S.P.Q.R.

by P.D. Lesko

WHEN VISITING ROME, Italy, one notices the letters S.P.Q.R.
on most every modern drain cover. The correct Latin translation
is, of course, “Senatus Populus Que Romanus,” or “The Senate
and People of Rome.” I once asked a group of Italian friends
whether the “and” in that phrase implies a united group, or
rather that the Senators put their interests first, and dragged
along the People for the bumpy ride. The debate lasted well
into the night and through several bottles of wine.

In this issue’s “News” section, you will read (if you haven’t
already) about the result of a recent faculty senate vote
at Elgin Community College, in Elgin, Illinois. There is no
debate over the meaning of “Senate and People” in this story.
The full-time faculty in the Senate voted to ratify a new
contract that strips the college’s 542 adjuncts of the opportunity
to self-insure under the auspices of the school’s health insurance
plan. Fewer than 120 senators accepted a contract, which may
result in incalculable harm, to the part-time faculty currently
covered under the college’s health insurance policy.

What happened at Elgin Community College, however, is not
an isolated incident. Faculty senates around the country routinely
vote on contracts that negatively impact the pay and working
conditions of adjunct and part-time faculty. The time has
come for colleges and universities to stop excluding part-time
faculty from departmental and university-wide representative
bodies.

The argument that adjunct faculty have no long-term interest
in their institutions is simply a farce. According to a study
done by the National Education Association, the majority of
part-time faculty typically teach at a college seven years.
The average tenure-line faculty member stays at her/his institution
five years. Adjuncts have more institutional longevity than
do most tenure-line faculty members who are granted membership
in faculty senates.

In a representational senate, the adjunct faculty at Elgin
Community College could have easily outvoted the full-time
faculty and forced the renegotiation of the contract. Rather
than a representative model, however, I would suggest that
representation be directly proportional to the total percentage
of courses taught by full-time and temporary faculty. So at
Elgin Community College, where temporary faculty teach over
80 percent of the courses offered each semester, they would
hold 80 percent of the seats in the Faculty Senate.

The thought of 542 part-time faculty having the ability to
control the destiny of 120 full-timers must certainly be a
horrifying prospect to many. However, it is just this principle
which led to the formation of government in the United States
of America.

In 1776, the American colonists wrote this to their King:

Nor
have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over
us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our…settlement
here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity,
and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred
to disavow these usurpations…. They too have been deaf
to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.

I believe that full-time faculty have been deaf to the pleas
of their part-time brethren, and continue to ignore appeals
to their native justice and magnanimity. Tenure-line and tenured
faculty benefit enormously from the over-dependence on temporary
faculty.

I am frequently asked the following question: “What is the
solution to the ‘Adjunct Problem?'” Part of the solution:
adjunct faculty must claim their rightful places in faculty
senates across the United States. They must participate fully
in the representation of faculty interests on campuses nationwide,
and demand fair representation.

The power of a united faculty will certainly result in more
bargaining might. What could the Faculty Senate at Elgin Community
College have negotiated if all of the faculty had walked off
the job? Much more, I suspect, than what they ended up with
in their current two-year agreement.