March 17th 2008

Through the Looking Glass and into the National Labor College

I was reading about the National Labor College (oh, don't even ask me why), and I came upon this information on the AFT website:
FACULTY: 10 full-time and 30 adjunct/part-time. Part-time faculty voted for AFT representation in November 2007.

I missed coverage of that union drive in the November 2007 issue of AFT's newspaper On Campus. Really, who cares if the part-timers chose to unionize at the NLC. It's this next bit of information that I found the most interesting.

At National Labor College, headed by a Vice President of the AFT, Dr. William Scheuerman, there is a full-time/part-time faculty ratio of 1:3.

According to AFT officials nationwide, faculty excellence is best served when 70 percent of the faculty at a college or university hold full-time, tenure-line appointments. At the NLC only 25 percent of the faculty are full-time. Oh, and there are 13 administrators, including a President, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Executive Vice President, Assistant to the President for Institutional Advancement, Deputy Provost, Deputy Provost for Online Learning and a Deputy Executive Vice President, Director of Human Resources.

Through the Looking Glass and into Wonderland. The National Labor College.

Posted By Part-Time T. at 8:00 AM

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By: Professor R
Posted: March 22nd 2008 12:41 am
Are there any adjunct unions in the United States? How does one get formed? Does anyone know the stats on how often an adjunct loses their job once they begin union activism? In our state, adjunct work is a course by course contract. If they don't like you or feel they need a change, or a full-timer wants an extra class-some adjunct gets the ax. No apologies, no explanations.

By: Anti-hypocrisy Advocate
Posted: March 21st 2008 6:14 pm
Absolutely. Indeed! P.S. I am very glad you decided to post my second comment -- but you did exercise a version of "raw power" over the first one, I see, by not posting it. So here's that link for posterity: http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/bousquet/the-most-direct-path-to-quality Pace. Academic freedom (and free speech) uber alles!

By: Part-Time T.
Posted: March 21st 2008 9:33 am
If only I had tenure....I could feel that "raw power." As for your cross-posting, yep, I saw it. I also read about this stuff all the time. Can we agree that great minds think alike?

By: Anti-hypocrisy Advocate
Posted: March 21st 2008 9:19 am
Ah, but if someone did ask you "why", the reason might just be because of my cross-posting at HTUW and CHE's Brainstorm, might it not? Don't want to get into that, eh? No problem. Censor away. It's the rush of that feeling of raw power that tenured faculty sometimes have -- and for which just about everyone in academia is almost always "practicing" when they get a chance.... Ssssseeee ya.

By: Anti-hypocrisy Advocate
Posted: March 20th 2008 7:12 pm
Yes, I blogged about the National Labor College's hypocrisy at "How the University Works" (where it was censored by MB) and also at the CHE's "Brainstorm" (where I cross-posted what had been censored at HTUW): http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/bousquet/the-most-direct-path-to-quality#comment FYI...especially in light of P.D.Lesko's "I Never Said That" posting on the other blog of this site.

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