The Adjunct Advocate

February 18th 2008

We've kicked off our AdjunctNation.com Podcast Interview Series with an interview of Dr. Peter Brown. Adjunct Advocate profiled Dr. Brown in our November/December 2005 issue. In that piece, author Brian Cole writes:
Recognizing the part-timers need for their own voice, Brown formed the Adjunct Faculty Association (AFA) in the fall of 2004 and invited all of New Paltz’s over 400 part-timers to the meeting—over 30 adjuncts showed up. Reaction to the new group has been mixed.

New Paltz German teacher and AFA co-president Jeff Crane describes the part-time faculty situation as “abysmal” and welcomes Browns efforts to speak up against these injustices.

“I…fantasized about just getting a megaphone and shouting in the middle of campus, ‘I’m mad as hell…’ Then there was a note in my box last fall – ‘Calling all Adjuncts.’”

But not everyone stood waiting to embrace the organization.

”The union [UUP] freaked out,” Brown says.

He notes that UUP New Paltz chapter president, Dr. Glenn McNitt and executive committee members opposed the AFA formation and tried to talk him out of forming it. They believed that concerned adjuncts should work within the union structure to create change.

To listen to the first in our new Podcast Interview Series, click here. The interview is about 20 minutes long.

In future, new Podcast interviews will be available first to Adjunct Advocate subscribers, then to AdjunctNation.com Family members. To join the Family, click here. We'll announce new interviews in the AdjunctNation.com Family e-Newsletter, as well as the e-Advocate Newsletter.

In coming weeks, I'll be interviewing Doug Lederman, Editor of InsiderHigherEd.com, Kip Lornell, adjunct activist from George Washington University, Dr. Dan Jacoby, who produced the ground-breaking study on the correlation between graduation rates and the use of part-time faculty at two-year colleges, and Washington State adjunct activist Keith Hoeller.

Know someone whose work on behalf of temporary college faculty you think would merit an interview? Email me.

Posted By Patricia L. at 8:00 AM