I didn’t plan for all of the features in this issue to deal with part-time faculty unionization, but sometimes the best plans simply aren’t made—they happen. So it was when I read about the efforts of the part-time faculty at the Community College of Vermont. There, all of the classes are taught by part-timers. The organizers are all long-term, part-time faculty, and the number of part-time faculty teaching in the multiple campus system being tops 700.

Then, I had an e-mail from a part-time faculty member at the New School about the work of the part-time faculty there. I found the thought of a feature about the New School particularly interesting given the school’s one-time reputation as a seat of intellectual dissent. After all, in the early 1900s, many of the institution’s original faculty members had fled what they had perceived as intellectual oppression at Columbia University. The New School piece was a dog bites man story if ever there was one.

Then, I needed a bit of a break. When I need a break, I do free-lance writing. The piece I wrote for this issue about the lecturers’ union at the University of Michigan is a longer version of one which was published in the Ann Arbor Observer this past February. My interest in LEO, the University of Michigan Lecturers’ Employee Organization, was both professional and personal. Before launching the Adjunct Advocate, I had taught on both the Ann Arbor and Dearborn campuses of the University of Michigan. Many of my friends from my teaching days still worked at the University; in fact, several were involved in organizing the union. Writing the piece was an opportunity to catch up with colleagues.

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