AAUP Election Time
Over at the American Association of University Professors, it’s election season. The candidates for the presidency are Dr. Cary Nelson and Mr. Thomas E. Guild, J.D.. According to the candidate statement published by Guild on the AAUP web site, Mr. Guild was a full-time tenure-line/tenured professor at the University of Central Oklahoma between 1979 and 2006. In 2006, he became Professor Emeritus. Dr. Nelson, who teaches at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, advanced from Assistant Professor of English to Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences between 1970 and the present.
On his candidate statement, Mr. Guild writes, “As a contingent faculty member I have a keen interest in protecting our contingent faculty colleagues’ interests.” Mr. Guild is, of course, a retired, tenured faculty member. At Oklahoma City University, he is identified as a full-time faculty member (as opposed to an adjunct) in the directory, a Visiting Professor of Business Law. At the University of Central Oklahoma, he is not currently listed as a faculty member on the university web site.
A colleague forwarded an e-mail to me in which Dr. Nelson writes that “For what it’s worth, I gave up tenure 7 years ago. I had argued that people should do that to help open up positions for others.” Dr. Nelson, in another e-mail message, said that he had worked as an adjunct “for the past seven years.” On the very extensive web site entry of the English Department in which Cary Nelson works, under the Faculty list he is identified as the:
- Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 1991-
- Professor, Center for Writing, 1991-
- Professor of English and Criticism and Interpretive Theory, 1982-present
- Associate Professor of English, 1975-82
- Assistant Professor of English, 1970-75
He is nowhere identified as an adjunct faculty member. He is not included among the instructors and lecturers in their separate listing on the English Department’s web page.
My sleuthing is in no way meant to denigrate the professional accomplishments of either candidate. Dr. Nelson has spoken out on behalf of part-time faculty, written books examining the working conditions of part-time faculty, and used his considerable energies to stand up for and beside his part-time faculty colleagues for over a decade. Thomas E. Guild has none of Nelson’s “contingent cred,” but according to his CV he has worked on behalf of AAUP over a long period of time.
Be that as it may, Cary Nelson and Thomas Guild are not adjuncts any more than the whites, who marched beside Dr. Martin Luther King and spoke out on behalf of Civil Rights, were black. To claim to be an adjunct when one is clearly identified by one’s employer as full-time faculty, after having enjoyed the benefits of having held a tenured position for decades, is a form of identity theft. Whether it’s done for the purpose of solidarity, or simply out of the desire to be politic, it’s misguided.
I said pretty much the same thing in a letter to the Editor, when AAUP’s magazine Academe published “Crossing Class Lines.” In that piece by Anne Cassebaum, a full-time faculty member, she “decided to try” life as an adjunct at the university where she had taught full-time for 30 years, then wrote about it.
Part-time faculty make up about 10 percent of AAUP’s total 45,000 members. This number has remained steady over the past decade or so, while the total number of temporary faculty has increased substantially. As a result, it’s very interesting that both of the candidates running for the presidency are self-identifying “contingents.” Are they trying to give voice to a majority whom they feel no one listens to? Are they trying to woo the press, the professorate, or 10 percent of their organization’s membership? Whatever the case may be, when a part-timer runs for the presidency of AAUP it will be big news. Until then, good luck to both Dr. Nelson and Mr. Guild. May the better of the two full-time faculty members running, win.
In this issue of the magazine, we have several excellent features. Freelance writer and long-time colleague Marjorie Lynn tracked down the president of Wayne State University’s new part-time faculty union. Susan Titus is a whirlwind and an inspiration to all of us who can’t seem to find enough time to do all the things we’d like to do. When I do interviews, I try to ask questions that will challenge my subjects to really think. Judging from the answers I received to the questions I asked the four members of the Steering Committee of Oregon’s new COCAL group, they have been doing a lot of thinking. The answers are thoughtful, spirited and impassioned. Barry Edwards was kind enough to coordinate with his colleagues, and thus made it much easier for me to catch up with the group.
Finally, let me tell you about Terri Hughes-Lazzall, whose piece about adjunct bloggers appears in this issue. She sent me an e-mail one day asking if Adjunct Advocate needed freelance writers. Then she quickly sent me her clips, and followed up with a phone call–twice. This should give you a sense of Terri’s tenacity and professionalism. I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with her, and want to welcome her to the pages of Adjunct Advocate. Readers will definitely enjoy more of Terri’s writing in future issues of the magazine.
In the meantime, I want to encourage everyone to check out some new features on AdjunctNation.com. First, have a listen to the new AdjunctNation.com Podcast Interview Series. After the Podcasts are posted online, subscribers have exclusive access to the interviews for a week. Check out our “Part-Time Thoughts” blog, as well. As always, thank you very much for subscribing to Adjunct Advocate.–P.D. Lesko
