people who teach college barely make ends meet.
I have experienced this myself. I have a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and work as an adjunct professor at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). Like a lot of adjuncts, I have mixed feelings about my job. On the one hand, I love the work I do. At CCBC, I feel that I am part of something hugely important — providing equitable access to education. On the other hand, I made less than $20,000 last year and do not receive health insurance or other benefits. This makes it virtually impossible to save money, or maintain more than a modicum of financial security.
Under these circumstances, a natural course of action for adjuncts like me would be to unionize and secure higher compensation through collective bargaining. But unlike most low-income workers, I do not have this option. Maryland's 16 community colleges employ over 5,000 adjuncts, but so far the legal right to collectively bargain has been granted only to community college adjuncts in Montgomery County.
Fortunately, legislators in Annapolis are now considering a bill that would give collective bargaining rights to all community college adjuncts in Maryland. For a number of reasons, House Bill 966 is a critical bill that warrants strong legislative support.
First, collective bargaining rights would help to ensure that adjuncts receive compensation that is commensurate with the value of their work. At present, because large numbers of adjuncts compete against each other for jobs at a relatively small number of institutions, academic employers have the power to set low pay rates. Collective bargaining agreements would help to level the playing field.
Second, besides being detrimental to the quality of life of instructors and their families, low adjunct pay can also diminish the quality of the education students receive. As documented in a recent congressional report, when adjuncts are forced to take on huge course loads spanning multiple campuses just to pay the bills, they spend less time with students. This negatively impacts student graduation rates and grades. Low pay also makes it more difficult for colleges to hire and retain talented faculty.
Third, as Human Rights Watch has affirmed, collective bargaining is both a human right and an important component of any democratic society. Historically, unions have provided a way for ordinary people to meaningfully participate in political and economic decision making. It is misguided and unfair to treat collective bargaining as a privilege to be granted to certain lucky groups of workers and denied to others.
Finally, last year the Federal Reserve released a study showing that as the economy recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, the incomes of wealthy families increased, but the median household income — that is, the income received by a typical middle class family — actually declined. Even as the economy grows, many of us, especially young people, are seeing our incomes stagnate or even fall. Colleges and universities contribute to this dismal state of affairs by paying educators as little as possible.
One of the most important functions of public education, and especially community colleges, is to facilitate upward social mobility. This laudable goal is undermined when the employees of these institutions are paid so little that they struggle to get by. The Maryland General Assembly can help to rectify this situation by extending collective bargaining rights to adjuncts at all community colleges in Maryland.
Stephen Thompson is an adjunct instructor at the Community College of Baltimore County. His email is dr.s.g.thompson@gmail.com.