Given the drastic shift of faculty positions away from the tenure track and toward more adjunct professorships, we must ask if our university appreciates the professors responsible for our college experience.
On Wednesday, students, faculty and staff from the UNC community participated in the UNC Adjunct Faculty Speak Out, an event planned in collaboration between faculty members and Student Action with Workers. While statistics on adjunct positions at UNC suggest that close to half of all current lecturer positions are adjunct, few adjunct professors themselves spoke out against current conditions at the event.
The stories featured on the steps of Wilson Library illuminated the reasons for their silence. From constant worries about job security to difficult decisions about the health of their families, adjuncts at UNC work in positions characterized by institutionalized vulnerability. Factors contributing to the structural stress of adjunct status include substantially lower pay, short-term contracts and a lack of benefits. In an environment intended to promote open expression and a rigorous academic climate, a lack of tenure hinders professors’ ability to speak openly about university problems and de-professionalizes academia generally.
UNC administrators should take steps to improve per-course pay from a current average rate of around $7,000 per course while also reversing the trend toward adjunct professorships as the norm. Our faculty deserves better. UNC should lead national efforts to provide greater institutional support to adjuncts.
