by Melissa Doak

Decent minimum salary levels. Fair rules governing the assignment of courses. Clear evaluation and observation policies. Compensation for office hours, academic advising, and committee work. Affordable health insurance. An end to limits on the number of courses an adjunct can teach each semester. Sound like an impossible wish list? Part-time faculty at New School University in New York City are preparing to negotiate toward these goals, thanks to a hard-fought campaign to win recognition for their union, affiliated with the UAW.

The stakes are high at the New School, where union officials estimate 95 percent of the teaching staff are adjuncts, and New School officials peg the percentage somewhat lower, though still hefty, at 86 percent. Part-timers there tell of the classic union-busting campaign that the administration ran. Throughout the unionization process, officials filed numerous motions and appeals; for instance, lawyers for the administration argued that more than half of the part-time faculty were “managers,” and thus ineligible to vote. As a result of the stalling tactics, administrators succeeded in delaying the union election for close to a year.

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